Desktop boots from CD but will not boot from (verified working on other system) hard drive

hi m8 if this system is a lot difrent from the other ie difrent motherboard chipset then it will not boot as it dose not have the correct drivers you wood need to instal xp on the hard drive when it is in the computer
andy

If you have already tried installing the OS fresh when the hard disk is in the problem PC, I'm gonna need a little more detail, such as what actually happens when you try to boot from it? What messages do you get etc?

Thanks,

Pete

What size drive is it?

"...I can install and run either system on a different PC using the same hard drive..."
You can't just swap hard drives around between computers. If Windows is installed on the drive and you are putting it into a different pc, you would usually need to run a repair install :

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

"...Using WinXP PRO or WinXP home I have been unable to do the same..."
You must use the same flavour of XP for the repair as the version originally installed.

Thank you all for your comments.
It points out I have not been quite clear. Sorry, I will elaborate..
Bad PC  Install WinXP Pro from scratch from CD to (any of severl) hard drive
   When the system is loaded and shuts down for reboot from hard drive it looks like it tries to boot      but then just quits and tries to boot from CD or floppy.
Thinking the disk bios will not allow booting I tried installing DOS on the hard drive.  That works OK.

Hard drives have been verified bootable under 2 XP flavors on a separate PC so I think the problem is the BIOS.
It is a Gateway and should be an AMI DR742E  However, the bios setup  shows
AMIBIOS HIFLEX SETUP UTILITY - VERSION 1.30
I am thinking I will try to reset it but do not know what it truly is yet.
IBoot screen reads   American Megatrends DR742E Bios V 1.00.57
Pentium III 866 MHz
American Megatrends Inc
63-0100-001259-0010111-07155-Whitney-1AAEY157H
Well I am baffled. I have loaded OS's on many systems but never run into this problem.
Thanks, eveyone for the help and I am plodding on. Hopefully the further info will add some sense to the problem and someone will know exactly what is going on. Call me baffled but tenacious.

John, 73 yr old EX computer pro

To answer quesions

Hard drives tried are 13 GB and 8 GB
After initial CD setp of windows the system reboots, starts loading in many drivers
Maybe 3 full pages whiz by, then bang ---  reboot again Now we are in a boot loop
load drivers  reboot back again

I now have Ultimate Boot CD with many tools - This CD boots and can see the C drive OK.
It tests OK but there is no boot test on this CD. There are bios tools but I am unsure yet
what to do next.
Waiting further advice before I just brute force reset the bios and try a flash on it.
Still googling the numbers I have to be safest. I could turn this thing into a boat anchor easily
messing with an unknown bios.

Hoping someone has some ideas.

John

The mainboard bios setup utility usually has an option to reload all configuration to default their values or optimized values. Worth a try and see if that solve the problem. Good luck.

try this :
Boot using the Windows XP installation disk, press R. Then type the following commands:

      FIXMBR
      FIXBOOT
      BOOTCFG /rebuild

I have tried the R installation with FIXMBR, FIXBOOT and BOOTCFG /rebuild      no help
I have now tried wiping the CMOS     no help
I am now stripping the system down and disabling most everything --  more later

John

try changing hard drive jumper to cable select

I give up. It was a great exercise, getting deep into bios-land and even in failure I found
you all to be such a great resource. I am a trial member and could not have put this board to a better test.
Thank you all for assistance.

John

No use smacking a dead pony (or whatever the saying is!) :)

It's a shame, I would've liked to have seen what the issue is there, as I've not known that seen a problem like that for a long time...

Have a nice day!

Pete

ewavefront

you may be right. I was so hung up on the bios irregularities I may have not seen the obvious.

I have trashed the system now and can no longer try this fix. A faster PC can be had very cheaply

so customer may be better off anyway. nobus - hardware compatibility would be no problem then.

2 problems solved with 1 solution.

I have never had such a stumbling block so I turned it into an educational experience.

I can tell you it is humbling.

On to more fulfilling projects. Thanks to all who responded. Best wishes and good luck to all.

John