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putting old computer's HD into new computer

1K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  Blitzer 
#1 ·
Well after five or six years I decided to retire my old AMD K6 and get a new machine with a Celeron processor. I've had it up and going for about a week now and it's time to get all of my old files onto my new hard drive. That's not as easy as I thought that it would be. My CMOS recognizes it as I set the jumpers to make it a slave and hooked it to the same cable as my new hard drive so it appears on the screen when I'm booting up. When I get into Windows XP however and go to the "My Computer" window only drive "C" (the new HD) shows up as an option. If I go to the control panel though, and click on "add hardware" my old drive is shown as an option. Can someone please help me to get this straighted out so that I can get it assigned a drive letter and start to transfer my files? Thanks in advance for any help you can be. Stay safe, Gary

PS - Both old and new drives are Western Digital IDE drives.
 
#3 ·
Dear Washington,D.C.,

Thank you for the reply. I'll give that a try and see what happens. Stay safe, Gary
 
#4 ·
make sure the drive you want to boot from, the master, is on the end of the ribbon cable, and the slave drive is in the middle.
 
#6 ·
Originally posted by nickg
are your drives set as HDA 0/HDB1 with the new drive (if that is the one you are going to boot from) being HDA 0?
I'm lost. How do you set them to that? If it's important I'm using windows XP. (Yes the drive that came with the new computer is the one that I'm booting from)

*edited to add: In the "Advanced Bios Features" on the setup menu the new HD was listed as "HDD-0" and the third boot device behind the CD ROM and Floppy.*
 
#8 ·
Originally posted by 308endurdebate
If you right mouse on my computer and select manage computer (or via the control panel) and select disk management, does XP show just disk0 or disk1 as well? Does it show the size and partion information?
Dear 308,

It shows both of them and the size and partition information is there too (I'm guessing because it just says (partition) in that column but I think that they only have one partition each, and it also shows free space among other things.

There are two boxes down below the list and the first one is for Disk 0 and has a "C:" while the other is for Disk 1 and has no letter designation. The message says that both are healthy.

*edited to add: When I right click on the new Disk's box I get a menu which includes "Change Drive Letter and Path" but don't have that option when right clicking on the old drive. The help menu directed me to "diskpart" but it does not appear there either.*
 
#9 ·
Sorry for jumping in the middle of this thread, and I hope I'm not commenting on something totally off of what you are looking for.

According to your last post, you obviously see both disks in the Windows disk manager, but only one has a drive letter assigned to it. Can you right click the other one (the one that is unassigned), and possibly click something like "create new virtual disk" or something similar? If not, post everything you see when you right-click it. :)
 
#10 ·
Originally posted by Nyper
Sorry for jumping in the middle of this thread, and I hope I'm not commenting on something totally off of what you are looking for.

According to your last post, you obviously see both disks in the Windows disk manager, but only one has a drive letter assigned to it. Can you right click the other one (the one that is unassigned), and possibly click something like "create new virtual disk" or something similar? If not, post everything you see when you right-click it. :)
Thank you...it isn't off base at all. When I get home tonight I'll try that first thing. Thanks again for helping! Gary
 
#11 ·
No problemo. I can't be sure if that's what it says or not. You may also see "Format". If you see that, then that's what you will need to select. Then you will be able to select a drive letter, etc. But be forewarned - formatting can take a while. So grab some tea and kick back. :)
 
#12 ·
Originally posted by Nyper
You may also see "Format". If you see that, then that's what you will need to select.
I did notice the "format" option last night but don't think that it's one I can use. The problem there is that the formatting will erase the files on the disk...won't it? The reason why I want to put this drive into the new computer is so I can copy all the files to my new hard drive and be able to use some of the programs which are installed on the old one.
 
#13 ·
Again I will qualify my opinions; I was a Service coordinator for COMPAQ on a major Tire Company's retail store account, 2900 sites in the USA and Canada.

It is most likely the new computer is using an advanced EIDE drive/controller and the old drive is not an EIDE device; there will be problems when putting both drives on the same IDE data cable or even the same motherboard. This is due to a difference of data bus speeds and severe timing issues with the system board controller, an incompatibility between the two technologies. And/Or if the old drive is formatted under FAT32, either Windows 98SE or ME, the combination it will not be compatible with Windows XP. The Bios and Windows see the old drive but cannot read the FAT32 data tables. Don’t format the drive or all will be lost!

Download a copy of the freeware from LAPLINK, PC Mover. Don’t choose to register the software unless you bought it and have a serial number. With PC Mover you can do the job of moving the data and some of the applications (programs) correctly. One of the following will be needed to hook the PCs together:

1) Network cards in both PCs and a Cat5 “null cable”
2) USB data “file transfer” cable
3) Printer port “data transfer” cable

All of these cables will be special as they are designed for data transfers only.

The new PC should come with a 100 MIPS card on the motherboard.

The new PC will have the latest USB port design and the old PC will have USB 1.X but still work.

Load and run PC Mover on both PCs and answer the questions. The old PC will be the “old” PC etc. Bingo it will be done safely and effectively. Some of you applications my need upgraded to work with Windows XP.
 
#14 ·
Originally posted by Blitzer
And/Or if the old drive is formatted under FAT32, either Windows 98SE or ME, the combination it will not be compatible with Windows XP. The Bios and Windows see the old drive but cannot read the FAT32 data tables. Don’t format the drive or all will be lost!
Thank you so much Blitzer for providing what's probably the problem and the solution to it. I do have Windows 98 on the old machine so there we go. Thank you and everyone else for all of your help and suggestions!! Hopefully I won't have to reply to this thread again. Stay safe, Gary
 
#15 ·
Windows XP most certainly CAN read a FAT32 hard drive, but the EIDE suggestion is likely the culprit.

Try this as a temporary solution...

Since you have both drives on the same cable now, try temporarily disconnecting your cd/dvd-rom drive, jumper your old drive back to either cable select or master and connect it to the cable that was previously connected to the optical drive.

XP should see the drive and automatically assign it a letter, you can move the data, and then remove the drive and reconnect your optical drive.
 
#16 ·
Dear thonl,

That didn't work because when I hooked up the old hard drive after disconnecting the cable from the CD Rom the computer would not load Windows and said to insert boot disk into the drive. I think that I'm going to put it back into the old machine and do what Blitzer suggested. At least that way I'll be set up to pass information back and forth later on if I want to. Thanks again for your help. Gary
 
#17 ·
I just received this from Western Digital (manufacturer of both my hard drives) in response to my asking them about the problem and thought it might be of help to anyone else who has the same problem as I have:

"Dear Gary,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.

Anytime you try, moving a drive from one system to another either as the bootable device or as a data drive it may not always work. I have included some additional information on this below...

If you moved a Slave or data drive from one computer to another, this may not always work. Though some BIOS on computers will read a drive the same, this is not always the case. Every motherboard or system manufacture may adjust the shell BIOS that may make them different."
 
#19 ·
Originally posted by thonl
Windows XP most certainly CAN read a FAT32 hard drive, but the EIDE suggestion is likely the culprit.

Try this as a temporary solution...

Since you have both drives on the same cable now, try temporarily disconnecting your cd/dvd-rom drive, jumper your old drive back to either cable select or master and connect it to the cable that was previously connected to the optical drive.

XP should see the drive and automatically assign it a letter, you can move the data, and then remove the drive and reconnect your optical drive.
I accept your correction thonl san. I am sometimes too short on sleep and too long on wind. I bow to your intruction and will go catch a few more zzz next time.
;)
 
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