attempted p2 resurrection - not loading windows

[Authentik1]

I took an old 6 Gb Western Digital Caviar HDD and formatted, partitioned (Fat), and succesfully loaded Win98se. Problem is to do the install I used my newer/faster Asus cuz I wanted to have the OS and handfull of usefull apps loaded before I swapped into the old PC. It really was running perfectly until I took out the drive and crammed it into this stupid antique. My shortcut turned out to be the long road. I knew from the beginning it was a long shot with all of my new hardware settings from the Asus loaded into it. The BIOS finds the drive (Primary Master) and will begin to load up to my MS-DOS 7.1 logo then completly reboots before going into Windows. SO my quesion is...Is it possible to make windows realize its now in the P2/Gateway e-3200 and redefine its settings? Is there a way to abandon the master boot record for a new one that this computer can deal with (If that's even a relevant obstacle...) I have my ms-dos 7.1 CD for booting and the copy of win98 setup on CD and on the harddrive itself. I have CD-ROM support and Floppy. Also I'm currently running XP on 3Gb Quantum Fireball HDD in the same machine I'd like to install the Western Digital (hopefully not for long). I have an internet connection obviously, even though its dial-up, so I can DL any shareware that might help. I don't have the cajones to update the bios but if it would help I could probably get over it with some good instructions. I'm like 90% sure the jumper is where it belongs but I've been wrong on a lot of things today so If you have a link to a diagram some confirmation would be assuring along with ANY suggestions anyone can come up with.
I wish 1,000 blessings on the family of anybody that can get me to a solution. After this its MIller Time.
Thanks in advance, tech geeks are the coolest!

 

[SHAWN]

all installs must be done on the machine itself or you run into what you did. Try using an ide controller card and install it on the asus machine. boot up, let windows recognize it then shutdown. now move the 6g h/d to the ide controller card, then start it up. it should boot off the ide controller card which has the 6g h/d on it. Great, now move onto the gateway. Install the controller card onto that machine. set it to boot off the 6g drive. see if that works.

i have never done this, but a tech at my job who has been here for 20 some odd years said it does.

what i would do:
just reinstall it on the p2 machine and be patient. do it right the first time and it will not take you as long. now you have to do it twice. got me?

 

[Authentik1]

I was pretty sure that's what I was going to hear. I tried to run setup again off of my Win CD. It failed after configuring the setup files. So it looks like I'm going to FDISK if I can figure out how to do that off of my dos cd...I can't get the installed copy to a command prompt without starting installation of 7.1 then cancelling out (at which point I get a c: prompt but none of my dos commands work.) Should I make a bootdiskette and just move forward or is there anything in the windows directory I could use. I scoured the install cd but its only a data copy and I don't think its got all the same goodies as the real deal.

 

[Authentik1]

On a scale of 1 to 10 how difficult is it to remove and replace IDE cards? And how likely am I to damage my machine if I try it on my own? I have a static mat and I'm slightly more coordinated than your average circus clown when it comes to getting all Frankenstein-design on a PC. I'd like to try it just for all the time I've already spent trying to make this happen.

 

[Authentik1]

Any builders out there have an opinion on this ide controller experiment? Am I naive in thinking that I can handle it without making more problems for myself? Tell me the secrets of the silicone gurus.