Hello, I had windows 98 for a couple of years now and I decided since it has been giving me trouble formating, that for now I would use another Harddrive a friend gave me that has Windows XP home edition. The problem is that I cannot get to the home page because it keeps restaring. I was told that since the Harddrive has been transported to another computer that I would have to format it to fit my computer. Is that true? If so, then how do I do that?

XP will not recognize a machine it was not installed on. You will need to install xp on the hard drive while installed in your machine and you will need a new CD key as xp will only install on one machine per copy unless it is a corporate edition with a corporate cd key.

WinXP has built in safeguards against multiple machine use so if more than a predetermined (by MS) number of hardware changes occur the OS won't load. Additionally your BIOS probably can't handle the drives capacity, WinXP probably can't run on the hardware in your computer as it may be below the minimums, especially for memory. WinXP only allows installation on ONE computer.

Notwithstanding the info/advice from the folks above, the "usual" path to tranfering an XP installed drive to another system is to run a repair installation... This presumes the drive is recognised by the bios (i.e the bios is recent enough for the drive in question). Those who have gone the repair routine usually seem to find it works; but then again there are some who will say it didn't work... With an awarenes of the legalities etc... I guess you decides whether or not go the repair route? (You will need the CD...) Otherwise...?