plz help srry if this is wrong area to ask

[thekevo]

when i try to startup my comp (one in my sig, hasnt even been logged in in normal mode )
once it gets to the windows xp loading screen it just restarts and doesnt go to the log in screen
and if i go into safe mode, it shows my old hard drive but not my new one
and i have a floppy made for the sata thing to install but i cant get to that screen either (where you press f6 while installing windows)
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any suggestions help and thank you

my 80 gb hdd is new but my other one is from my old computer
but i've tried to install windows on my 80 gb hdd before cuz i was having other problems and i didnt have the sata drive on the floppy
so i havent got to the log in screen on normal mode with this comp.
also, when i try to go into safe mode with networking, when i try to log in it says that this version of windows needs to be activated and i need to go into normal mode(which i cant )

[Paul Komski]

Please confirm that the 40gig drive has an operating system used on another computer; if so don't expect to be able to boot to it on a new system without a bit of tweaking/repairing/reactivating and the like.

Are you trying to boot to the 40gig PATA or to the 80gig SATA? and which one is set as the boot device in the BIOS setup.

The PATA will not be able to see the SATA unless the drivers for it on the PATA installation. So check device manager on the PATA (in SAFE MODE since that seems to get you in) and see if there are any problem devices or yellow punctuation marks.

A clean installation onto the SATA will not be possible until it is the boot device AND you press F6 during the start of setup to allow you to install the drivers to allow setup to see the SATA drive.