formatting hard drive in another computer

[stupidenator]

Hi everyone,
I have an older computer that used to run windows 98 on it. Right now, it has no operating system on it and I have been having a heck of a time trying to get an OS on there. I have tried and failed numerous times to get drivers for the cd-rom drive so i can load an OS from a cd, but I was wondering if it would be possible to take the hard drive out of that computer, put it in another computer that works (it runs Windows XP) and then format the drive and load some stuff on there that would help me get an OS on the other computer, then put it in the older computer and go from there? Sorry if that's a little confusing and thank you for any help in advance!
Nick

[tylerg]

Before you go about this, what's the problem you're having getting the OS to load on the other machine? Have you got the boot order right in the BIOS?

Regardless, if you have the other box working I'd just unplug your main drive, then install the OS on the hard drive from the other machine. Windows XP is especially pretty forgiving in this respect, I've just unplugged drives and shoved them in other machines when I was in a hurry and it worked, but no guarantees. Most the big problems crop up are related to drivers being loaded for your motherboard which might cause the OS to bail, if you want to do it the 'proper' way and you're using windows, here's a guide to switching out upgrading motherboards which if you follow will let you move an installation from place to place:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/77909774/m/1400925745

I've done the same with a linux install before as well, but I've less experience with it so I that's with slightly more caveat emptor included if you're moving a *nix install around.

[nanosani]

Windows 98 can be installed on one system and run on another system. So you can install windows 98 from another system and run it on the original one ....

[stupidenator]

Thank you very much for the help! I think I was able to get it to work!
Nick

[nanosani]

Marking thread as solved ...