So my old hard drive failed on my computer and i have another hard drive from a different computer that i would like to switch in. I removed the old one and properly connected my other one but the computer boots to a black screen with a wide white line across it. There are 10 pins on the back of the drive and i think it's possible i have the white cap in the wrong place. If that's the case, how can i figure out a solution? And if it's not the case, does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you very much and i appreicate any help.

There are basically 3 sections behind the harddisk,
The four pin socket for the power,
The mini socket that has got a few jumpers [ a very small thing that connects 2 pins together]
And the longest section that is the IDE cable connecting point
I believe the cap that you are referring to is the jumper. Look carefully on the harddisk, you should be able to find a diagram or some symbols that write master , slave, cable select.
It can be in the form of MS, SL, CS as well.
The caps have to put in the same pattern as shown on the harddisk itself.

I got a question. Let say I have two separate computer okay? 1st computer has Windows XP and 2nd computer have Windows Vista, and they both have great specs hardware to run fast enough. Will this work if I switch harddrives from both computers? Like 1st computer running Windows Vista and 2nd computer running Windows XP after I switch. Just a curious question.

Answer to your question is no. One hard drive has xp with all the xp drivers for all the hardware in the first pc and the second hard drive has vista with all the vista drivers for all the hardware in the second pc. Say you put the hard drive that has vista already on it in the pc that used to have xp, if you could even get the pc to startup, you'd need to uninstall all the old xp drivers and download and install all new drivers for vista on the pc.

, Oh .. yes, Johnson and viprxx has answered your question in
You will not be able to boot up into windows using another harddisk that is pre- installed in another computer.
What determines windows unable to boot up is mainly on 2 main components.
The motherboard and the CPU.
If these 2 items are the same, You can boot into windows with no issues.
By the way, even if the drivers or main board are different, You still may boot into windows even if the windows if pre - installed using another system,
The only thing that you need to get over is the registration part. You will be stuck at the login screen asking you to call microsoft or to get online to activate your windows that's all

if there is anything you want to salvage if your system crashes, you can download slax . burn it to a CD and boot up from there
burning software is ready and you can burn out what you want using the portable lightweight OS
www.slax.org

Oh.. Thanks... I forgot about driver stuff and activate windows. Duh Me..

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No worries. It's good to have you around. You are pretty good with your stuff as well