im not likely to ask computer question ...

but I know you could help me ...

I have one 40 Giga hard disk partioned by NTFS to C and D ...

I know got the harddisk off my old computer ... and added it to this computer ... I attached power and motherboard cabling ...

my only problem is that the computer loads from the 'old' Windows ME hard disk ...

and I can't format it ...

so I want you to tell me how to make it load from my current Windows XP hard disk and format the 'older' harddisk ???

Im waiting for you ...

Later ...


and one more thing ... will I need to repartion ???
or format ?

Well its a simple problem, one i've had to deal with many times. It's really quite simple. Basically what your computer is doing it that when it boots up it looks for the master drive and chooses the other one.

On the back of your hard drive there is a little piece of plastic that can be moved, there are normally 3 positions. Master, slave, and master with slave present. you want it to be a slave drive because you want it to boot up from the windows XP drive. get a pair of pliers and move it into the right position (there should be a description of it on the hard drive case). You must also change the main hard drive to Master with Slave present.

Nextly you must change the primary boot drive in the BIOS. When you start up your computer keep pushing delete until you come to a blue screen. I cannot help you in this bit because i do not know your bios version or motherboard vendor so this is what you must look for. You have to locate where it says "First Boot Device:". Now you have to hit enter and choose the hard drive with windows xp on it. Locate back to the main menu, save settings and restart. Your computer should now boot into Windows XP. From there you can use a program called Partition Magic (downloadable from anywhere really) to format and partition it as you wish.

If this doesnt work paste where you get stuck and i'll talk you through it.

I know that I shouldve changed the Primary Boot settings from the BIOS ..
I don't know what I thought of that ...

But I really don't understand the hardware part ... where I have to move the little plastic thing ...

Ill try it out ... and give you the headsup ...

Later ...

I know that I shouldve changed the Primary Boot settings from the BIOS ..
I don't know what I thought of that ...

But I really don't understand the hardware part ... where I have to move the little plastic thing ...

Ill try it out ... and give you the headsup ...

Later ...

The jumpers are located on the H.D itself, next to the molex power connecter (white connector). For jumper configuration details, check the sticker on your H.D or the installation manual that came with it, if none are found then go to the manufacturers web site.

Western Digital (http://www.westerndigital.com)

Seagate (http://www.seagate.com)

Maxtor (http://www.maxtor.com)

i still can't find it ...

and my power connector is not white ...

and no brand or model is written on it ...

Ill still try out the primary boot settings ,,,

later

You should be able to find the brand and model number of either of your harddrives in your device manager:

Right-click on My Computer, click on Properties and navigate to Device Manager (I forgot exactly how to get there using ME but it shouldn't be difficult). Look under Disk Drives and you should see all the harddrives you have in your system.

Once you get the brand and number of your harddrive with the problem, go to the manufacturer's website and look for more info about it there. You should be able to find all you need to know there.

maybe this image will help you http://support.ap.dell.com/docs/storage/285tc/Drvjmp01.gif

If its a 40gb hdd it shouldnt be too old and will have jumpers.There should be three rows of 2 like this:

:::

the jumper should be something like this :|: (dunno what settings are this is just example). On teh hard drive theres a sticker showing what the setting should be. It should be set to slave.

forget it ... I did it since my last post ...
I didn't need to do anything from the hard disk ... I just changed the boot from the BIOS and formatted it from Windows XP and it's running great ...

Thanx for everyone who had the intention of helping ...

Later ...

There was an easy way. You could have went to run command from start button. Then typed msconfig. Then choose the boot.ini tag, then change boot sequence.

But I personally go to the C drive, and make sure all system files are show. Then I modify the sequence from the boot.ini file, but you have to very careful about what code to add, and not to screw up that file.

thanx Don ( can I say donnie ? ... Donnie Brasco is one of my favourite movies of all time )