ok, thanks, i don't need to consider swapping the CPUs.

to reinstall a legal operating system, i have the windows disc which was put on the now faulty machine, or is this not suitable?

all i want from the new HD is it's storage, i don't need it's OS or anything else

I'm sorry but digerati is right that you can't swap out the CPU's & yes faster is better. You have a slot 1 processor which is no better than a 1133 mHZ pentium 3 but could only be a 233 mHZ pentium 2. The other is a socket & socket cpu cannot fit in a slot...does that make sense? Also to consider is the amount of ram in the other computer which is why you should look at the specs of the other one. You already had a terribly small amount of ram in the old one but I'm guessing that in the other one you has even less & a computer with a small amount of ram will seem really slow with xp. I didn't say "new one" because it is actually older that the bad one.

the working pc has the same or 512 ram, and yes it is very slow, but it can't help having only 700 mb free space on the HD ?

it is only a back up pc anyway so i am OK with it's performance.

with the extra HD it would give me more confidence in being able to install updates etc for necessary software

The disk will have the drivers for the faulty computer which won't be compatible with the working one. If you are only using the drive as a secondary one then all you need to do is make sure that the other works & has an OS on it. I wouldn't put XP on it anyway.

Yes you can use the hard drive as a second drive. You need to set it as the slave using the jumper which you do by either removing the jumper or turn the jumper sideways. I would do that so that you can more easily keep up with it. You also need to connect the drive to the middle connection on the cable. You must be careful not to break any of those little pins. What if any OS is on the other one?

Just seeing your last post: 512 mb of ram is plenty for even XP. Is there anything on how fast the processor is?

The preoceesor is slow - pentium 2. it already has XP installed

so i move the jumper to the slave position, connect the IDE middle socket ( and the third socket to the original HD)

what next?

A pentium 2 processor with XP is a bad idea. I'd either get a newer computer or windows 98 but I don't know if you can do either. If you set the drive to slave & connected it to the middle spot, then all you have to do is 4-pin power connect the power cable & turn the computer on. Let us know if you run into any problems. I'm signing off until tomorrow night.

@Towns - just to make sure, you are aware that in his open post, Jim said the one motherboard was bad, and the goal was simply to use the bigger drive as more storage. As mentioned before, the easiest way to add the drive as a slave, or as a master on the secondary drive (depending on existing drives).

so i move the jumper to the slave position, connect the IDE middle socket ( and the third socket to the original HD)

what next?

And the original HD must have the jumper set to Master. That's it. Power up and see what happens.

Well, it's working! i can access all the 2nd drive. it is drive E!

Thanks guys for all you help. i couldn't have done it without you.

I'm really glad it's working

Thanks
James

Great and thanks for the followup.