Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: 9/16/05 Moving your old hard drive to a new computer

"So there you are - a quick guide to moving your old hard drive to your new machine! "

Holly cow that was a LOT of info to move a drive - took longer to read than to actually do the swap !

Fun reading though

Google this -> Change motherboard and save XP Operating System.

Plenty to read.
Bob

I too heartily believe in static electricity precautions since ESDS part damage is cumulative. A part can be compromised several times and still function (like a fuse), but is now vulnerable to fail from a even a minor shock. To give your hardware the best longevity always protect it from any static discharge by first touching a hard ground if possible. Even a large metal object will help. Never, however, connect yourself with a direct wire to a hard ground without a safety resistance in series with it (as a commercial wrist strap should provide). The results can be deadly if you accidentally touch a high voltage source.
Also, for those still using an AT power supply, it's OK to leave the power cord still plugged in to ground the case, if you are careful to avoid the front ''power-on'' switch wiring. And remember, an ATX supply and board still has 5 volts on the board and could cause damage if other operations are attempted.
The bottom line: Protect your investment at the beginning and avoid having to spend your time (& $$$) doing it twice.

This is the closest to correct answer. The first answer chosen was dangerously incorrect. Having anti-virus software and keeping it up to date are simply not enough to insure that the problems on one drive will not transfer to the other. If this was true, I would not be in business. There is no one anti-virus solution that will elimate all infections. In fact, the leading two, (and it is likely that a newly purchased computer from dell, gateway, ect will have one of these) norton and Mcaffee (sp?) are almost 0% effective in finding and eliminating trojan horses. They therefore do not efectively remove any worms that are supported by trojan horses. If you want the data back , have a professional clean the old drive of any malicious content, transfer the data in question to cd and/or dvd and then wipe the old drive clean. You aren't going to be able to use it as a master or run applications off of it anyways. And don't even worry about the extra storage as it is probably tiny compared to your new drive anyways.


Ron Odde

Your PC Medic

Your post sounded like it was not a good idea to install your old hard drive in a new computer. There are many excellent reasons for doing so. First of all, you have all your old files to transfer over to the new hard drive if there are any problems. After you are sure that everything on your new drive is working fine, you can format the old drive and have an excellent location for backups and storage for things like photo's, music, etc. A second hard drive in your computer is your fastest method of backing up your files.

All is not lost if the new computer is a Serial ATA. You can purchase a case for the drive and use it as a desk top hard drive. You would have the same advantages, but it would be a little slower.

Ron

My computer had 2 hard drives, Drive C has the OS and Drive D was just a slave drive but that's where I store all my files. When my computer died (no power at all) my main concern is accessing my Drive D. I read that if I buy a new computer the chances are it will have the SATA connection so when I saw the external hard drive enclosure mentioned, I saw some hope. My question is can anyone recommend a good external hard drive enclosure? Is it available at computer stores like Best Buy or Compusa? I really like this solution because it is non-invasive. Thanks.

Answer:

Ken,

I understand your wish to install your old hard drive into your new computer, however, what you actually want to accomplish is unclear. Do you want to add it as a second drive, or replace the new drive altogether? Add the old drive in lieu of transferring its contents to the newer one? Make the old drive the bootable one, and thus make Windows 2000 your default operating system? Perhaps you'd like to have the option of booting from either operating system. The answer to those questions would help determine the necessary steps for a successful installation and set up of a drive.

The physical installation of a hard drive is very easy. However, without specific information about your new computer and the two hard drives in question, it would be unwise for me (or anyone else!) to give you step-by-step, detailed instructions. It is absolutely essential that you consult your PC's manufacturer's website or your Owner's Manual to learn the specific details that apply to your system, as well as any nuances involved in installing another drive (e.g.: type of data cable used; location of the hard drive bays; the need for different rails; location of power supply). You should be able to find this information under a heading like "Adding Hardware" or "Installing a Hard Drive." In all likelihood, the step-by-step instructions will feature detailed illustrations that will prove quite helpful during your task.

Being unable to provide step-by-step instructions here doesn't mean I can't help, though. What I can do right now is give you an overview of what you'll need to do - a general strategy, so to speak - as well as some tips.

The first and most important step is to take precautions in order to prevent personal injury and/or damage to the system from electrostatic discharge. The following guidelines are taken from How do I install a IDE or EIDE hard drive on my computer?, a very good document available in the Support section of Dell.com:

1. Turn off your computer and all devices.
2. Ground yourself by touching an unpainted metal surface at the back of the computer before touching anything inside your computer. While you work, periodically touch an unpainted metal surface on the computer to dissipate any static electricity that might harm internal components.
3. Disconnect the power cable to your computer, and then press the power button to ground the system board.
4. Disconnect any devices connected to the computer, including the monitor, from their electrical outlets to reduce the potential for personal injury or shock. Also, disconnect any telephone or telecommunication lines from the computer.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=1011454&l=en&langid=1&c=us&cs=19&s=dhs#step4

Once you have secured a safe working environment, you are ready for the real fun:

1. Configure the Drive(s) Jumper Settings: Your hard drives have jumpers that control the recognition of the storage device by the computer's motherboard as a "master" (primary or bootable) drive or a "slave" (or secondary) drive. The bootable drive is the one from which information is read when you turn your computer on.

