Old HDD's in a new machine

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr. Oblivious
  • Start date Start date
M

Mr. Oblivious

My old xp machine died recently and I'm going to transfer the hard
disks (I had 2) to my new machine. Is there a good resource for this
sort of operation? For instance, I notice that the two old drives
(niether of which will be the C: drive in the new machine) have
differently placed jumpers - do I need to change them? I'm certain that
it can't be as simple as just plugging 'em in, but it shouldn't be
*too* difficult, right? All I really want to do is recover my old data,
then wipe the drives clean and use them as extra storage space.

Any advice appreciated,

Mike
 
You're right...it's not that hard. For instructions, look at the user
manual that came with your computer and/or the manufacturer's web site.
Either place will describe how to add additional hard drives to your
computer.

Your old drives should be jumpered 'cable select'...if they have such a
setting. You'll have less worries as to where on the data cable they're
plugged in.

You may have to 'take ownership' of the folders before XP will allow you
access:

"How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421/en-us
 
Ted said:
You're right...it's not that hard. For instructions, look at the user
manual that came with your computer and/or the manufacturer's web site.
Either place will describe how to add additional hard drives to your
computer.

Your old drives should be jumpered 'cable select'...if they have such a
setting. You'll have less worries as to where on the data cable they're
plugged in.

You may have to 'take ownership' of the folders before XP will allow you
access:

"How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421/en-us
Click to expand...

Wow. Fast, friendly service! Thanks, Ted. The ownership link should
come in handy.

Mike
 
Mr. Oblivious said:
My old xp machine died recently and I'm going to transfer the hard
disks (I had 2) to my new machine. Is there a good resource for this
sort of operation? For instance, I notice that the two old drives
(niether of which will be the C: drive in the new machine) have
differently placed jumpers - do I need to change them? I'm certain that
it can't be as simple as just plugging 'em in, but it shouldn't be
*too* difficult, right? All I really want to do is recover my old data,
then wipe the drives clean and use them as extra storage space.

Any advice appreciated,

Mike
Click to expand...

IF the bios from the former PC is compatible with the CHS interpretations of
the two hard drives on the new machine, should work fine. Some symptoms of
CHS differences may be outright inability to view the partitions, or at a
lesser respect, filenames that seem gibberish.

You should be able to take both hard drives, as is jumpered, and place in
the same sequence on the secondary ide ribbon cable. CSEL (cable select)
does not work well on all computer's bios. Some, you have to hard jumper
master/slave.
 
Similar situation... but I want to put mine into an external hard drive case
to use.. What do i have to do with the jumpers.
One was a backup adn the other the boot..now i just want toget the data off
and maybe reformat and use... for backup..
the motherboard on old machine died..so couldn't do anything...

I can put them into the case, but he new machine can't see
them...????????????
i had xp on the old machine. both are formatted fat32.
don't know if u need to know more?

Thanks
-
Janice


Mr. Oblivious said:
My old xp machine died recently and I'm going to transfer the hard
disks (I had 2) to my new machine. Is there a good resource for this
sort of operation? For instance, I notice that the two old drives
(niether of which will be the C: drive in the new machine) have
differently placed jumpers - do I need to change them? I'm certain that
it can't be as simple as just plugging 'em in, but it shouldn't be
*too* difficult, right? All I really want to do is recover my old data,
then wipe the drives clean and use them as extra storage space.

Any advice appreciated,

Mike
Click to expand...

IF the bios from the former PC is compatible with the CHS interpretations of
the two hard drives on the new machine, should work fine. Some symptoms of
CHS differences may be outright inability to view the partitions, or at a
lesser respect, filenames that seem gibberish.

You should be able to take both hard drives, as is jumpered, and place in
the same sequence on the secondary ide ribbon cable. CSEL (cable select)
does not work well on all computer's bios. Some, you have to hard jumper
master/slave.
 
