Swapping Harddrives between Ubuntu & XP

[thefahza]

Should I be able to swap out a hard drive that has Windows XP with a hard drive that has Ubuntu on an HP Pavillion 502n that originally had Ubuntu installed in the first place?

I have tried to do this and when I plugged the HD with WIN XP and turned on the computer, it just sat there with the HD light on but nothing else and nothing on the screen.

Does installing Ubuntu mess with the BIOS setting on the MOBO?

Thanks in advance for your help

Tim

[wpshooter]

Was the XP hard drive configured on THIS computer ?

If yes, then yes it should work, if no, then no, it is HIGHLY (like about zero chance) unlikely to work !!!

[thefahza]

No, it wasn't. XP was loaded on a separate PC.

Thanks for your reply.

Being a noob, can you tell me why? Does it have to do with the BIOS?

[wpshooter]

No, primarily it has to do with the drivers, etc. that would be required and installed by the O/S for that particular computer/motherboard & other components. Please note that this is a somewhat simplistic explanation.

But before you would try to put that XP hard drive in that computer and try to get it running on that system by reinstalling XP on it, you would more than likely want to set the BIOS on the computer back to defaults and then customize various settings as applicable.

[thefahza]

OK. Thanks for you help!!