Newer PCs tend to have data cables that recognize drives as master or slave depending on their position along the cable. This is known as the "cable select" setting. Your drives should have markings specifying the appropriate jumper position for each of these three options. When in doubt, consult your PC Manufacturer's website or that of the drive's manufacturer.

2. Physically Install the Drive: This is the step where you remove your computer's cover, secure the drive to its bay, and connect the drive to its power supply and to the appropriate location on the data cable. Make sure all cables are properly attached, otherwise the drive(s) might not be recognized by your motherboard!

Replace the cover, plug the PC back to an electrical outlet, and turn it on.

3. Configure the System Setup (BIOS): You will need to enter System Setup and set the BIOS to auto detect the primary hard drive with LBA enabled. In the unlikely event that your computer freezes while trying to detect a large-capacity drive, check with the PC's manufacturer for troubleshooting suggestions. An updated BIOS might be all you need to solve any issues you might encounter.

(Your computer will display a message during the boot process alerting you of how to enter the the system BIOS. Common keystrokes used to enter System Setup are F1, F2 or Delete.)

If you have done everything right up to this point, Windows XP will detect the new hard drive and you will be able to access it without problems. Had you been adding a brand-new, empty drive, Windows would've asked you to format it before proceeding. Fortunately, we need not worry about that here. But now you know!

Chances are, your new drive is bigger and faster that your old one. The rule of thumb is to make the faster drive the bootable one and have your default operating system in it. If the two are comparable or identical in the aforementioned parameters, you might be better off running your operating system from the drive with less wear-and-tear.

Let's assume your new drive is the faster one, and that you wish to be greeted by Windows XP Professional when you turn your PC on. In this case, you would install your old drive as a "slave" drive. You can then transfer documents and possibly all of your customizations, bookmarks, etc. to your new drive using Windows XP's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard:

START / ALL PROGRAMS / ACCESSORIES / SYSTEM TOOLS / FILES AND SETTINGS TRANSFER WIZARD

By having the most frequently used utilities and productivity software on your master drive, and relegating documents, music files and photos to your slave drive, your computer's overall performance will be enhanced. Another option is to move everything to your faster/bigger drive, and use a disk imaging program like the excellent Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/) to back up all your data on the other drive.

If for some reason you'd rather use Windows 2000 over XP, you can copy a full image of your old drive onto the new one. That would allow you to essentially replace your new drive with your old one, while freeing a hard drive bay in case you later decide to get an even bigger drive. You can always upgrade to Windows XP if the need arises at a later time.

(Incidentally, you can transfer your programs, documents and settings to your new computer without having to remove your old drive and sacrificing your old PC. This can be accomplished by connecting your two computers either by a LapLink or serial file transfer cable, or through a network connection. You can then use Windows XP's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to transfer the data. You can learn some more about this by opening the wizard and clicking on the link you'll see.)

Hope this helps!

Submitted by: Miguel K. of Columbus, OH

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Answer:

Ken,

Your question brings up a LOT of potential twists and turns. As the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a rabbit.

The first thing to do before you go any further would be to check the manufacturer's warranty on the NEW computer. Some manufacturers will void your warranty faster than you can say "upgrade" just for opening your case.
(Case in point: Apple will cease support should you happen to try upgrading one of their Mac Mini's. Upgrades to the Mac Mini REQUIRE the hands of an Apple certified technician.)

If the vendor will have a proverbial cow if you open up the case, then all is NOT lost. You've got a few options. The first would be to have the vendor (or his representative) do the "surgery" and install the drive for you. This is NOT always the best option since some vendors have a huge backlog and take FOREVER to return computers and sometimes the end result is not a happy one. An associate of mine took his computer in for service and the authorized service center simply LOST his computer.

The second option (and this depends on if you only want the old drive so you can copy data over to the new one) would be to make a backup of your data to CDs or DVDs and be done with it. Simply restore your files to the new computer and go on with life.

The final option would be to purchase a cheap, external USB drive enclosure and pop the old hard drive in via an available USB port. In this case, you'll want to make sure the enclosure is USB 2.0 compatible with everything. With Windows XP, it's simply a matter of plugging the drive in, having the USB controller recognize the drive and then going into the Computer Management Console and the Drive Manager. Simply import the volume (more on this toward the end) and you should be good to go. Unfortunately, going this route, the drive will be a slight bit slower than if it was plugged into the main bus.

