40 GB HDD into Acer 340T

[wmdrummond]

Hi!

While my P4 notebook motherboard awaits replacement, I need to access data on my 40GB Fujitsu HDD. I have an older Acer 340T PIII that is running XP Pro. I thought I should be able to simply remove the 6.4GB drive from the Acer and stick in the 40GB HDD and the computer would boot into my drive. At least my theory sounds good to me. :rolleyes:

Each time I attempt to boot, whether in regular mode or safe mode, I get a blue screen with 0x000007B, 0xF9E5528, 0xC000034, 0x0000000. Or something very close to that. I have gone into the BIOS on during the boot up process, but nothing there allows me to change anything regarding the HDD. I do notice that the BIOS recognizes that there is a different drive there, but it does not show as a 40GB.

Anyone have any advice to help me get past this little stumbling block? Oh, before you suggest that I hook it to my desk top and access it that way, the desk top is a 10-year old PII running 98SE. It just laughs at me when I try to hook it into the IDE chain and boot up. Apparently 98SE dislikes anything bigger than the 6.4GB drive installed in it. The MB on the desktop is a TCOMMATE that has their latest BIOS update from several years ago. The Acer PIII has their latest BIOS update from 3 years ago, V3.0 R01-A3C.

I've been thinking that whoever invented the phrase "plug-n-play" as it relates to computers must be a used car salesman, a mortgage broker, a lawyer, or a politician. :knife:

Anyway, your suggestions, guidance, advice, and laughter are all appreciated. :redeyes:

Will
Enterprise, AL

[Platypus]

Welcome to WinDrivers, Will.

Using an XP boot drive in another computer is fraught with difficulty, as XP installs itself specifically to match the hardware, and usually gives a result like you've experienced if tried on different hardware.

Win98SE has no problems with drives much larger than 6.4GB, however a system mainboard which came matched to that size of drive may well have an 8.4GB limit. This may be able to be overcome if there is a BIOS update available.

However, overall, the simpler way may be to see if you can arrange to use a more recent system to transfer the data from the 40G drive, and this would also have the advantage of making sure the 40G hasn't been harmed in some way by the failure of the P4 motherboard. There's a slight chance this could be why your own system can't access it. If another more recent system also had the same problem, it would point toward that.

[wmdrummond]

Hi, Platy and thanks for the quick reply. :)

I neglected to mention that I had already used a USB adapter at a local computer repair shop and burned some of the files I needed onto a CD. I was hoping that if I could get my 40GB HDD to work in this Acer, then all of the software that I'm used to using would be right where I'm used to it being located. Ugh... It's already a PITA stepping down to a P3 mobile from my P4 non-mobile, speed wise it's like the difference between night and staring straight into the sun. So, anyway, I know the drive is OK. I guess I'm just going to have to buy a USB to 2.5" HDD enclosure and try to get used to accessing the data via a USB 1.1 cable. I have no ETA on when the MB repair will be done. Part of that is up to the power surge protection equipment guarantee. Ah, well, if it weren't for the bad times we wouldn't really appreciate the good things. :) I can remember when my dinosaur PII desktop was considered blazingly fast.