My sister has a computer with Windows 98se. However, it is crashing on her. She got a new computer with Windows XP. My question is, can she install her old hard drive with 98se onto her new PC so she can transfer her files over to her new hard drive with XP? She is very illiterate when it comes to computers.
The good news is that a working hard disk that was formatted for use by Windows 98 can certainly be read by Windows XP.
The bad news is that you'll have to open the box and install the drive. That's not for everyone.
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It's actually a common approach used by computer geeks ... take an old hard drive from an old computer, and install it as the second drive in a new one. Everything that used to appear on drive "C:" on the old computer might now appear as drive "D:" on the new one. Once it's set up, copying files from old to new is both easy and fast.
And this approach comes with a bonus. Once you're done copying the files you want to keep, you can leave the old hard drive in the new machine, reformat it if you like, and have that much extra disk space to use as you like.
The down side is that you need to be somewhat computer hardware literate to install the drive. It does mean opening up your PC, connecting the old drive in the right way in the right place. There's no "one way" to do it, otherwise I'd tell you here. It can vary based on the type of computer you have, and the type of hard disk.
So unless you're already relatively comfortable cracking open your machine and dealing with the gooey guts inside, I'd leave the installation to a pro. It's typically a fairly quick and easy install for someone that knows what they're doing.
Related:
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Ask Leo! - How do I fix a bad sector on my hard drive?
Article C2424 - September 19, 2005
I want to change my old hard drive into my new laptop , it is possible to swap it and make it work smoothly,i did it before with win 95 , it worked just right but with windows xp the new computer does not read the drive ..what can i do? please let me know, thank you.
Posted by: DARWIN at November 21, 2008 4:09 PMI put in my old hard, I can see it as drive F. I can open it and see the folders and stuff. I can seem to copy my MS office to the new hard drive. How do I do that?
Posted by: John at December 23, 2008 10:40 AMMy motherboard fried so I went out and bought another computer for $100.00. The problem is there are only 40 gigs, my old drive has 80 gigs. Can i just switch this out? The 80 gig drive has XP but it is under a system restore (no discs). Is this even possible?
Posted by: Charles at January 25, 2009 1:24 AMcan you explain in detail on how to do this since i can not afford professional help?
Posted by: question at February 10, 2009 2:09 PMI build my first PC with a Vista 64 ops system and everything is working fine. I want to take the HD out of my old PC (XP for business) and put it is as a second drive. I feel comfortable about transfering files (and I have them on a network drive as well) but my question is on the installed software. My old HD has all my installed software (Office 2007...); will I be able to move the software to the new HD or run it for the old HD?
Posted by: Steve at April 29, 2009 8:12 AMPlease help! I have an old computeer with W98; it has a memory problem and i need the data on that HD; any way to tranfer or hook up the HD with a USb adapter? Much of what I have is pics that my wife will kill for! I am too yourng to die. lol
And start backing up in the future, OK? If your data is in only one place, it's not backed up.
16-May-2009
I have a hard drive from a broken computer, windows xp. I bought an enclosure and connected to my lap top via USB 2.0 the lap top sees the drive but denies access to the files, I assume it is password protected by the old computer. Is there a work around?
Posted by: Rick at June 19, 2009 5:00 PMYou must be sure of that format the old hard disk and clear all the content.
Posted by: Jack at August 16, 2009 11:40 PMI've recently come across a free computer and it has everything but a hard drive. So I was wondering if i could just install The hard drive from my old computer onto the new one.
Posted by: Quiksliver at August 18, 2009 5:23 PMOr would it just be easier just to buy a new hard drive and OS?
Just thought I'd get my 2 cents in here for the people wondering how to do it.
Don't be intimidated... The worst that could happen if your are completely blatantly and intentionally careless is that you could screw over your old PCs motherboard but hey if you cared about that you would probably not want to take the hard drive out!
ok so shut down your computer and disconnect all the wires. Now open your PCs case using whichever method your computer uses.. some dell's have a pop switch some PCs have finger screws at the back and some have screws all over the place for you to try and find. you should be able to tell after a quick look how to do this.
TOUCH A PIECE OF BODY METAL INSIDE THE PC TO GROUND YOURSELF BEFORE TOUCHING ANY HARDWARE (thats the only time I will scare you like that I promise)
once you're inside you'll realise that the inside of a computer really hasn't got all that much to it (ignoring the construction of individual parts of course)
You'll see your power supply (the one at the back at the top that has your mains electric plug into it) You will also see your CD/DVD ROM drive (this one is also obvious as it can be seen from outside) you motherboard is the giant microchip farm buried underneath everything... the rest is simply (usually) labelled your looking for something not directly attached to everything else.. it'll be a small metal box usually with a sticker saying something like Seagate 500Gb SATA HDD or Hard Drive (you can usually assume that anything with a large storage ammount written on will be your hard drive) it will also be connected by wires to both the motherboard and the power supply. Simply unplug these wires and the Hard drive is yours... done... thats it!
Now all you have to do is plug it in to the equivalent places inside the new computer (don't forget to ground yourself first) and switch it on most computers these days will recognise it automatically.
If you have any problems with your computer recognising your hard drive well then that's a different story and I'm sure leo's probably written an article on it by now already. Get searching (unfortunately this is a rare occurence and as such has never even happened to my "frankenstein" of a computer pieced together slowly out of the best bits of friends old ones let alone my decent "crysis build" machine and so it's a problem I've never had to solve. I'm more of a hobbyist with this sort of thing than any kind of expert.. I only know how to do things that I've needed to do myself in the past year of learning from youtube tips and sites like this (and look now I know how to build a pc lol) time to share the experience
Posted by: Hero Face at October 8, 2009 2:36 AM