Note on the above: Some USB enclosures are a bit on the funky side. I've come across at least one variety that insists that the drive be formatted FAT32 and have partitions no larger than 20 GB. Investigate and ask LOTS of questions about the enclosure and the drives it supports before you spend any money.

If the vendor doesn't have any problems with you going in and doing upgrades, then the second thing to do would be to check the new computer's manifest - to see what kind of drive(s) are already in the box. Most systems these days ship with at least one hard drive and at least one CD/DVD (optical) drive; sometimes there are two optical drives. The thing to look for is the TYPE of drives and the connections they use. There are three main internal hard drive connectors in use these days: ATA/EIDE, SCSI and the relatively new Serial ATA (SATA). ATA/EIDE has been pretty much the defacto standard for most typical PCs for almost as long as hard drives have been used in PCs. SCSI drives, due to the cost factor, have generally been relegated to higher end workstations and servers. SATA, the new kid on the block, offers higher speed connections than the other two. It, like SCSI is also more expensive than ATA/EIDE gear. These are generally found in high end gaming machines but are finding their way into lower cost computers.

It should be noted that none of these are directly, natively interchangeable.

On the plus side... Most optical drives (with the exception of a few SCSI and SATA variations) are ATA/EIDE drives. And, as such, most motherboards will have ATA/EIDE connectors on them.

Getting down to business

If you've made it this far, the first thing to do is disconnect both the old and the new computers from everything especially the power supply. Once you've got them freed from everything, the next step would be to unscrew or otherwise open both computers' cases and open them up and have a look inside. Once you've got the case open, locate the hard drive in the old computer and remove it carefully.

Next, you're going to want to examine the cables in the new computer.
Depending on the configuration, there may or may not be a free port on the two EIDE ribbon cables. It will largely depend on the vendor who put the new computer together for you. There are a couple of scenarios as follows:

Two drives: one hard, one optical

If you've got only one optical drive and one hard drive, chances are the manufacturer put both drives onto one ribbon cable. In this case, you're going to want to reuse the EIDE cable from the old computer. Gently remove the cable from the motherboard and unplug it from anything else it may have been plugged into (the old computer's optical drive, etc...)

Locate the ribbon cable in the new computer that's leading to the hard and optical drives. Follow it down to the motherboard. There should be a second connection on the motherboard that's the same exact size as the first. Plug the old EIDE cable into the second port.

Now for the crucial part. You'll have to check the top side of the hard drive for jumper settings. Depending on the drive, you may have to change the jumper settings. Some models require the jumper to be in one position if the drive is all by itself; some require the jumper to be in the Master position. Some require NO jumpers for a solo drive. Check it twice and make sure it's correctly jumped.

Next, find an open bay in the new case and carefully slide the old hard drive in. Secure it with the screws that came out of the old drive when you pulled it out of the case. Carefully connect the ribbon cable.

Skip ahead to the section called "Powering Up.

Three drives: one hard, two optical

Many computers these days come with dual optical drives. One is usually a DVD/CD RW combo and the other is generally a DVD/DVD Burner. If this is the case with your new system, the procedure is pretty much the same as in the section above. There are a few differences. The secondary EIDE cable may have one or drive ports. If the maker was cheap, he probably only included a ribbon cable that had only one port on the secondary chain. If this is the case, you'll have to scavenge the EIDE ribbon from the old computer and plug both the primary and slave drives in. Keep in mind that EIDE cables have a primary and a secondary port. And unlike the previous IDE standard, they're not usually interchangeable.

Note: The only drive you do NOT want to change the settings during this would be the new computer's hard drive. It's most likely set up to be the Primary master drive and we'd like to keep it that way. Given it's the drive the computer is going to boot from,

Given the layout of most cases, the drive closest to the motherboard is the hard drive and the optical drive being further away, you'll need to configure the hard drive as "Master with a Slave" (See the top of the drive for the appropriate setting). You'll then need to carefully remove the other drive, usually an optical drive, and change the jumper so it's the slave. (See the jumper settings on the back of the optical drive for the correct setting).

Plug in the ribbon cable primary (closest to the motherboard) into the hard drive and the other one into the optical drive.

Powering up

We're almost to the home stretch. Locate a free power drop to the old drive.. The power drop should look exactly like the one in the old case - usually about an inch or so wide connector with 4 wires coming out the other side.

Note: Many computers these days come with cheap power supplies. More often than not, they come with as few power connectors as possible. They're usually just barely enough for the drives that come stock with the computer with none to spare. If this is the case, you'll have to make a trip to a computer shop. You're going to need a "Y" power splitter. It's a device with one end that plugs into the existing power drop and gives you two additional power connections on the other end.

