Resolved Multiple issues with old PC

Currently, I am trying to get an old PC of ours working so I can give it to a friend. However, I have encountered quite a number of issues. I installed Windows 98 to an ancient Seagate 20 GB IDE hard drive, with no problems, but then straight after the Windows 98 loading screen appears, the PC reboots. We have no idea of the condition of either the cable, the port on the motherboard (easy enough to check), or the IDE drive (we'd forgotten it had existed!). The hard drive is also making noises when it's accessing data: is this due to it being an old drive (I think it may be ATA 33, certainly not beyond ATA 66, and it's a 5400 rpm drive), or a problem?

The next issue came when I tried to install Windows XP onto the other hard drive, an 80 GB Samsung unit. Of course, XP does not come preloaded with SATA drivers, the existing copy of XP on the drive is totally *******, and the hard drive is connected to a known-working SATA expansion card. After much routing around, we found the floppy, and then we came to yet ANOTHER problem. This hard drive worked fine in my dad's computer.

The motherboard does not seem to detect the drive, and worse than that, something has got jammed in the back of the drive, meaning that the SATA card driver floppy has been unable to get in.

A 4th issue, though not major (I have another monitor I can use with it anyway) is that the old graphics card (I believe it's a GeForce 5 or 6 FX unit of some description) does not appear to work with a 16:10 monitor: the screen is moved off about an inch to the right and an inch downwards, meaning that about half the bottom line of DOS commands is obscured.

Finally, we also believe there may be some sort of hardware issue with the PC, but as I do not intend to pay for diagnostics, and we have much newer PCs (no way to test either the IDE hard drive or the floppy, and I'd guess that the graphics card would be incompatible with our computers as well), I have no idea what it could be until we get some form of Windows running. The RAM seems all present and correct, and I've already stated that the SATA drive is known to work (it was tested today). I am loathe to try this PC's main HDD in that PC: although it would technically be Vista capable (1.25 GB RAM, 256 MB video card), I cannot afford to lose this PC, as it only has a reinstall disc, not a complete one (if it was corrupted, I'd need to start from scratch).

I have a possible solution, but no idea how to make this work: Is it possible to connect the old PC to mine in such a way that I could access the hard drives from this one without installing them in the current PC, and without buying an external hard drive casing? If so, how do I go about this? Is there a risk to this of this PC being damaged (by anything other than viruses/malware etc)?

Regards (and sorry for the ultra-long post),
Luke

EDIT: Some other information that may be of use:

• The PC was last working between 3 and 6 months ago.
• The IDE hard drive has been unused for at least 2 years, perhaps as much as 4.
• The PC is not overheating in any noticeable way - CPU and temperatures in BIOS are lower than for this PC.
• The PC is well cooled.
• It has a 300W power supply, that is perhaps getting on a bit, but still appears to work fine.
• Nothing in the PC is less than 24 months old, most of it will be between 3 and 5 years old: I think the IDE hard drive and floppy drive may be older still.
• It has an AMD Athlon XP CPU, that is probably a 3000+ or a 3200+ (cannot check now, the PC isn't connected up)

EDIT 2:
I have now re-realized what the Seagate hard-drive is (from the browser's history): a ST320413A, so it does seem to be an ATA-100 drive after all: however I also read about it being UDMA-66, which confuses me... The review was from 2000.

EDIT 3:
Just spoke with my dad, he says he thinks it may have come after replacing our old Pentium 1 PC with a custom build, which dates it back to at least 2002... The Samsung is a SpinPoint HD080HJ, which makes it a SATA II 3 GB/s drive, with 7200 rpm spin speed, though I know no more about it, except that it'll be between 24 and 48 months old. I also read about it being a 2005 design, which would fit with this time period.

EDIT 4:
Just tried the IDE drive with the other IDE connector/other IDE cable. No joy.

EDIT 5:
Currently attempting to install Windows XP to the Seagate. The Seagate passed all the SeaTools (DOS version) tests, the Samsung failed 1 part of the Long Test. I've connected the PC to a 16:9 Samsung 17 inch monitor that will be part of the PC when I hand it over.

 

Touch-wood, the XP install has worked. My theory is that there was just too much RAM for Win98 to work. I am yet to install any drivers for the motherboard, sound card, graphics card, SATA expansion card or anything else, but SP2 is installing first.

 

Looks like I didn't need this thread after all: everything is working as I've posted this from the PC I was fixing.