Help my dell optiplex 755 dt has a problem

[Radicalr]

I have Posted Threads about PSUs and Graphics cards for my dell optiplex and all the answers helped me a lot. But now I have a pretty serious problem with my pc. It is for you to Decide.

Recently the stock hdd in my dell optiplex 755 dt has died, so I decided to remove the hdd of an old Packard bell pc. I have installed the hdd into the correct place and pluged it in. I started it up and I have to re-activate Windows xp because all the hardware changes. That isn't the problem. After this i put the original windows xp installation disk inside and tried to reinstall it, the first problem was that the installation froze and as a result I had to restart my pc, but then windows started up, it wanted me to activate it, The problem is that when I click yes to activate it, the screen goes blank (with the desktop, and the old background) with no icons only the mouse pointer and the older picture of me, i waited a long time and when restarted my pc, when i clicked no and it just threw me out to the user page, the one where you switch users.

Do i need a new hard drive, Operating system/ both?
Or is there any way of fixing it?

 

[thx1138v2]

Sounds like it is booting from the hard drive and then running AutoRun on the install media. You don't just need to reactivate. You need a fresh install. But if you are trying to install Windows XP, it may not work because it won't have the correct drivers for that hardware and you may not be able to find the correct drivers for that hardware. In that case, you'll need a new OS.

If it originally came with Windows XP you can try the following. Go into the BIOS and set the boot priority to boot from the installation media, e.g before the HDD. When it boots, tell the Windows install program to format the hard drive and proceed with the install after the format is complete.

 

[Radicalr]

Sounds like it is booting from the hard drive and then running AutoRun on the install media. You don't just need to reactivate. You need a fresh install. But if you are trying to install Windows XP, it may not work because it won't have the correct drivers for that hardware and you may not be able to find the correct drivers for that hardware. In that case, you'll need a new OS.

If it originally came with Windows XP you can try the following. Go into the BIOS and set the boot priority to boot from the installation media, e.g before the HDD. When it boots, tell the Windows install program to format the hard drive and proceed with the install after the format is complete.

How the hell do I do that? or is there a step by step on wikihow?
and yes the dell did come with win xp originally



*edit* Never mind now i know

 

[william p]

Also you might try making a disc with ALL the drivers for all the devices on your system. There may be some incorrect drivers from the HP system interfering.
Format, clean install, and then a couple hours downloading and installing driver updates.
This might be a good time to update to WIN7. Vista drivers work for WIN7. It's the same amount of work.