A hard drive in a USB or Firewire enclosure is always jumpered master. In
the case of a Western Digital hard drive, master/alone (not master/with
slave). Have run into cases where CSEL jumper was used, and the onboard
bios of the enclosure could not find the hard drive. Seems jumpering to
master did the trick. There's 2 differences of an enclosure's ide cable.
Its shorter, and has no connector for another ide device. Stick to master
and save yourself some grief.

The enclosure has an onboard bios specifically for recognizing hard drives
and passing that info to the OS. The same thing that goes for moving a hard
drive from one PC to another that I previously mentioned is the same for
moving to an enclosure regarding CHS interpretation of that hard drive.

Partition type is not an issue. Formatting relies on the partition type,
whether FAT32 or NTFS.

The hard drive you mentioned may have bios extender software on it,
compounding the recognition issue by the OS.
 
Ted said:
Glad to help. If you run into a problem, post again.
Click to expand...

It looks like the drives are different enough that I can't use them
with the equipment that I have on hand. The old drives (both
manufactured in mid-2001) are "Enhanced IDE" according to their labels,
while the new machine uses an entirely different type of connector
(SATA, I think). It appears that I need either (a) some sort of
adapter, or (b) an external case so that I can just use them as
temporary USB drives, grab the data that I want, then put 'em back in
the old machine, which I now plan on fixing - or attempting to, anyway.

Time for another trip to the local computer joint.

Mike
 
Correct - you need either (a) or (b). An external USB (or Firewire) IDE
drive case can turn any IDE drive into a portable drive, including IDE
hard drives, CD drives, DVD drives, even DVD-RAM drives.

If you're buying a USB case, look for so-called 'high-speed' USB 2.0
(480 Mbps max data transfer rate). USB 2.0 provides plug and play
installation for XP.
 
Thank you , thank you thank you
I understand and i was able to change the jumpers..and voila..
Janice

--
Janice
A hard drive in a USB or Firewire enclosure is always jumpered master. In
the case of a Western Digital hard drive, master/alone (not master/with
slave). Have run into cases where CSEL jumper was used, and the onboard
bios of the enclosure could not find the hard drive. Seems jumpering to
master did the trick. There's 2 differences of an enclosure's ide cable.
Its shorter, and has no connector for another ide device. Stick to master
and save yourself some grief.

The enclosure has an onboard bios specifically for recognizing hard drives
and passing that info to the OS. The same thing that goes for moving a hard
drive from one PC to another that I previously mentioned is the same for
moving to an enclosure regarding CHS interpretation of that hard drive.

Partition type is not an issue. Formatting relies on the partition type,
whether FAT32 or NTFS.

The hard drive you mentioned may have bios extender software on it,
compounding the recognition issue by the OS.
 
Ted said:
Correct - you need either (a) or (b). An external USB (or Firewire) IDE
drive case can turn any IDE drive into a portable drive, including IDE
hard drives, CD drives, DVD drives, even DVD-RAM drives.

If you're buying a USB case, look for so-called 'high-speed' USB 2.0
(480 Mbps max data transfer rate). USB 2.0 provides plug and play
installation for XP.
Click to expand...

I've already got one picked out. Online research is well and good, but
it's nice to have (presumably) human verification.

So long as the old data isn't corrupted, I should be close to being
recovered. And I'm only out ca. US$1200! Yay me.

Thanks again,

Mike
 
Pass the info onto your compatriots. It may save them some grief. Glad it
worked out for you.
 
Mr. Oblivious said:
I've already got one picked out. Online research is well and good, but
it's nice to have (presumably) human verification.

So long as the old data isn't corrupted, I should be close to being
recovered. And I'm only out ca. US$1200! Yay me.
Click to expand...

Replying to myself here.

The old boot disk can't be read, though the second disk is fine. I'll
take the bad disk in to the local shop and give them a crack at it,
though at this point all that I really care about on the drive are a
few saved Civ3 games. I've replaced almost everything else of
importance.

Thanks again for the advice,

Mike
 
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