To save some time and frustration, you'll want to avoid big name chains like Best Buy and Circuit City. While they DO offer hard and optical drives as upgrades, they do not carry Y power connectors. Why? I have no idea. I have complained but haven't seen any change in their policy. They simply don't carry them. It makes no sense. Given the volume of drives they sell, you'd having this part in stock would be a no brainer. But I digress. Suffice it to say that you'll want to go to a place like CompUSA, Fry's, or a small "mom and pop" shop, or you can order one on line.

The next step would be to plug in the power drop (via a Y connector, as
needed) into the back of the hard drive. If you've unplugged another drive to install the Y connector, be sure to remember to plug the other end of the Y into the port you unplugged.

The Home Stretch!

Now then, before you button up the case, a test is in order. Plug the keyboard, mouse and power supply into the back of the computer and turn it on. Depending on the BIOS and your hardware vendor's settings, the old drive may be auto configured or you may need to go into the computer's CMOS settings to have it detect the old computer's drive. The DEL key usually gets you into the CMOS settings, though your mileage may vary depending on the motherboard's maker. You'll need to be quick on the keys to get into the CMOS/BIOS settings. You will want to consult your computer's documentation at this point to get the drive detected and configured properly.

If the computer refuses to boot, you may have accidentally misconfigured the jumpers on one or more drives. Power down, unplug everything and double check the jumper settings and make sure you've got one master and one slave on each of the two EIDE chains. Reconnect the keyboard, mouse and power and try again.

Once you've saved the new configuration in CMOS, your next step is to boot the computer all the way. Chances are, Windows' boot sequence will detect the second drive and the fact that it's a bootable drive. It may present you with a menu option for you to choose booting into either Windows XP or Windows 2000 Pro. Choose the XP option.

Should you boot to Windows 2000, you will have to reconfigure Windows 2000 by adding all of the devices that are already configured under XP. Depending on the hardware you've got, some drivers may or may not be available for Win2k.

Once Windows XP boots, click on the START button, mouse over to "My Computer" and right click on it. You should see a list of options that includes Open, Explore, Search and Manage. Click on Manage. (This is a nifty shortcut to the computer management console). Select the option for Drive Management. At this point, it's usually a good thing to maximize the applet. On the top, you should see a list of available drives. On the bottom, you will see a graphic representation of your drives beginning with Disk 0, Disk 1, CDROM 0 and depending on your configuration, CDROM 1.

Disk 1 probably will not be active and no bar will be available. Right click on the leftmost column in the bottom right side where it says "Disk 1". You should see a menu that includes the option to "Import Foreign Disk" Click on that option. This will make the contents of the old drive available to XP. The last thing you'll want to do here is right click on the big fat bar that appeared in the right column and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. Assign the old drive the next available drive letter.

At this point, you should be able to fully access the old drive and its contents.

Submitted by: Pete Z.

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Answer:

Hi Ken:

Let me first say that with newer computers, you are asking for trouble installing an old Windows 2000 hard drive with into a new Windows XP computer. You may damage your Windows XP installation if not done correctly. I no longer recommend this for the novice user. General recommendations for installing a second internal hard drive on a Windows XP computer, suggests that the second drive to be blank or freshly reformatted prior to installation. Also, keep in mind that hard drives are one of the few mechanical devices in a computer and have a finite life. The average life of a drive is about 5 years and many fail sooner. The cost of drives has come down to the point where you may be better off just purchasing a new drive rather then attempting to salvage an old one. If you are storing data that you really care about, I would suggest reconsidering.

Having said this, I will offer some suggestions. You did not mention the reason for wanting to use this old drive nor did you mention the type of drive installed in either the old or new system. Chances are that your new computer may be using a newer SATA (Serial ATA) drive and your older system was probably using an IDE drive. You can tell by looking at the data cable leading to the hard drive. If the cable is a 2 wide ribbon cable, than you are using the standard IDE drives. Many new computers are capable of using both types of drives, but you have to be very careful making sure that you have everything set up properly. Mixing new and old drives incorrectly can compromise performance or worse, corrupt your operating system.

I am a strong proponent of dual drive computers and generally recommend it to many of my customers for applications involving video editing, data intensive use or for just keeping data separated from the operating system. One advantage of this is that should something go wrong with your windows installation, you can reinstall windows without the fear of loosing your data. Installing a second internal drive requires the following:

1. That you actually have physical space (extra drive bay) for the drive.
2. Your mother board has an available port for the drive.
3. Your power supply can handle it and you have extra power connectors to accommodate the drive.
4. You have ample cooling for the additional drive.
5. You may need to reset the drive jumpers on each hard drive.
6. You may need to change your bios settings to accommodate the new configuration.

Note: When installing multiple hard drives, install the drives with as much air space between them as is physically possible. Mounting drives directly on top of each other can lead to premature failure due to excessive heat.

