swapping a hard drive from one pc to another

[kbgooner]

i currently have a pc that seems to have died. i was hoping to be able to swap the hard drive from this pc to another that i have that isnt in use.

both pc's run on windows xp and both have the same ide hard drive so i decided to just swap them over and boot up. when i tried this all i got was an intermittent beeping sound coming from the tower.

is it possible to change the hard drive? and if so, what am i doing wrong.

 

any ideas please? as i really want to be able to retrieve photos etc from the old drive

[RandyL]

Hi and welcome.

 

It's not going to work like that unless both PC's are EXACTLY the same. Same hardware, motherboard etc. When you install Windows it takes all things into consideration and writes files to the registry etc. based on the exact hardware components. This is especially true but by no means limited to OEM installations.

 

What you need to do is reinstall Windows to the drive once you put it in another computer for it to boot. Of course at that point you will lose all data on the drive.

 

As for saving the data that's not a problem if the drive is still good. There are several ways to do that depending on what type of drive it is. Is it a SATA or EIDE and is it a laptop or desktop? I have a hunch that both computers are EIDE and desktop.

 

If so you can slave (put both drives on the same cable) setting the jumper pins on both drives to master on one and slave on the other. Then just copy data over. Also you can get an enclosure for the old drive that plugs into a USB port and use it as an external drive to just copy data to a working drive. After that you can copy over.

[kbgooner]

Randy

 

thank you for your response. i suspected it wouldnt be as easy as i thoght. your hunch is correct, they are both IDE drives in desktop towers. when you say 'put both drives on the same cable' is there a spare connection on the cable to allow this or would i need to purchase a new cable to allow 2 connections (i am assuming by cable you mean the ribon that connects to the drive).

i have just looked up the enclosures and think that sounds like it would be the easiest way to go only i'm not sure exactly what one to go for. 2 and a half / three and a half inch? any ideas?

[andylan0303]

I have had two of these external hard drive cases the one I would recommend is the akasa integral for 3.5" IDE drives.The version with an ejectable drive mount is by far the best and easiest to use, I have used this for copying back-ups from several hard drives in our house (we have 5 pc's being used at home) I also format the old drives and then put them into new casings and instal windows fresh inside the new case. Then all the data that has been backed up can be copied onto the new PC. Have fun, I certainly have had when sorting out old and new computers.

[KenB]

Hi,

 

As this is XP .......

If you have a full installation CD it is possible to put the drive into the new PC and then do a repair install of XP.

This will enable you to keep the data on the drive intact and have Windows accept the new environment.