Amy Ledford's post (clipped):--

<<<< Neither of us have tried to install our  WinXP HDs in the original PC>>>

in addition to Hugh Vandervoort's and Rick Glazier's valuable inputs, my 2 cents worth.

most modern mobos and bios' support a feature called S.M.A.R.T. since you have a system with win xp as o/s i presume the mobo/bios of this system supports S.M.A.R.T.

so my suggestion is you remove the hdd containing win xp from this system and hook up the "suspect hdd" as master and ONLY HDD and enter bios and see if S.M.A.R.T has anything to say.

in addition I have found it usefull to place, as much of the four fingers of one of your hands as possible, on the metal surface of a suspect hdd (after power up ) and see if you feel any vibration.if there is some life you should feel a slight vibration.

NOTE:- PL. DO THIS ONLY IF YOU ARE COMFORTABLE AND ONLY AFTER GROUNDING YOURSELF PROPERLY.

regarding S.M.A.R.T the following two URL'S may help

 (1) http://tinyurl.com/beonk

 (2) http://tinyurl.com/3yab9

HTH and good luck--- Venkat

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com