ok lets start where it all began...

I gave my old dell to my brother after i bought a new computer for myself. The dell didn't really work that well so i decided it would be best if i frmat the hd and re-install xp on it.

so... I pop in the xp installation disk (vanilla not the dell oem version) and restart the computer. I go into the bios and change the boot sequence to cd first (it has no fdd)

but... th cd drive wouldn't show up in the bios. it did in xp but not in the bios (strange...)

so... I thought... hmm. How can i get around this?

I know... take out the hard drive, stick it in my new computer, boot the new computer off the xp istallation disc, format and install. Done.

but... when i went to put the hdd back into the dell it would try and boot but normally where you'd see the xp logo and th blue dots going accross the bottom it would.....

BSOD!!!!!!!

it would only flash for about half a second before restarting so it took a few tries for me to work out what it was.

please halp because my brother just bought £75 ($150) worth of stuff for it and he's getting impatient.

You can't install XP on one computer with different components and expect it to work on another machine. What boot options do you have in the dells BIOS. it's probable that the CD is listed there just under a different name.

in the dell bios the hdd is the first and only boot device. if i go to secondary boot device and press enter i get a box show up that gives the choice "Not Installed" or "Auto". I tried setting to Auto but when i press enter it will then say in the boot sequence 1.HDD 2. Unknown Device.

By the way... i thought that moving the hard drive from one computer to another would work but xp would ask to be re-activated. i thought that until you installed any drivers, xp would use generic legacy ones.

It seems your not looking in the right place for alternate boot devices in the BIOS, at the very least there would be the option to boot from a floppy, USB drive, CD. I think you just need to have a better look around the BIOS.

What's the model number of the Dell Machine?

And no, if you install your windows on one machine with a certain architecture and then take that HDD and bung it into another machine with a completely different component list it will not boot, it's about the same as spending your entire life speaking english and then being dropped in the middle of rural china and expecting everyone to know what your saying.

srsly,

i know that bios like the back of my hand. I used to own that computer and was constantly fiddling with it.

I've seen the cd drive in that menu before but it just won't show up now for some starnge reason. I thought the cd drive was dead but i know it works because i bought a replacement and that still didn't show up. also the cd drive shows up fine and works fine in xp nbut not the bios.

any ideas?????????????????????

bios update?

The CD-ROM drives are IDE, yes?

Check the Master/Slave pin outs. It's the only reason I can think of off the top of head that would cause this issue without having a mobo problem.

yep cd drive is ide and the cd drive and the hdd although they are on seperate ide channels are both set to cable select.

jumper settings: already tried that and it refuses to boot. it says something like 'drive0 not found'

bios options: the choices are 'not installed' or 'auto' if i set it to auto and press enter the boot sequence will show 1. Hard Drive C, 2. Unknown Device. The computer hasn't got a floppy drive if that's got anything to do with it.