hard disc fail

[nelson2008]

i have a hp pavilion and my motherboard has packed up. a bit annoyed as i have only had it for 2 years and i have been told that you cant get a replacement, so a friend has given me a tower with a working motherboard and he said if i take out the hard disc from my non working pc into the tower he has given me it should work. i have tried this but it says "hard disc fail" anybody know what i am doing wrong.? the hard disk is set to master.

[wildwood]

You may need to install your operating system (Windows?) on the 'new' computer which means you need to save the files you want from the HDD on a working computer as a slave or in a caddy, before it is formatted.
As it is, the bios doesn't recognise the HDD.
Your friend's computer may also not be incompatible with the operating system you have (on CD?).

Are you sure the mobo has packed up? I find it nearly unbelievable that you can't get a replacement board for an HP computer that is only two years old. Would the person who told you this also happen to be selling new computers?

[Brooksy]

What makes you believe the HP m/b failed? What symptoms were there, eg dead as a dodo, no bios intro on screen, beeps? You can try clearing the bios back to its new, default settings on the friends m/b by finding the "clear cmos" pins (may be 2 or 3 pins) & shorting them with a screwdriver tip for about 3-5 secs. However, Windows will be totally confused by a new m/b. If one knew in advance that the drive was to be transferred, one could use Start/Run/REGEDIT & delete the entire Enum branch under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Another thought, if you have a Windows 98 boot floppy, that has various useful tools on it, but make sure you learn what each does first!!