The Hard Drive Switch

[mud49]

Hello, I had used pre-existing hard drives on new motherboards before and had
them working fine, but the other day I made the mistake of pulling one out of
a Dell computer and putting it into a newer custom built pc. The only thing
I kept from the older Dell computer was the hard drive, which had Windows XP
on it, and the CD-ROM. When I started the PC it said something like:
"Hardware or Software compatability error". I thought, ok I'll just place it
back into the older dell pc and worry about it later. Well, after I put it
back into the dell machine and booted it up, it gave me the same exact error!
After that I decided to go to this web site and look it up. On another
thread, I read that I wasn't supposed to do that, especially without backing
up my data first. Well, yeah, I read that a bit too late. My question is:
Now that I have already made that mistake, would it be possible for me to
somehow get my data that I had on that hard drive out and into another hard
drive that I had waiting? Would I be able to load that hard drive as a slave
and pull the data out into a flash drive? Any help would be greatly
appreciated. I have school documents and 5 y/o pictures that I would like to
keep. Thank you.

 

[DL]

Install the old hd as slave on another system, or use a usb enclosure to
connect it to another system

 

[neil]

Or you could use a live CD to boot from the CD drive and copy your data off
the DELL drive. A Knoppix CD will do the job. If you go for the slave option
then you will need to "take ownership" of the files and folders on the DELL
hard drive.

Neil

 

[philo]

Hello, I had used pre-existing hard drives on new motherboards before and had
them working fine, but the other day I made the mistake of pulling one out of
a Dell computer and putting it into a newer custom built pc. The only thing
I kept from the older Dell computer was the hard drive, which had Windows XP
on it, and the CD-ROM. When I started the PC it said something like:
"Hardware or Software compatability error". I thought, ok I'll just place it
back into the older dell pc and worry about it later. Well, after I put it
back into the dell machine and booted it up, it gave me the same exact error!
After that I decided to go to this web site and look it up. On another
thread, I read that I wasn't supposed to do that, especially without backing
up my data first. Well, yeah, I read that a bit too late. My question is:
Now that I have already made that mistake, would it be possible for me to
somehow get my data that I had on that hard drive out and into another hard
drive that I had waiting? Would I be able to load that hard drive as a slave
and pull the data out into a flash drive? Any help would be greatly
appreciated. I have school documents and 5 y/o pictures that I would like to
keep. Thank you.

The advice you were given by the other respondents was correct.
Just wanted to mention that you could get the drive to bootup by performing
a repair install.

 

[mud49]

I got work today, so I actually won't be able to work on the pc until
tomorrow, but all 3 answers were exactly what I wanted. I'm sure either, if
not all of them will work. Thank you guys so much. I appreciate the help
and the haste that comes with it. I'm not sure if there is a way that I can
mark this thread solved. I already pressed the "yes" button on all 3 of your
posts when it asked if it was helpful. Thanks again.

 

[philo]

I got work today, so I actually won't be able to work on the pc until
tomorrow, but all 3 answers were exactly what I wanted. I'm sure either, if
not all of them will work. Thank you guys so much. I appreciate the help
and the haste that comes with it. I'm not sure if there is a way that I can
mark this thread solved. I already pressed the "yes" button on all 3 of your
posts when it asked if it was helpful. Thanks again.

If you are not worried about saving the OS...
I'd probablyjust use the HD caddy.
Just note that with some folders you may have to take ownership...
but getting your data copied over should be no problem