new system/ old hdd

[never2muchRAM]

lets see. it has been forever and a day since i have done this kind of thing, so i may ask some dumb questions here.

the puter at my work died (mobo)
ordered new machine
new mobo (leadtek k7ncr18) onboard everything except graphics
athlon xp 1800
256 mb ddr ram
cheapo generic agp graphics card???

the only thing i am using from the old machine is the hdd because of the data.

now correct me if i am wrong, but shouldnt i be able to drop the OLD HDD in the NEW SYSTEM and have it start up into win98? (i know there will be driver issues, etc., but ) i shouldnt get the "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT..." message, should i?

please advise.
as this is for work, we cannot afford to be offline too long.
i thought this should have been a simple procedure if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[never2muchRAM]

one more thing.
first time i started it up. i got post beep ok.
then:
"detecting ide devices..."
lasted FOREVER and just froze like that
tried to hit delete to enter setup and i just got that taping sound but nothing happened.
then i disconnected the cdrom on ide2 and switched 4pin power connectors and it detected the hdd, but still took FOREVER.
something is not right here, but i dont know what. this is a new one on me.

CLEARED CMOS already, via jumper and manually pulling out the battery.

any suggestions?

 

[fury]

It could be any number of things, the hard drive, the controller, the cable, or it's not getting enough power supplied to it. Have you tried swapping cables/drives? And did you make sure the drive's jumper settings were correct? (e.g. if you changed the master/slave configuration in any way)

 

[never2muchRAM]

jumpers are correct

i tried with 2 other non-formatted hdd that i had laying around
both were detected fine

the old hdd seemed to work fine in the old system.
the reason it died (i think?) was a graphics card/mobo (something video related) problem

i am using a 350watt psu
i am starting to think it may be bios
it wont auto detect this drive correctly
any other ideas are great thanks.

also fury,
have you been working out? you're looking buff dude!

 

[Leslie]

also fury,
have you been working out? you're looking buff dude!

HAH! too funny!

 

[chcr]

If you've already gone in and had the BIOS detect the drive, you might have to set it up manually. Check the cable orientation again, however unlikely it seems. Have you tried booting from a floppy to see if fdisk can see the drive? Are you sure no one set anything magnetic near the drive while it was out? If you can boot from a floppy, you might try SYS C:

 

[Luis G]

Try to manually configure it, by default newer mobos will set a drive whose capacity is 504MB<x<8GB to LBA mode, maybe your in the old puter it was detected like CHS or LARGE.

What's the old hdd capacity and brand/model?
are you using an 80-line IDE cable?
Does it says the drive is operating at a higher speed than UDMA33 ??

 

[never2muchRAM]

i was doing talking to some more ppl last night, including the developer for the POS software and its not as complicated as i was afraid it was going to be.

i'm just going to do a CLEAN install on a new hdd and i can slave the old hdd and drag & drop whatever i need.

trying to remember here.

format c:
then run setup

i know i am forgetting something
what is it?

 

[chcr]

fdisk. You have to create a partition before you can format.

 

[never2muchRAM]

fdisk ... ha ... i cant believe i forgot that one.

hey chcr, i love your sig, dude.

thanks for the help so far guys.
now i am having 2 more problems which may actually be 1 problem.

something is wrong with my serial ports and the usb printer.

as i mentioned briefly before, they use software on this computer that links with their POS machines.
this computer and the POS machines are linked via, serial cable.
THIS COMPUTER WILL NOT COMMUNICATE WITH THOSE POS MACHINES. i spent a good chunk of time on the phone with the software developer yesterday. as far as the application goes, everything seems to be setup correctly and operating correctly. so i think we can effectively rule that out. the physical cables themselves have been double and triple checked (and nothing has been done with them since the old computer died a few days back) and the cables are completely plugged in. so i think we can effectively rule that out. i have tried plugging it in to both serial ports but i still get the same message from the application which would indicate that there is no data being transmitted.

according to the device manager (win Me) there are no IRQ conflicts.

i dont think it's related, but the usb printer will not take the drivers (code 28). i have an external usb zip that IS working, so again, i am trying to rule out conflicts with the usb controllers. what i dont understand about the drivers is that they are the correct drivers i just downloaded from hp.com for this deskjet940c, but windows wont install the driver. GRRRRRRRRRRR!!! i am really started to get pissed off. i know i should probably be using winXP but the ppl who use this computer (owner, mgrs, admins) are afraid of XP cuz it is unfamiliar to them!!!

um, HELP!!!