There are too many possible scenarios to go into details, but if you would like to proceed with installing your old drive, I would be happy to help you once you provide me with the specifics.

The Better Option

I can only guess at what you want the old drive for, but let me discuss a solution for two possible scenarios. The easiest and safest thing to do is to purchase an External Hard Drive Enclosure for about $30 from your local computer store or just about anywhere online. Here is an example of what you need: http://www.xpcgear.com/3slusb20exwh.html . This will allow you to connect your old drive to your new computer via the USB port. Simply remove your hard drive from your old computer, set the drive jumpers to master, insert drive into the External Drive Enclosure and plug it into one of your new computers USB ports. No Drivers or software to install.

You have data on your old drive that you want to move to your new computer.

1. If your old computer is still working then you could use a Windows XP CD on your old computer to run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. If you dont have an XP CD you can run the Wizard on your new computer to create a Wizard Floppy. To run the Files and Setting Transfer Wizard (START>ALL PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>FILES AND SETTINGS TRANSFER WIZARD).
a. Create a Wizard Floppy and run the wizard on your Windows 2000 computer to save all your files and settings to a single file.
b. Then remove the drive and install it into your New External Drive Enclosure.
c. Plug that into your new computer and run the Wizard on your new computer and recover the data from the file you created.
Note: It is also possible to use the Wizard to transfer files using a serial cable connection between the 2 computers. For more information regarding the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, check your help and support files or visit: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306187


2. If your old computer is not working, you dont have a floppy drive or you just need some files off of it, then you can just moving the files manually using the external drive.
a. Install the old drive into the External Enclosure and plugging it into your new computer.
b. Start dragging and dropping or copying and pasting your old files from the old drive to your new computer.

You simply want extra storage and dont have anything on the old drive that you need.

A word of caution. I cant tell you how many times, people think they have everything off their old computer only to find that a few weeks after either throwing it out or reformatting, they find themselves searching for something they forgot. I always recommend holding off for a month or two before donating, destroying or reformatting your old computer, just to make sure you are not missing something. Pay particular attention to files that you may only use once a year or so such as tax files as well as data that is not stored in the usual places like email and address books.

If you are absolutely sure there is nothing on your hard drive that you want, I suggest reformatting the drive before reusing it again. Once the old drive is installed into the External Drive Enclosure and plugged into your new computer, it will automatically be recognized by Windows XP. It will be assigned a drive letter such as E: or F: depending on your computer configuration. From my computer, Right click on the drive letter and select format. You can now start using this drive for whatever purpose your want.

Submitted by: Dana H.

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Answer:

Ken,

Putting aside the question, is it worth doing so, which would depend on the age, size and speed of the old drive, there are two ways you might go to achieve your goal. The easiest, especially if your not comfortable opening up your case or dont want to be bothered with all thats involved adding a second drive, would be to purchase an external USB2 or Firewire case and installing the drive in that. You wont have to bother with jumper settings, mounting the drive, cabling connections etc., and these cases can be purchased for as little as $30. You just pop the drive in the external case connect it to the PC with a USB cable, plug in the unit and your good to go.

If you go the other route, you will have a lot more work ahead of you. You will have to open up your new machine and determine what you have. Is the new drive EIDE or is it SAT. If its SAT, then you are probably out of luck as you might not have an EIDE connection for the old drive. If its EIDE than look at the cable connection to the existing drive. Does the data cable have a two connections with one free, or does it have a single connect to your drive. If you have the later you will need to buy a new cable with connections for two drives. That being done, you have to determine how the jumpers are set on the new drive. You wont have to change them but you need to know if its set as Cable Select or as Master. On some drives there may be a jumper setting for Single Drive Only, in which case you have to change it to Master or Cable Select. Next you would have to set the jumpers on your old drive to either Cable Select to match that setting on the existing drive, or set it to Slave. Next, mount the drive above or below the existing drive. You may even have to move the location of the existing drive or relocate an optical drive (CD, DVD or CD or DVD writer), as the connectors on the data cable usually will require that they be close together. After mount connect up the data cable and locate and connect a free power connector. If you dont have a free one you can buy a Y adapter that will allow you to power both drives from one power cable.

Next close up the case and boot the computer. If you have data on the old drive you want to save you can move it to the existing drive, because the next step would be to reformat the old drive to remove the old operating system and programs. Most if not all of the old programs on the old drive will not work, because they wont be in the XP registry. Any old programs would have to be reinstalled from scratch. If you go with the external case, you would also transfer data and reformat the drive, after the machine recognizes the external USB or Firewire drive.

Good luck.

Submitted by: Dennis S. of West Orange, NJ

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Answer:

Ken-

As with so many things, there is a simple answer and a more complicated answer. The simple answer in this case is that there isn't a lot you have to do to put the old hard drive in the new computer and have it work. But there are some things you should do to make it more useful to you and easier to use.

