Comments for Can I move my old computer's hard drive to my new computer?

Comment from Hero Face on 2009-10-08

2009-10-08T09:36:34Z

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

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Comment from Quiksliver on 2009-08-18

2009-08-19T00:23:34Z

I'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.
Or would it just be easier just to buy a new hard drive and OS?

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Comment from Jack on 2009-08-16

2009-08-17T06:40:59Z

You must be sure of that format the old hard disk and clear all the content.

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Comment from Rick on 2009-06-19

2009-06-20T00:00:43Z

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?

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Comment from Rick on 2009-05-15

2009-05-15T14:21:11Z

Please 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

Absolutely. You can purchase a USB Drive Enclosure, and remove the drive from the computer and place it in that. Make sure that it's the right type of drive interface - I'm assuming from the age of your computer it'll be EIDE, aka PATA.

And start backing up in the future, OK? If your data is in only one place, it's not backed up.

- Leo
16-May-2009

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Comment from Steve on 2009-04-29

2009-04-29T15:12:06Z

I 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?

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Comment from question on 2009-02-10

2009-02-10T22:09:03Z

can you explain in detail on how to do this since i can not afford professional help?

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Comment from Charles on 2009-01-25

2009-01-25T09:24:56Z

My 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?

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Comment from John on 2008-12-23

2008-12-23T18:40:11Z

I 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?

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Comment from DARWIN on 2008-11-21

2008-11-22T00:09:14Z

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.

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Comment from Bob W on 2008-11-20

2008-11-21T02:29:01Z

I too transfered my Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 HDD from my non working eMachine to my new Acer w/Vista. I removed the jumper that was on the HDD. My computr recognizes the HDD but none of the files I had on the drive (pictures, music, etc.) show up. When I open a file folder all that is there is a 'shortcut file' for that folder. Where are all my files??? The drive shows that about 1/2 the storage capacity is in use. Did removing the master/slave jumper cause the stored files to be inaccessible? Please help, my wife will shoot me if I can't retrieve all those pictures of the kids!

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Comment from Dave on 2008-11-17

2008-11-17T23:39:52Z

I need a lil help my old emachines motherboard crashed or shorted or something, instead of buyin a mother board I decided to buy a new comp for just 100 bucks more or so. Anyways I now have an hp computer with a vista OS, my old computer had an xp OS. I know you said up top I can just go ahead and hook it up, but I've allready added an extra hard drive to it for extra storage. Can I just pop off the connectors from the extra hard drive I've allready installed and put it on the old hard drive? With out damaging my new computer or the old hard drive?.. any info is greatly appreciated

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Comment from Ken Sturmer on 2008-10-02

2008-10-02T22:28:24Z

Ok I have an adapter, connected it. However my Vista notebook shows the external drive as being here, but there doesn't seem to be any way to access it. Can someone enlighten me? It simply shows up in my hardware manager and nowhere else.
I was using Linux, on my old pc. Could this be the problem? All my info is in my old PC. It died suddenly. The hard drive is not bad. I can hear it spinning.

The hard disk is likely formatted using one of the Linux filesystems, which Windows cannot understand. You'll need to extract the data using Linux. It's possible that simply booting a Linux live CD might do the trick. But I could be wrong :-).

- Leo
03-Oct-2008

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Comment from Michael Voolich on 2008-09-23

2008-09-23T10:31:29Z

My old computer(pentium4,2.0ghz,1g ddr3200 ram, 800fsb).The motherboard failed. I rebuilt it using new components(pentium core2duo, 2.53ghz, 4g ddr2-800 ram, sata HDD). My old ide hard drive was fine so I put in in the box and made it a slave to the sata drive. I loaded my original win xp-pro and my original office pro2003. I made outlook express the default mail client. it worked for a day and them I started getting an error message that the address book was not installed, and that oe is not configured correctly. When I try to open email I get a message that there is an error and the email won't open. I tried your suggestion of downloading ie from the microsoft website, but that did not solve the problem. I tried a system restore and that did not solve the problem. I have been able to read and copy most of my data files to the old hdd to the new. Also I would like to copy/move my address book and my stored/downloaded emials from the old hard drive to the new one. I found the old address book and I copied it to the desktop, removed the read-only attribute in the properties view, but still get the error message that the address book file has been locked by another application that I am supposed to close. But nothing else is open. I cannot find the old emails and where they are stored. I have no idea how to proceed from here. Thanks for any input.

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Comment from Phillip Abbott on 2008-09-16

2008-09-17T02:33:50Z

I often have to add a drive to a computer on a temporary basis. I use an inexpensive USB - IDE/SATA/notebook adapter for this. It comes with a 5/12v power adapter to power the drive, and a multi-connector plug on the end of a USB cable. it even has a short SATA cable. Perfect for transferring data from an old hard drive.

