I have a hdd with windows that I want to use as my boot drive.

[BlastFX]

I got an HDD out of my old acer aspire m5 laptop with windows 8.1, and a computer with windows vista 32-bit. I plugged the 2.5" hdd from the laptop into my computer via sata data cables and it showed up on my computer as an F drive and my windows vista hdd as my C drive (main boot drive). I opened up the F drive and saw all my files from the laptop including the windows, so then I unplugged the 3.5" drive with vista and tried turning on the computer with just the windows 8.1 drive and it said enter a disk, i assumed that meant enter a windows disk, so I thought why wont it boot from the laptop drive? The laptop drive is titled Acer from the laptop do I have to change it to the same as my vista drive for it to work? or will it not work at all? Oh and I threw away the laptop long ago so this hdd is just what I salvaged and I forgot to take a picture of the serial code (windows product key) sticker on the bottom of the laptop.

 

[B-man33]

Have you checked the boot priority in your bios settings?

 

[BlastFX]

Have you checked the boot priority in your bios settings?

Yes, it seemed like it skipped the drive and booted into the 3.5" drive. It started to install some things though first before it booted into windows vista.

 

[B-man33]

Have you checked the boot priority in your bios settings?

Yes, it seemed like it skipped the drive and booted into the 3.5" drive. It started to install some things though first before it booted into windows vista.

What you can try is, unplug the 3.5" drive and only plug in the 2.5", go to bios and set up the boot priority so that the only boot priority is the 2.5", if you have tried this before, I do apologize for being a noob

 

[BlastFX]

Have you checked the boot priority in your bios settings?

Yes, it seemed like it skipped the drive and booted into the 3.5" drive. It started to install some things though first before it booted into windows vista.

What you can try is, unplug the 3.5" drive and only plug in the 2.5", go to bios and set up the boot priority so that the only boot priority is the 2.5", if you have tried this before, I do apologize for being a noob

When I first unplugged the 3.5" drive and restarted it, it didnt even reach the bios settings, as soon as I turned it on it said insert disc?

 

[bignastyid]

There's a major hardware difference it's likely not going to boot(would require a clean reinstall) plus the windows license is tied to the laptop so it wouldn't matter even if you had the key.