Let's start with the new computer. If you didn't build it yourself, the first thing you need to do is learn how to open the computer case and find where the hard drive(s) mount. If it's not intuitively obvious, check the manufacturer's website. With a little searching you can download a file with instructions or view step by step instructions on the web. You will find that some name-brand computers don't have a place to mount a second hard drive. If that's the case, you will need to procure an adapter that mounts the 3.5" hard drive in a 5.25" drive bay. While you are in there, check to see the type of hard drive already installed. If it's a SATA drive, that's all you need to know. If it's an IDE drive, check to see whether it is jumpered for operation as a Master/Single drive or as a Cable Select drive. Also check that the IDE cable in use is one which allows for a second hard drive to be attached.

With that done, you can go back to the old computer. If you've already stopped using it, hook it back up and fire her up. Your purpose in moving the hard drive is most likely to be able to have access to old things. You'll want to spend a little time locating all the things you want to use from this computer. Many will be in obvious locations, such as Word and Excel documents residing in the My Documents folder, but Quicken and Money files, for example, probably don't. In addition, your address book and calendar files are stored in very arcane locations.
You'll also want to look at the file folder structure of the hard drive from My Computer to see where your My Documents folder is actually located. It's not directly on the root of the hard drive, but in a subfolder of the Documents and Settings folder. For programs that have hard to find data files, my recommendation is to use their export functions (or backup function in the case of Quicken and Money) to export a copy of the data to an easily accessible location on the hard drive. That way you may simply import the data to your new computer's installation of the same program.

Once you've got all the data locations recorded, you can shut down the old computer and remove the hard drive. From this point, the addition of the hard drive to the new computer has two paths. If the new computer uses a SATA hard drive currently, there is nothing you need to do to your old hard drive. If it's a SATA, there are no settings, and if it's an IDE it's already jumpered for use on an IDE channel by itself. Mount the drive in the new computer, connect it to power and with a data cable, and fire up the computer. It will likely be necessary to enter the BIOS setup on the first bootup and go to the page that deals with boot order to ensure that the new hard drive is not selected as the boot drive.

If the new computer has an IDE drive, you will most likely be adding the new hard drive as a slave on the same IDE channel. In that case, you need to first work on the new hard drive. If it was set up as a cable Select (CS) drive, you may set the old hard drive as Cable Select and then location on the data cable determines which is the master and which is the slave. The very end of the cable is master, while the connector in the middle of the cable is slave. My pesonal preference is to use the Master/Slave jumpering technique because then position on the cable can then be chosen based on how things fit in the computer. If you choose this method, the new hard drive is set as Master (be careful because some drives have a different setting for Master with Slave vs. Master/Single Drive) and the old hard drive is set as Slave.

Then it's a matter of connecting the cables and buttoning her up. With IDE drives it's not necessary to do anything in the BIOS because the Master/Slave priority ensures the new hard drive is the boot drive.

Once you have both drives installed, the new hard drive will continue to be drive C:, while the old one should be come drive D:. Copy your data files into the appropriate locations on the new hard drive, and import your data into the appropriate programs. Once you are certain you have everything you want off the old hard drive, you may delete all the files and folders from it (or just reformat it from Drive Manager) so that it can serve as a storage repository.

Submitted by: Steve S. of Osage Beach, MO

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Answer:

Despite what many people think, opening up a computer and installing a hard disk in it is ridiculously simple.

To get data off the drive, you will need to install it in your new computer, and then get windows to recognize it. There are two main parts to that, and the first is removing and installing the hard disk.

Removing and Installing: To remove the disk is fairly simple. Power down the computer (this is fairly obvious to most people, but for some its not, my freind tried to replace a PSU of all things without powering down). Take the cover off the case. this is usally accomplished by undoing the screws along the back (make sure you dont undo the ones attached the powersupply, as it will then fall down and crush your machines guts. Slide the side/covering off. Anyways, an older system is highly likely to use and IDE disk drive, so there will be a large grey 'ribbon' cable leading from the harddisk (a box about the size of your hand. It also has a four pin molex connector leading into it from the Power supply. Unplug all the cables from the hard disk. Along the sides, you should see four screws (two on each of the longer sides of the disk, attaching it to the chassis). Unscrew them and then slide the disk out. Put it to one side, but away from any magnectic sources or electrostatic generating surfaces (carpet for example). A tabletop is wonderful for this.

