Desktop questions...Need help

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EWC88

Member
Hey everyone, haven't been on here for awhile but now with a new computer I will be. I do want to first say is if this is in wrong section please move.

But ok on with questions.

My mom had a HP Pavilion a1600n Desktop. Probably about 2 years old max. Now we didn't know what went wrong with it so we sent it to a family friend who has his own computer fixing business. He informed us that the harddrive was shot. So my mom had a laptop and said alright just give it back and will figure what to do. So we have the tower back with the hard drive out (we have hard drive). He did tell us that the harddrive is so bad that he couldn't get anything off of it, but if we wanted to we could send it out to this place that charges I think he said 300-500 to get everything off it for us so we can put on our other computer but were not doing that.

We ended up actaully getting a free Gateway tower from a friend who is a principal at a school who informed us that there computers are new nothing wrong but schools are now switching to MAC so they have there towers and all getting thrown away, so we said we will take one. So he came and hooked it up and its all running. BUT we have a problem now. My mom wanted to load Microsoft Office 2007. We go to load it and it Microsoft office says it neweds a newer version of XP. I never knew there were different versions of XP. What do I do with this?

Next question. Now that we have the HP tower back I was thinking to myself hmm all that needs is a hard drive and it'll work. I have my older desktop still around that I replaced with my new laptop because it was getting old. Still runs just a little slow. I was thinking though of just taking out the hard drive in that and putting it in the HP. MY question is can I do this? Also from my older desktop I put in a graphic card, I was thinking about putting that into the HP, but do I need a disk to install it? I think I might of lost it.


I can't think of any other question but know I wil have more lol.
 
EWC88 said:
We go to load it and it Microsoft office says it neweds a newer version of XP. I never knew there were different versions of XP. What do I do with this?
Click to expand...

You might just need to visit Microsoft homepage - and update the service pack. IT's not a big deal. Their website should walk you through getting service pack 3 ( sp3). I reloaded my old Windows from XP sp1 disk and Microsoft updated me to sp2, then sp3. I think I had to reboot twice - but it was pretty self explanatory. It's free :good:

You might want to check " my computer " window to see if it has sp2 or sp3 version of your O/S.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsxp/sp3/default.mspx

Next question. Now that we have the HP tower back I was thinking to myself hmm all that needs is a hard drive and it'll work. I have my older desktop still around that I replaced with my new laptop because it was getting old. Still runs just a little slow. I was thinking though of just taking out the hard drive in that and putting it in the HP. MY question is can I do this?
Click to expand...

Yes - that should work. You will need to install and O/S on the new drive - but if you still have the same setup MOBO - CPU - etc - you should be able to install the old HP windows O/S that came with the PC onto your new drive. If you don't have the disks - you should be able to get them online - or contact HP to find out how to get a new disk or download. Dell has all their drivers based on a service tag to get everything else. I'm sure HP has a similar ability. Or - if the PC isn't too old - and fits the criteria of Windows 7 - you can use the Release Candidate for free right now.

Also from my older desktop I put in a graphic card, I was thinking about putting that into the HP, but do I need a disk to install it? I think I might of lost it.
Click to expand...

Might be plug and play. But I'd check the manufacturer's website for updated drivers. It's worth a try either way if it's a decent video card. If there's an updated driver - I'd download it.
 
No, it doesn't matter where you get the hard drive from just as long as it matches the old one, IDE or SATA connection.
 
Ok cool, I'm going check it out in a couple mins to see how it is.


I went to that link you posted Jamin43 for the update and I did that it updated to SP2 and I figured let me see if it'll load the office, and it did. Thanks alot! I will update it to SP3 shortly.
 
johnb35 said:
No, it doesn't matter where you get the hard drive from just as long as it matches the old one, IDE or SATA connection.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify - when John says it has to match - he's just talking about connection -

i.e.
If you have an IDE drive you need to replace it with IDE drive.

OR

SATA drive replace with SATA drive

You don't need to replace an 80 GB drive with another 80GB drive. You can get a bigger or smaller drive depending on your needs / budget.
 
Ok coo thanks, I'm going have to take a picture of the computer that I am hooking the hard drive into (HP tower) because when I opened it up, it looks like it has the right connection but there is so many of the same one I don't know what to use.

Tonight I should have a pic up.
 
Yeah but you also have to realize, you cant just throw in a HDD w/ windows on it and expect it to work. When Windows installs itself on a HDD, it installs itself to the hardware configuration of that computer. You cannot just swap HDDs even if its the same manuf.

You will need to do a full install on the new drive.
 
Boot to the install cd and follow the prompts. Delete existing partition, repartition and then install.
 
Ok so to do the full install. I put in my hard drive into the other computer. When thats done, put it all back together and then start it up. Put the Windows XP disk that I got when we got the HP in and that will redo it all (delete old and add the new)? And thats it?
 
It's as simple as putting a new or used hard drive(that you don't mind losing the data on) into the computer and using the install cd that came with the computer that you are trying to fix. If its not the same cd that came with the computer then you will need to buy a new copy of the OS. After install you may need to download some drivers and install them. Download them from the HP website pertaining to the model of computer you have. If you give us the model we can direct you to the correct page.

Oops, forgot that you said it was a1600n. Here is the download page for XP drivers.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3245022
 
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Thanks Johnb35, I know I am probably annoying the crap out of you with all these questions, I am a noob in a way with this so I do apologize.

I took some pics of both the hard drives and I believe they'll swap.

Heres the pic of the hard drive that needs replacing:
003-1.jpg


And here is my hard drive
002-1.jpg


To me it looks like it'll work. The white thing on my hard drive isremoveable which makes it seem to match up to the other.

Now am Igoing be losing all the stuff on my hard drive when I put it in the computer? Such as music and all?
 
The top drive is SATA, the bottom drive is IDE. You need to buy a SATA hard drive to replace the bad one.
 
Wow I just notice that they both are not right lol, wow I don't know how I missed that.

Edit: Recommend any hard drives?
 
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Not to sure on how much I would need. This computer will probably be used for playing counter strike and maybe another game if I find anything I like out there, and downloading music. I won't be using it for any form of word or anything because that is with my laptop. This computer will mostly just be for the gaming and music but as well back up if anything did ever go wrong. I was thinking maybe a 500GB either western digital or seagate
 
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