I just bought a new computer. It runs Vista on a SATA hard drive.

I want to use my old hard drive from an old computer. Its IDE. There is no IDE port on the new motherboard. So, I went out and got an IDE to SATA converter. This hard drive has files on it, and an installed operating system (XP). I just took it out of my old box and put it into the new one.

On system start, I entered the bios. The BIOS detected both hard drives no problem. I saved, exited, then restarted. The first time I restarted, the machine asked me which I wished to boot from. It gave only one option (VIsta). Please note that the option to boot from XP was not even present.

When I selected Vista (and now on any reboot when the hard drive is plugged in), the machine gets to the "microsoft corporation" black loading screen. It loads and loads, then goes all black. No startup. Windows never starts. Ive left it there like that for 30 minutes, just to give it a shot.

I did not change the slave/master settings on the new hard drive, since it WAS IDE, and is NOW SATA (after the converter), so it is still set to master setting. The BIOS detects the hard drive no problem, and Ive told the system to boot from vista (selected frmo a list). I really need the data from this hard drive (such as installed programs and many documents) so CANNOT format the old hard drive.

What can I do to get this hard drive to work, and Vista to load on this new computer?

Hi Dustyn, and welcome to HotHardware. Hopefully someone will be along soon to help you out, but please be patient and don't double-post!

Dustyn:

What can I do to get this hard drive to work, and Vista to load on this new computer?

Before we try to access your IDE drive, let's find out if you can still boot to Vista. Disconnect the IDE drive (for now) and see if your computer boots to Vista like it did when it was new.