I can't get past the Xp screen in XP! Help!

[SocceRich20]

Ok, I formatted my new 120Gb western digital hdd. I copied my data over using data lifeguard from a Seagate 40gb hdd. When i boot, everything seems fine. The little bar goes back and forth. Then, it acts like it's going to my desktop, my mouse cursor appears, and a screen with the xp logo on the left comes up. I can move the mouse, but nothign happens after this. The computer is an eMachines 900Mhz celeron. I am using my hdd on this machine. The eMachines belongs to my aunt. My home computer is self built. My question is, will it boot properly when I return teh hdd to my home computer. I think it might be a driver issue or something. Any suggestions on how to make it boot would be appreciated. Thanks.

[VHockey86]

I guess im kinda confused what computers are hooked up to what hard drives, could you clarify it better?

In general, the most failsafe solution with a new hard drive is to do a clean install and then transfer documents/data and then reinstall stuff on the new hdd. If you are using the exact same computer when you swap HDDs you would be able to clone it without too many problems, but they sometimes occur and can be a headache.

If you try to clone a hard drive from a different computer onto a new hard drive in a diff machine you'll going to have alot of headaches because all the drives for the motherboard and peripherals are going to be scrweed up.. it might work but it definately messes with windows.

[DoctorReno]

If you installed XP on your HD on your home computer and then tried to move the HD to the emachine then your problem is XP's WPA which essentially is a copy protection scheme which will not allow you to move the HD to a new machine among other things unlike older OS's. XP must be installed on the HD in the machine it is going to be used in.
If this is not what you did please elaborate and we will try to help you further.
As for your question if you move the HD back to your home machine will it work. I believe it will recognize this as your original machine and work but I am not certain since WPA was activated... try it and see.