Next, you need to open the other PC. Depending on the manufacturer, a modern case may have thumbscrews and latches to open it. If I was you, check the manual that came with your PC. Once inside, you'll notice that the new one has a few different things to the old one. Again depending on the manufacturer, a new PC is likely to have SATA ports. These are small, four pin plugs on your motherboard, and there may be a cable leading from it to the hard drive already in your PC. As you are installing an IDE hard drive, you have nothing to do with these. Slide your disk in with the ports and connectors on it facing back towards the CPU. If you case is new, the hard drives may be orientated to face the panel you slid off to access the case.
Orient the drive correctly, and screw in the four screws again, two on each side. Then connect a 4 pin molex connector to your hard disk. Run the ribbon cable from your motherboard to your hard disk again.

Be careful though, because sometimes the optical drive (CD-ROM DVD-RW etc) and the hard disk are connected on the one port. This means the JUMPERS (small black pins on the back of each drive) are set to 'master' for the hard disk and 'slave' for the optical drive. If you are reinstalling the drive on its own independent IDE channel, you will need to set this to either 'master' or cable select.

SOFTWARE: The software is ridiculously simple. Turn your machine back on and make sure you are getting all the whirrs clicks and hums as before. If the hard disk you just carried across had WIndows 2000 installed on it, the PC may boot to either Windows 2000 or XP. You obviously want it to boot to XP.
If both your hard disks are IDE, make sure the disk you want to boot (the Windows XP one that came with your machine) is installed in the 'Primary IDE' channel, and the other hard disk is on 'Secondary IDE.' These should be labeled on your motherboard. However, if the disk with XP on it is a SATA one, my expertise ends there. Look through your manuals.

As a word of warning, disk drives where out after a time. I always get a bit nervous storing critical data on an old drive. That said, some disks I've had and badly mistreated still work today, like my 840mb Quantam disk from an old Pentium100 ex gov machine. I got rid of it when I got my new WD 80gig disk, but it still works after being subjected to dust downstairs for a few years, little twerps thinking the machine is a Playstation and hitting the on/off button whenever the mood strikes them, and a few power surges. I'm told a disk drive this durable is the exception rather than the norm however.

Anyways, enjoy your new machine.

Submitted by: Michael O.

I suggest using PCMover. It's free from LapLink.com. I used it to seamlessly transfer all my files and operating system from my old laptop to my new laptop. I highly recommend it!

I saw this message because I subscribe to the newsletter, and have to add a much easier alternative. Remove the old hard drive as per the original poster's instructions, set the drive jumper to the "master/single" setting, and put this drive in an external usb enclosure. Once you do that, just plug the drive into any unused usb port and windows will assign a drive letter to it. No need to open up the computer, and the drive can be taken anywhere, and you can share your music/videos/data with friends (after a virus scan, of course). We do this routinely with our customers and they are very happy.

Thomas C. Gajdjis - TMG Computers, Inc.
www.tmgcomputers.com

I am interested in this topic because I have a Toshiba satellite laptop with a defective start button. I have been told that I need a new motherboard to fix the computer. What I would like to do is remove the hard drive and either continue to use it outside of the laptop, or at least extract the data and put it on another computer. I can easily remove the drive, but is there such a thing as a "USB enclosure" that will hold this drive?

There isn't enough information in the question for a fully details answer, as requested. First of all, you don't mention the drive type. Is it SATA? SCSI? Parallel ATA? I'm going to assume its a "PATA" drive, as they are the most common.

I'd also forget about "slave" setting - more trouble than its worth. Move the jumper to the "Cable Select" setting and you'll have a better chance of it working first time. Its not a Dell specific thing at all!

Power up and you should see that you just boot off your new hard drive. Great! If not, you can always change the "Boot Priority" in your BIOS - no need to go back in the case.

Forget about the stripe on the cable - you probably won't have one. More likely, the connector will be notched. This means if you try to connect it upside down it simply won't fit. Easy!

Whilst, in theory, there is no harm in just keeping the old drive there there is one caveat - if the old drive was a slower one (e.g. UDMA 66), then it would be better to transfer the data and remove the old drive altogether. Keep it for your backup machine - you'll have enough bits in no time

I have a big problem!. My toshiba Laptop died afew months ago, and until now I have only just decided to try to remove the information off the Toshiba's Hard Drive.
I have binned the Computer but kept the Hard Drive. I was told to buy a small portable USB 2.0 Device (like a small metal box) that incases my Hard Drive. I plug it in to the PC and then drag and drop my files and folders on to my PC.

But now I have just remeberd that I was attacked by Hacker on the last few days of having that Toshiba. He used one of my file and folder protection software as well as my ZoneAlarm Firewall to attack me with.

He or She changed my passwords to prevent me from moving my files and folders off the comptuter, meaning they could take what ever they want at any time, and I could do nothing to stop them everytime I went on line.

Now I can not drag the information off the hard drive because of this problem..a small box comes up saying access denied.you do not have permission to access these files. I do remeber trying to uninstall the software that was affected but it would not work, so i deleted the software manualy..then making things much worse.

