Old hard drive

[peanut]

Will my current hard drive which has a dell issue windows xp home install disc work on a system that no longer has a dell motherboard?

[boobesque]

probably. sometimes some motherboards are not compatable with some hardware but hard drives are generally safe.

[theo_wyvern]

more than likely, remember that components for all computers tend to come from other manufacturers, although you are buying a dell pc, the components are very likely not actually manufactured by dell.

as a comparison i had to have a new alternator fitted in my fietsa a while back and it cost me �60, exactly the same alternator for a mercedes a class (i think) cost twice that just because it is mercedes !

[vehelpfulguy]

Although the hard disk itself will work there is a good chance the Windows on the hard disk may not.

When Windows is installed it looks at the hardware on the PC (sound card, graphics card, other internal components etc) and loads the appropriate software and drivers.

If the motherboard is changed then Windows will try to look for all the "old" components and may have problems.

You could update or change the drivers, but then you will have a bit of a mish mash.

If possible I would go for a clean install of Windows once the new motherboard is installed.

[peanut]

thanks everyone,

I guess what i was really trying to ask is if my dell issued windows os disc will install on a non dell mother board. I do understand that dell may not make thier boards but they are somehow coded or something so they can be identified as dell.

[javelinpc]

The CD issued by DELL will be BIOS specific - i.e. it will only BOOT and INSTALL on a DELL BIOS motherboard............

However - it is possible to change this !

You need to extract the I386 folder and identify the files which are BIOS specific

Search for threads on GOOGLE which may help you and you will be able to disable the BIOS coding