I started with one drive using 98 and my new drive with xp, once I realized I liked xp I installed xp on the second drive and used both. Now I want to remove one hd, format and use in another computer. When I remove it my computer will not boot. Does xp have a security mech that stop hd swapping?

your c: drive is where the mbr is, that xp is using to bootup with, also ntldr and ntdetect, along with other boot files, i can't think of at the moment. so if you're trying to take out d: and use it in another pc the bootfiles aren't there for it to boot from. and even if they were, you would at a minimum have to reinstall xp to get it to run right in a different pc, because of different hardware ,drivers,registry entries, etc.

If you are making the D: drive master now, boot with your XP cd and go to the repair console. Type in fixboot and then fixmbr.That should get you running.

Do you mean you wish to remove the '98 (the original) drive and use the newer (XP) drive alone in the same/current box? If to then you will need to establish XP boot/start-up files into the c: root of the XP drive (at present they are resident in the ’98 (Master) drive c:\ root). You can do this by runing XP set-up and allow it to repair current installation. Drivers etc will be still OK as the host PC will not have changed. Another route: start a fresh install of XP (CD boot or the floppies) as: c:\temp\winnt-t Abort it at first reboot, and remove all disks. This will/'should' write the required files to c: root, including the boot.ini to show both the c:\temp version - and the original winnt version. Boot to the c:\winnt version; set it as default OS to boot. Then locate/delete the c:\temp\winnt-t folder from the drive. Also edit out the references to it in the boot.ini. Reboot to verify all OK with c:\winnt version. Presuming so (it should be) empty the recycle-bin and defrag the drive. Any folders/files that start with the $ symbol can also be deleted. These are temp folders/files used by XP during setup and normally removed (automatically) afterwards; but as you aborted/interrupted the setup you have to remove them manually on this occasion. Path statements for XP will (‘should’) remain unchanged. XP/W2K/NT store drive letter info in the registry, unlike dos/’9x. Consequently path statements will remain correct – even though you have physically changed the location/status of the drive from Slave to Master. XP repair routine (scroll down a few lines): http://www.wown.info/j_helmig/winxphom.htm