"... i was unable to install windows back onto the C: partition of that HDD"
Why was that? What was it you couldn't do?
We need details!
"i cannt fully clear my old IDE HDD because of valuable data i need to recover."
Then why would you try to install Windows on it, I assume from scratch?
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You probably DO NOT need to install Windows from scratch by running a regular Setup!
If the mboard hardware (main chipset, etc) of your old mboard is more than a little different from your new one, if XP (or 2000) was installed on the IDE drive when it was connected to the other mboard, XP often will not boot into Windows on the new mboard. What you typically see is the first bit of Windows graphics, then a black screen with a blinking cursor top left, and nothing further happens.
That situation can usually be fixed without you losing any important data you have on the hard drive's partition Windows was installed on, by booting from your XP CD and running a Repair Setup procedure, rather than a regular Setup.
I can supply details if you need them.
(a Repair Setup is called a Repair Install by many, but what you actually doing is running Setup again).
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Whatever way you run Setup, you must install all the drivers for your mboard when Setup is finished, or if you find you don't need to for the IDE drive, you still have to install all the drivers for your mboard .
Whenever you load Windows from a regular Windows CD (or DVD) from scratch, after Setup is finished you must load the drivers for the mboard, particularly the main chipset drivers, in order for Windows to have the proper drivers for and information about your mboard hardware, including it's AGP or PCI-E, ACPI, and hard drive controller support. If you have a generic system and have the CD that came with the mboard, all the necessary drivers are on it. If you load drivers from the web, brand name system builders and mboard makers often DO NOT have the main chipset drivers listed in the downloads for your model - in that case you must go to the maker of the main chipset's web site, get the drivers, and load them.
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If you want to boot from the IDE drive, recent mboards often default to try booting from a SATA drive if there is one connected, even if it isn't actually bootable, and sometimes even if the only SATA drive you have connected is an optical drive.
Go into your bios Setup and make sure the drive you want to boot is listed first in the boot order. e.g. if there is a list of hard drive models there, make sure the model of the drive you want to boot is listed first.
An optical drive must be in the boot order in order for you to be able to boot from a bootable CD in it. If you have more than one optical drive connected, some bioses will only try to boot from a bootable CD in the first one listed in your bios Setup - e.g. if there is a list of optical drive models, the one you want to boot from may have to be first in the list.
A good way to set your boot order is floppy drive first if you have one, an optical drive second, a bootable hard drive third. If you can set it that way, most people don't need to change the boot order after having done that. An optical (CD or DVD) drive has to before the hard drive in the boot order, but it does not have to be first if you can set the above boot order. In all the bioses I've tried it in, a bootable floppy in a floppy drive will not be recognized while booting if it is listed after an optical drive - apparently there are some bioses in which that doesn't matter, but they are rare.
Your empty SATA drive will not be bootable until it has had an operating system installed on it.
Also in your bios Setup, make sure the drive detection for the connection your IDE hard drive and IDE CD drive and SATA drive is on is set to Auto, and that the method of detection for the hard drive(s) is(are) set to Auto or LBA.
If you think you may have screwed up bios Setup settings, load bios defaults or optimized bios defaults, and go from there.
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Double check your jumper settings on your IDE drives
- whether and where a jumper needs to be installed varies according to the brand and model and age of the hard drive - don't assume different drives use the same jumper settings.
- some hard drives (e.g. some Western Digital models) require a different setting if another drive is on the same data cable (master with slave present) than when it is by itself (master, single drive), or if there is a standard setting there may also be an alternate setting you have to use if some other drives are on the same cable when one or the other drive on the data cable is not detected properly using the standard settings. The alternate jumper setting info may not be on the label - you may have to go to the manufacturer's web site and look up the possible jumper settings for your model.
- the jumper info on the label on the drive may be confusing especially if it's upside down. If there is a diagram of how to set jumpers relative to the power connector, go by that. If in doubt, go to the manufacturer's web site and look up the possible jumper settings for your model.
It does not matter if you use master/slave or cable select jumpering, but do not use both types on the same data cable. It doesn't matter which of the middle or proper end connectors you use for the drives if you use master/slave jumpering; if you use cable select jumpering, the drive on the proper end connector is master, the drive on the middle connector is slave.
You should be using an 80 wire IDE data cable if it has a hard drive on it.
Make sure the proper connector on the data cable is plugged into the mboard, and that all connectors are fully seated. For an 80 wire data cable, that connector is often blue, but in any case it's on the end of the 3 connector data cable that is farther from the middle connector. If you have the wrong end connector to the mboard on an 80 wire data cable, at least one drive will not be detected if two are connected.
A 40 wire data cable can be used for any optical drive on a data cable by itself, unless the drive is a recent DVD combo drive capable of 16X or greater DVD +R or -R , in which case you musu use an 80 wire data cable. No CDrom (only) or CD burner drive (only) requires anything more than a 40 wire data cable if it is by itself on the cable.
Some 80 wire data cables have one blocked pin hole in the connectors, some don't.
The connectors with the one blocked pin hole can only be installed on the 39 pins (one pin is missing) on the drives one way on the IDE header.
The connectors that do not have one pin hole blocked can sometimes be installed either way on the IDE headers - the drive will be detected and work only if it is the same way as all the other connectors on the same data cable. Either the stripe on one side of the data cables has to line up with the pin 1 of the header, the default, or opposite that, with the 40 pin end. The pin one end is usually marked in the mboard with a 1 or an arrow or a triangle; on the drives, the stripe is almost always next to the power connector socket.
It is common to un-intentionally damage IDE data cables, especially while removing them - the 80 wire ones are more likely to be damaged. What usually happens is the cable is ripped at either edge and the wires there are either damaged or severed, often right at a connector or under it's cable clamp there, where it's hard to see - if a wire is severed but it's ends are touching, the connection is intermittant, rather than being reliable.
Another common thing is for the data cable to be separated from the connector contacts a bit after you have removed a cable - there should be no gap between the data cable and the connector - if there is press the cable against the connector to eliminate the gap.
80 wire data cables are also easily damaged at either edge if the cable is sharply creased at a fold in the cable.
Try another data cable if in doubt.
Older mboards/bioses will not recognize a drive jumpered as slave (master/slave) or seen as slave(cable select, on the middle connector) at all, but most more recent ones usually will. However, if that isn't your case, if the CD drive is by itself on a data cable, you may need to set the jumper to master (master/slave) or connect the proper end connector on the data cable to it (cable select).
