An enquiry

[stupo]

Hi all, I have a problem. The pc i am currently using has vista ultimate x64 edition installed on my only drive, ©. Will i be able to take a drive from my old pc that had windows xp home edition installed on the drive with all my old files and put it in my current pc and transfer what i want? Hope this makes sense, as above i am worried, commands, file systems/formats etc, any help gratefully excepted cheers stupo

[Guest Wolfeymole]

It may be better to attach the old drive via a SATA/IDE adaptor to USB to the machine rather than install it internally.

 

It will then not be looked at as a primary boot drive and so you can pull your files off it.

 

Just make sure the Vista box is set to boot from the hard drive only and not USB.

[BeeCeeBee]

The short answer is yes. However, if all you want is to transfer your data from the old hard drive into what I assume is a new PC you may be better off using it as an external hard drive with a caddy and converter to allow it to be connected by way of USB cable.

 

If the PC is new and under warranty you may want to be very careful about opening it and installing old hardware. At the same time, once you transfer what you need from the old drive you will have the opportunity to reformat it and use it for storage and backup.

[stupo]

reply

 

Thanks for the replies all,

so if i remove the drive, change the jumper settings to slave and then install in my pc it will be recognised in my computer and i will be able to take what i want. After i have what i want it can be formatted and used as extra space/separate drive, whats the worst that can happen?? will it just not be recognised, or will i encounter major problems, i would rather put it in my machine, out of sight, cheers paul (stupo)

[Guest Wolfeymole]

If the old drive is IDE and you have IDE connectors on the new machines board then jumper it to Slave, again it will not be regarded as a primary boot drive and you can get your stuff off and format it to your hearts content.

[stupo]

Hi Wolfeymole, I believe my drive in my current pc is connected to mother board via sata cables, so is it possible to still install the drive with an ide cable to my motherboard??? hope this makes sense?? "Oldish, Newish Learner" cheers stupo

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Paul, a lot depends on the type of motherboard, some do have connectors on them for either SATA or IDE, others do not. If you can tell us the mother board make and number, we may be able to find out for you and let you know where the sockets are placed on it, though of course that may be obvious once you look at it.

[stupo]

Hi Plastic Nev, Motherboard is asus M2N-VM dvi, I have my hd connected via sata cables and my DVD combi drive connected via an Ide cable i think ??? does that sound right? or help in any way? cheers paul

[Match]

Hi Stupo

 

Take a look at THIS

an a IDE cable looks like THIS an a IDE Drive looks like THIS

 

an a SATA cable looks like THIS an a SATA Drive looks like THIS

 

now if you can tell us what you have installed already and what you want to put in we will tell you if you can do it :) and how to :D

[Guest Wolfeymole]

That board does look to have one solitary IDE socket so obtain a 3 way IDE ribbon cable and attach the IDE hard drive to the middle connector.

 

If the cable already installed is 3 way then proceed as I have described.

[stupo]

reply

 

Thanks Guys, i have a single ide connector on my board, which is populated by my dvd combi drive, i know i am really hard work, but i think the penny has finally dropped. I can connect my old drive via this cable, attached via the connector half way up the ribbon. Thanks for all your help, off now to try it, fingers crossed cheers Stupo

[Match]

i know i am really hard work

 

Not really :)

 

thing is if you have a dvd drive linked in to the same ribbon as a hard drive, then the data transfer rate is set to that, of the slowest device. which will be the DVD drive. :(

 

so it should work but will be slow :(

 

not the best way to have a usable Hard drive, so I would recommend ether getting the files of the hard drive and taking it out or what might be a better option would be to upgrade to a SATA DVD R/W, and free up the IDE port for the second drive.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi again, there is also this option if there is room to put it in

 

IDE HDD to SATA Converter - Aria Technology

 

Not bad for just over £7.00

Edited April 11, 2009 by Plastic Nev

[Guest Wolfeymole]

It will work Match and the data transfer speed from a drive set as Slave is inconsequential.

 

The read/write rate of data will not be of any significant slowness.

[Match]

so it should work but will be slow

Explanation as to why

 

IDE HDD Transfer rate 100Mb/s upto 130Mb/s

 

IDE Optical drive Transfer Rate 16.67MB/s

 

The read/write rate of data will not be of any significant slowness.

less than 1/5 not significant ?

 

you can provide proof to the contrary I'll apologise for this post and remove it.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I stand corrected Match. :)

[Match]

OK Thanks for that Wolfeymole.

 

we all have to learn some way or another, just this time I was right and had I been wrong then I would have stood in a just been educated position.

 

and I am sure that their are a lot of members who thought similar to you :)

 

but to be honest I did go and check/research that I was right before posting :)

[stupo]

Converter/adapter

 

Hi All, I have got 1 of those connectors,(as mentioned above by Plasticnev)

1 more quick question.

I have set the drive to slave on the jumpers, i am ready to put it in.

From what i read above, i should be confident that my machine will start as normal (vista boot) and the new/old drive will show up in my computer.

From there, i will be able to extract all i want and format the drive.

As the drive contains a pre-installed copy of windows, would it be better if i just deleted everything else after transfer, then put the drive back in old pc to run as a spare machine ?? Would this work??

Thanks in advance

paul .(stupo)

[Match]

Hi stupo

 

not sure how it's going to work as with IDE you set the jumpers, and with SATA it has to be set in the Bios, so I would have thought you would have to just enable it in the bios, if it don't do it automatically.

 

and then it should just show up in windows as another drive.

[stupo]

Thanks

 

Thanks Match, off to try it now, i will post later with the results,

cheers again to all Stupo.

[stupo]

All sorted

 

Hi All, firstly thanks for ALL the answers supplied above.

I have managed to do what i set out to do, drive fitted with adapter mentioned, taken/transfered all the stuff i wanted, with No hastle.

While here can i, ask another question ? (sort of related), or do i have to end this thread, satisfied and start a new thread?????

If the latter, thanks for all your help, as i consider this enquiry completed.

cheers (stupo)

[Guest Wolfeymole]

That's good to hear Paul.

 

If the new question is on a different subject entirely then please make a new thread.

[stupo]

Reply

 

Hi Wolfeymole, My question is related, as follows, as i have taken the Harddrive from my old machine ,OS installed (Oem) can i take the harddrive from my OH's, brothers, old pc and put in my old machine (better specs) will it boot his (already installed os from his drive to enable it to work on my old machine) hope this makes sense

cheers stupo.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

If your saying can you take the HDD from your brothers pc that has an operating system on and install it in your machine and will it boot, the answer is NO.

[stupo]

reply

 

Hi mate, i dont want to put it in my new machine, i want to put it in, the 1 i took out my previous harddrive from, hope this makes sense????

cheers stupo