Trying to install a new hard drive in subject computer (SATA 300). The new HD is a WD320gb, the old a Seagate 160GB. BIOS is set up correctly, I can see the HD in disk management, initialized it, formatted it, assigned it a drive letter, but it will not boot to the drive. Even used WD's digital lifeguard to transfer all data (except winders) from the Seagate to the WD, then plugged the WD into another machine and loaded Winders (XP Pro sp2) and it still won't boot (doesn't see the drive). However, if I install Linux on the drive it'll boot fine. Your assistance is much appreciated. Btw, it will be 24hrs before I can respond...please don't feel that I'm snubbing you. Thanx again, Sabbas "God gave us beer so we would know he loves us" Benjiman Franklin

Ok from what I am getting you are trying to load data to the new drive and boot from it. Are you putting a disc to install xp on it?? Have you did the western digital transfer wizard to copy your operating system on that? If you try to move data on that drive without the operating system then you are not going to be able to boot from it, if you move the operating system on it from the transfer wizard then you would be able to boot to it. Jim R

As beginner1 has stated you need an OS to boot to. What did you think you were abooting to? Without an OS you can't work with any of the files on the disk.

To expand a little on the above responses. If you 'image' a complete drive to another drive with a program like Ghost, that will make the second drive bootable. But just copying files is not going to get it done. Copying files will not copy the boot records.

You can make the drive bootable but you still won't be able to work with the programs and files on it without an OS. Why do you want to make this drive bootable anyway?

First, I would like to thank each and every one of you for your responses and apologize for the delay in this post. Judging from your responses my post lacked clarity; I will try to correct that. B1 (response #1): “Ok from what I am getting you are trying to load data to the new drive and boot from it. Are you putting a disc to install xp on it?? Have you did the western digital transfer wizard to copy your operating system on that?” Yes, I am installing from an XP CD. The data I transferred from drive to drive was the Dell drivers and other proprietary (in my opinion (really think I’m wrong on that assumption) information. However, if you will note in my post I stated, “then plugged the WD into another machine and loaded Winders (XP Pro sp2) and it still won't boot”. I failed to add that the drive does boot in the other, actually two other, machines. In other words, it functions properly except in the Dell! A further communication error on my part was to detail the installation failure. When trying to install the OS on the Dell machine the installation would progress to the point, “If you want to install Windows on this machine, press enter”. When I press enter I get four drive options. All of those options show no drive available. When I try to proceed, I receive a “you’re stupid” notification from windows. As I also stated in my original post, “However, if I install Linux on the drive it'll boot fine.” This is not a live CD, but an old Ubuntu 5.0 boot disk. It is from this point (Ubuntu) that I removed the drive, put it in another machine, reformatted, and installed Windows XPsp2. Now, when I try to install the hard drive I get “grub loading, please wait: Error17. OtH (response #2): Hopefully, the information above has cleared up any concerns you had in your response #2. Furthermore, I would like to state that, even though I seldom post, I read C.net daily and your responses to other folk’s problems have assisted me too. Thought you should know that you are guiding more people than the ones you are directly responding to. Thanx again. Aegis (response #3): To my knowledge (not claiming I’m correct) I did not “copy” the files. Again, from my post, “Even used WD's digital lifeguard to transfer all data (except winders)”. If all data lifeguard does is copy, then yes, I copied. But still, I installed the OS (XP Prosp2 (slipstreamed by the way) and get the error stated above in the last paragraph to this post’s response to Beginner1. OtH (response #4): Responding to the first sentence is moot. The reason this has to be the boot drive is that the Seagate is failing. It chatters, clicks, rumbles and clatters. The pick up arm is hitting the plates. There is also data corruption in some sectors and some defective clusters. This situation will only perpetuate itself. HD failure is imminent. Thanx for your time, look forward to your response. Sabbas "God gave us beer so we would know he loves us" Benjiman Franklin

Your problems may be due to the drive settings in the BIOS. Look at the link below for some info. Is the drive identified in the BIOS or not? Is the drive identified by model# in the startup screens? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanc...