Hard drives

[pokezy]

Hey Hanspuppa,

   Sorry that I did not get back to you sooner. I did what you suggested, but still could not find the old HD on my PC. I then got a SATA Cable and power supply to hook the HD into a USB port. The cables were cheaper than a case to put the HD drive in to use as a external HD, and I can use it on any HD's. When I went to My Computer, it did not show up there as it should have. The HD is spinning, and I know that it was okay when the MB died. I used your instructions again, but could not find it.. I went to the Device Manager while the HD was hooked to the USB Port, could not find any errors there. I was wondering if you had any more tips. I have been fooling with this old PC since April, and I am about sick of it. We use to have Tech TV  years ago, up until XP came out. I learned a lot about PC's from watching it. One thing the host always said when he would talk about computers, was Personal Confuser. I have been confused since April.

                                                                                                Thanks, David

[Hanspuppa]

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pokezy wrote: Hey Hanspuppa, Sorry that I did not get back to you sooner. I did what you suggested, but still could not find the old HD on my PC. I then got a SATA Cable and power supply to hook the HD into a USB port. The cables were cheaper than a case to put the HD drive in to use as a external HD, and I can use it on any HD's. When I went to My Computer, it did not show up there as it should have. The HD is spinning, and I know that it was okay when the MB died. I used your instructions again, but could not find it.. I went to the Device Manager while the HD was hooked to the USB Port, could not find any errors there. I was wondering if you had any more tips. I have been fooling with this old PC since April, and I am about sick of it. We use to have Tech TV  years ago, up until XP came out. I learned a lot about PC's from watching it. One thing the host always said when he would talk about computers, was Personal Confuser. I have been confused since April. Thanks, David

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Hello pokezy, I had to go back and read the thread to get an understanding of what was happening.

AS some of the other Members mentioned, you cannot just swap motherboards from one system to another or use HP Recovery Restore Disk made for one system and then try and use them on another. They will only work on the system they were meant for. This prevents software piracy. The HP Tatoo is not a tatoo as you and I would normally think of, but rather some code embedded in the BIOS that gets read when trying to restore the system software. If the system does not match the code in the BIOS, the restore will fail, along with all the original software on the hard drive.

If you tried to use the HP Recovery Restore Disk set for one system and put the software on another system, as wb2001 suggested, you effectively erased all the data on the hard drive and most likely corrupted the Master Boot Record (MBR) as well.

You still may be able to recover the hard drive. Since you are using a Windows 7 system now, you might try going to the Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management, and see if the now USB external hard drive is listed at any point in the drives section. It may show up as any drive letter. If it shows up, make certain you select it before you perform any actions, since if you select the wrong hard drive, you might corrupt the existing software.

If it is, you can select to delete the volume, create a new volume, format the volume in NTFS, and see if you have any success.

Let me know how you come out.

[pokezy]

Yea, I have tried it all, I meant to post to some else and he had made some suggestions. I know the work around for CODE PURPLE. When the MB died I bought a new one for HP/Compaq. I am not sure that it has been wiped clean. I hooked the old HD in my new PC. It showed up in the BIOS, but I could not find any way to see what, if anything was on it. I went to the tolls that you mentioned and could not find it. I did take it out before I went to Device Manager. I bought a SATA Cable with what I needed to plug the HD in a USB port. It did not show up any where. The HD is spinning., but I can not find a way to even see what might be on it. I still intend to get my old PC working. The so called tattoo is a file on the HD, and once you delete the file, then I can install XP back on it. I have the new CPU and a new MB. I have spent a lot more on it than I wanted too, but it has been a thorn in my side and want to get it out. After I get it going, my Son may upgrade to Windows 7.

                                                                                                 Thanks,  David