Vaio VGN-FS980 problems

The Seagate HD in this laptop died. There is no way to use it
at all. I replaced the drive and loaded XP Pro using another
laptop. Installed the new drive into the Vaio and all it does
is repeat boot. It will flash the VAIO sign, tries to boot and
blue screens. Does Sony have a special lock on the motherboard
or some kind of security deal that won't allow a boot from
a good install of XP ? Am I missing something ?

When I take the drive out and install in a Dell, it boots right
up and goes the XP desktop, no probs. What am I doing
wrong. I do NOT have access to any of Sony's recovery discs
and the hidden partition that is suppose to recover the
Vaio is dead and gone.

Can someone please advise or point to someplace where I
can try and get this thing going ?

Thanks in advance for any info.

N2gc.

 

With reference to the part in bold and underlined, is the other laptop the same in terms of hardware? Why not install the drive in the Vaio, then install the OS there?

 

Well I tried to get the boot going using the CD drive and going
into BIOS setting up the system to boot off it, but I'm not
sure if I am doing that part right. I go to BOOT, select Optical
Drive, hit F10 and it asks me if I was to save current config.
I choose yes and it shuts down and starts up with the VAIO
emblem and I can hear the CD drive spinning the XP disc, but
it just wants to keep rebooting. I don't know if certain drivers
have to be loaded first or what. I'm downloading the drivers
to this drive right now, but when I go to .EXE, the Sony
driver asks me if I agree, YES, then it tries to load the
driver, but a window pops up telling me "this driver is not
for your operating system". This is very strange.

I tried to boot off this new drive with XP installed using a USB
to IDE converter tool I have to my desktop, but it
won't do it ! However, if I put this same drive in my old
Dell Latitude D610, it will boot right up and run fine.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I'm doing it good..

 

Ehh, sc**w it. Found recovery discs or disc over at Sony for
24.00 bucks. We'll see what happens...

 

Well why I'm waiting on this recovery disc, I thought what the heck,
lets try an install of Vista. Can't believe it but it took and loaded
almost all the drivers ! Now why is it, this thing will load a fresh
Vista install but not a version of XP Pro ? Both are 32 bit. This is
very confusing.

Anyone have a clue ?