I need to know a way to drag those files and folders off and to put them on to my new PC,and to be able to open them again. Is there any software I could try or any deep down manual way like DOS that I can get to those files and folders?. Both Computers run on Windows XP Pro.
Many thanks if anyone can help me with this.
PS.Please keep it simple if you do :o) thanks.

I know this may not help much, but your problem is purely at the hardware/BIOS level - it has nothing to do with Widnows ME or any operating system, for that matter. If you know how to get into the BIOS setup on your PC, my guess would be that the primary disk controller is configured so that the primary slave device is not enabled. The terminology may be different, but if you're sure the second disk drive has power (can you hear it spining?), and that the ribbon cable is attached properly (is it fully seated with the red stripe facing the power connector?), then I'd definitely get into the BIOS setup and check the IDE configuration settings.

I have never seen so many answers that were all over the place, how confusing for new users trying to learn something... I really think there should be much more order to these posts, everybody means well, but in actual fact most of this was really not good advice.

Hi, everyone! Some wonderful comments and questions.

One of the responses suggested leaving the computer power supply plugged in, in order to eliminate concerns about static discharge. I think this is a really bad idea. Here's why: starting around 1998, the industry moved from the AT power supply to the current ATX. With the ATX power supply, the motherboard is powered up at all times; many motherboards even have a bright green LED mounted right on the board, for the sole purpose of letting the tech know there's still power applied to the board. If you work on a board in this state, there is every possibility that you'll damage it beyond repair. Doing something as simple as plugging in an IDE cable can damage either the controller on the motherboard, or the logic circuitry on the hard drive. It's a really, really bad idea.

But the original concern is valid; for static can also damage a board. So, what should we do?

First, remember there is no such thing as 'absolute' ground; everything is relative. For example, if you have a potential charge of a billion volts in your body but the computer also has the same charge, there will be no static discharge when you touch it, and no damage done. So, the real goal is to get your body to the same ground level that the computer is at, and keep it there. Here's how: First, with the power plug still attached, touch any metal part on the computer. You are now grounded through the computer, power supply, and power cord, and have exactly the same potential voltage as the motherboard. Now, unplug the power cord, and commence to work on the computer. Unless you're wearing silk robes while you work on the computer, you're not going to generate any significant static voltage, and all will be well. Any small amounts of static that you generate will be well absorbed by the metal case, and will do no damage to the components. If you insist on wearing silk robes, periodically grasp the computer metal frame in one hand, and with your other hand touch the little metal screw that holds the plug receptacle cover on (It's right in the middle of the plug cover, on the wall). This screw is connected to the plug box, and the plug box must - by code - be part of the ground system. By doing this, you will periodically be bringing both yourself and the computer to the same electrical potential level as the ground system.

Personally, I'd just ditch the silk robes. But, that's just me...

Re transferring all your old computer programs and data onto the new machine: Data is easily moved, but programs are not. Here's why: when you install a program, the installer module examines your machine and determines what modules need to be installed, based on the specific hardware you have. Those modules are then installed, and unnecessary modules are left on the original installation software.

However, your new machine will be quite different from your old machine; and the net result is that the programs will simply not work well in the new environment, because they're not intended to work with the new hardware configuration.

There's another problem, and that has to do with the windows registry. The programs, when they were installed, made hundreds of entries into the windows registry; and all of those registry entries would have to be re-entered on the new machine. But how? For there is no record kept of what changes were made by a particular installer. You can import a windows registry, the whole thing, in one great big lump; but if you do, you will almost certainly kill the machine. I REALLY do not recommend this.

So, the sad situation is that the simplest way to solve the problem, is to re-install the program(s) on the new machine, from the original installation disks. Data, on the other hand, you can just copy and paste. But programs must be re-installed from scratch.

Re upgrade versus full install operating system disks: I've never been happy with the Microsoft upgrade approach. There are just too many things that can go wrong, and they do, and they result in exactly the problems you describe: flaky, unreliable operation. For this reason, I purchase OEM versions of the operating systems. These sell for about half the price of the full retail version, and they give you the full retail version, but with NO tech support from Microsoft. You are officially on your own. You can purchase OEM software from most dedicated computer stores. However, the store may be required to sell the software only with a hardware purchase, depending on the relationship that the store has with Microsoft. With some stores, a hardware purchase means a new computer; with others, it means a mousepad. Shop around, but make sure that you're getting legitimate Microsoft software - not pirate or counterfeit - and that you're buying and using it in accordance with the license agreement. However, I would always avoid the 'upgrade' packages. I've never seen them work well, and for something as critical as the operating system, you need the very best.

I hope that answers some of the questions out there - take care,everyone, and have a great weekend!

Best wishes,

Charles Worton, MCSE, A+
Constelar Computational