[wigantaxi]

Hi all my first post.
My old pc got fried by the powerpack, and blew motherboard and all the drives, or so i thought, anyway i bougth a new one and thought i would try and connect my old hd to see if anything happened. It worked drive is recognized and i can access the files etc.
What i would like to know is......old drive has xp home on it but i dont know how to log on to it, i have the passwords there is just no log in screen for the drive it is on, i just log on to primary drive and click explore on second drive to access files.
If it is not possible for me to do that i may as well formatt the drive(after transferring files i want). To do that do i just right click the drive and click format?

[wigantaxi]

the other drive has xp home my new drive has xp pro

[redden137]

you might be able to
when you power up the pc next time keep pushing F8 if not F10 sometimes works
this should bring up the boot menu
choose the drive with your old o/s and push enter, it might start up m8 good luck
one prob though it might not reckonise your new m/b and refuse to boot or if it does it might say that hardware has changed and that you need to enter new key for windows to work

[wigantaxi]

Thanx for that, what if it doesnt work, do i just have to format it to use it as a secondary drive, its there, its recognized etc.

[wigantaxi]

Just tried that but only xp pro was visible so it probably wont work, so how do i use it as extra storage( i may as well delete everything on there, i have rescued all the files i needed to).

[redden137]

did you get to choose which hard drive to boot from?

[redden137]

did you get to choose which hard drive to boot from?
if you want to use it as extra storage then format it, go to my computer and see what drive letter it has, your floppy if u have one will be A
your first disk will be C, then your other drives will be D and so on, so when you want to store something or install you just change the desination folder to your new h/d letter

[wigantaxi]

no, choose which os thats all, it is drive e,

[wigantaxi]

tried again, just os, if i formatt will i be able to delete all the files that are on it including the os files?

[redden137]

ok there is another way but you have to go into bios and choose which hard drive to boot from
ok drive E next time you intall something or download open up e make a folder
then if downloading click on the arrow pointing down and choose your new drive click and the folder will be shown, click on folder then click ok
if installing just change the install directory by clicking the browse button beside where it is going tp install and again choosing your new site, some installs require that you go to the advanced options but the method is the same
hope this helps

[wigantaxi]

Ok, i went into bios and disabled c drive, booted into safe mode on my old e drive but said that i needed to activate windows over internet,(dial up, but no dial up modem on this pc). so unless you have any more suggestions i am going to give up, if i formatt the drive, will i have a fully functioning clean empty drive?

[wigantaxi]

i have wireless modem, but softwar is all on other drive and os

[Cew27]

yes you will and you can use it for extra storage , just right click and select format on the said drive in my computer

[wigantaxi]

Cheers, thanx for your time and help, i appreciate it.

[wigantaxi]

just 1 more thing, if i formatt it, do i need to use any software to recognise it after the formatt, or will it still be there as it is now?
Also, i thought my h/d was fried but it works, what are the chances of my dvd rom having survived, neither of them worked when i installed a new powerpack to replace the blown one, but as above you can see my hd does actually work.