Replaced hard drive now asking for bootdisk

Hi,
I changed hard drives in a computer...Took out the current hard drive which was operational and put in a hard drive from another computer with the hopes of not having to transfer data. The hard drive from the other computer after it was installed and booted up, gave a blank screen asking for the boot disk. I was not sure if this method over the other was going to be simple or not but now that it's asking for the bootdisk, my question is whether or not it's because it needs the DOS Commands or ??? I have approx 4 hours in which to figure this out so any help will be greatly appreciated once again.
Both computers are Windows 98se. The computer that I removed the hard drive from is a DELL and the one I took out to replace the DELL one with is from an eMachine. Some times not everything is compatible and not sure if this was one of those cases...

 

What you've tried will seldom work, as you have discovered.

The drive from the eMachine contains drivers for the eMachine's hardware...including the motherboard. When it boots up, it discovers it's got all the wrong drivers for the hardware it finds....and Windows chokes.

This is what I've seen suggested on The Screen Savers back when it was called TechTV: With the eMachine drive in the eMachine, go into Device Manager and delete everything. Then don't reboot but instead shut the system down and swap the drive. Then boot it up and hope Windows can sort things out.

I've never tried it so I can't vouch for it. The guys on The Screen Savers know a whole lot more than I do and they said it "should work most of the time."

 

MY thoughts.

I think you just asked and answerd you own question.

DEll & eMachine. What ever gave you the Idea the parts from one would work in the other.

Not knowing any different I would say "YES" this is one of those cases.

BillyBob

 

Thank you both for your reply's...In answer to the thought of why I would think one would work in the other, was a more or less last ditch effort to save the data. The computer that the emachine hard drive was in motherboard bought the farm. So I will just re-install the DELL one and run from there unless I hear otherwise...Thank you all again...

 

Please do not feel as if you were alone in this idea.

I took an HD from one machine and installed it in another and WITHOUT THINKING I started the machine. It was not a complete disaster but darn near.

BillyBob

 

I hear ya' loud and clear. We understand those things but customers look at us with one eye open and one eye closed when it happens...

 

Try putting the eMachine drive into the Dell as a slave drive. Don't forget to change the jumpers to either "slave" or "cable select" (my older Dell requires it set to slave, my newer one requires it set to cable select).

You should then be able to access the eMachine drive to copy the data to the Dell's drive.

 

That's good idea, I'll report back as soon as the options given to the owner and a decision on what road to travel is agreed upon...Once again thank you all for your great assistance...

 

Might I suggest that you first go into your bios and make sure the harddrive you just put in is recognized and correctly identified. I mention this because I have had a fussy computer that will not recognize a hardrive switch until I've gone into the bios and auto detected the new harddrive.

This may not be your problem but since it only takes a minute or two it may worth a shot.

I hope you have the thing jumpered correctly. I ask this because a "bootdisk" request can mean the harddrive you put in is not seen or recognized.

Oppps..point may be mute as it seems the 4 hour time limit has come and gone. Oh well...you would probably have had to jump through hoops removing old redundant devices from the other comp and installing drivers for your current computer. This would have been a quest done for the shear challenge and satisfaction, not something for a person working under a time crunch. I hope you get or got this ironed out.

 

Okay thanks...I think the owner just wants to put the hard drive that was in the Dell computer back in and start over...Thank you all again for your help.