need some help from the PC experts, please
A friend is trying to replace her HD in her Compaq PC (about a year old? It's one of those "bulgy front" models.) She seems to have gotten both HD's in there (the original and the new one) and the OS installed (Win98) on the fresh one. The problem is she can't get it to boot off it, except only in safe mode. Any suggestions?
Comments
If the new drive is the master(wich it should be) unplug the old one and see if it will boot.
Why would unhooking the old drive do anything? Shouldn't it be possible to have 2 drives in there and be OK?
Forget about booting into windows, the first thing to do is immediately after power on, press the [delete] key (may vary by PC) on your KB to go into the BIOS. The new drive should appear as master and the old one as slave either on the primary and secondary IDE channel. If not, power off. Adjust jumper setting on the back of the old HD to make sure it is set as slave. Repeat.
But before you do all that, if possible, use w2k or XP - much more stable than Win98.
Yes, the 2k/XP goes w/o saying, but she has got to go with what she has got for now, so switching OS is a bit out of the scope for the project.
So is it difficult/complicated at all to switch from Win98 to 2k/XP? Any pitfalls to avoid? Is the upgrade real cheap? Does the "upgrade" allow a clean install or "upgrade only" unless you buy the full version?
[ 11-11-2002: Message edited by: Randycat99 ]</p>
HP's and Compaq's have traditionally shipped with a few obscure components. So if you're installing from a regular microsoft cd, the drivers may not be bundled. HP and Compaq have also traditionally shipped a proprietary windows installer/recovery cd instead of a ms disc that includes these drivers and all the extra apps they like to bundle. Good luck finding correct drivers.
I would also recommend upgrading to 2000 or XP. Upgrade cds are fine to do clean installs as long as you have a cd for a prior version around when installing.
haha a new HD because the other one had a virus, i love the thought of a new HD everytime a PC gets a virus <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
<strong>I was fearing that issue of obscure custom drivers for that particular PC brand. This could be a big struggle (one thing after another) just getting this thing back up to its original functionality. I will ask her if she has the original discs/installers and such.</strong><hr></blockquote>
IDE drives, especially HD, rarely require special drivers. Usually it is things like vid/sound cards and certain USB devices that cause the problems. Give the HD primary/slave thing a try first.
Most HD manufactuers' web sites provide a guide on how to install HDs as well.