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Comment from Al Blakeborough on 2008-09-16

2008-09-16T16:45:47Z

Leo, I have enjoyed your newsletter for years, and am happy to be able to contribute something for your other readers. I have had great success in using a USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter from Newer Technology is accessing old hard drives, from both desktop and laptop computers. It eliminates the need to open your computer to install the old hard-drive. The adapter allows you to access the old hard-drive from your new computer as an external disk. The cost for the adapter is less than #30.00 not including shipping. I purchased mine from Other World Computing http://eshop.macsales.com/. I have no connection to this Company, except as a satisfied customer. Best to you and yours

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Comment from Leo on 2008-07-13

2008-07-13T16:31:42Z

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Sure. You can purchase a USB drive enclosure and put it in
there.

Leo

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=xTS3
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Comment from tony on 2008-07-12

2008-07-12T17:24:01Z

is it possible to connect my old hardrive to my new pc externally?

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Comment from mickey on 2008-05-27

2008-05-28T01:33:42Z

i need to transfer my old hard drive to new computer that the motherboard shorted out, can I do this without installing it in my new computer. Old computer hard windows xp, new has vista. Thanks

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Comment from Jun on 2008-02-11

2008-02-11T17:27:33Z

I have a related question. I want to move old hard drive (installed with Windows XP) into new PC and thats' it. I have everything working on the old PC except that it is an old machine. I simply want to get more speed and do not want to reconfigure the OS

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Comment from MrMarble on 2008-01-09

2008-01-09T23:28:30Z

i want to pt my hard drive in my new comp will i be able ot do that and jsut install the drives for the new mother board or will i have to wipe hd and reinstall windows

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Comment from William Rose, II on 2007-09-18

2007-09-18T14:02:31Z

when i hooked up the hd i'm trying to read on my xp computer it just boots to the 98 logo apears but then goes to dos. how do i get it to boot windows 98

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Comment from Fareed Aleen on 2007-05-21

2007-05-21T22:57:03Z

i'm building my own computer and i installed my hard drive from my old computer but it won't boot. i would appreciate if you can help. Thank You

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Comment from ryan on 2007-04-05

2007-04-06T00:28:17Z

mine is the opposite of this and i want to move files from my new computer to the old one that has 95. the new one has xp. can i do that with a usb cord and how?

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Comment from Mark on 2007-02-27

2007-02-27T19:27:57Z

my old computer no longer works at all--to save some files on the hard drive--I have removed the old hard drive and now need to know how to transfer and save those files ( I have extra external hard drives)
Thank You-Mark

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Comment from Anonymous on 2007-02-19

2007-02-20T05:52:05Z

This article was very helpful. The comments posted were also very helpful. I succeeded in putting the hard drive from an older computer into my Windows XP. It worked without me having to configure any settings on the PC. I just connected the power and 40-pin cables and set the jumpers. I set the original XP hard drive to Master and the older hard drive as a Slave. When I started the computer again it started as usual. When I went to My computer it had the added hard drive listed.

Thank You

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Comment from Anonymous on 2007-02-19

2007-02-20T05:50:40Z

This article was very helpful. The comments posted were also very helpful. I succeeded in putting the hard drive from an older computer into my Windows XP. It worked without me having to configure any settings on the PC. I just connected the power and 40-pin cables and set jumpers. I set the original XP hard drive to Master and the older hard drive as a Slave. When I started the computer again it started as usual. When I went to My computer it had the added hard drive listed.

Thank You

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Comment from Alan Douglas on 2006-11-30

2006-11-30T22:32:47Z

I have an XP boot drive on a slow 400MHz Celeron system, and I want to install it as my boot drive on a (slightly) faster P3 533MHz box. When I moved it, Windows tried to boot, but told me it couldn't boot and there was probably a hardware configuration change ... It gave me several choices to try to boot (Safe Mode, SM with Networking, SM with Command Prompt, Last Known Good, Normal) -- none of those choices worked; I came back to the same message and prompts every time.
Any ideas?

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Comment from Michael Johnson on 2006-11-17

2006-11-17T08:59:24Z

I'am building a computer. I have a computer with a Western Digital 250 Gig HDD. I would like to take this Hdd and place it in my new computer. This will be the only HDD I will be using. I have been told that it is hard to do. I think the person who told me this is just trying to scare me into paying him to do it. The Hdd is loaded with Windows XP Pro w/sp2. Is it possible to install the drive into the new computer and use it after I reinstall the OS? Please help me. Tell me what I should do to make this work. I have purchased the Asus P5NSLI Board, Pentium D 805 Processor, And the XFX GeForce 7600 Graphics Card. I do intend on using Kingston 533/512 Ram (2 Sticks).

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Comment from C.W on 2006-11-04

2006-11-05T03:46:42Z

How do I put my old email address on to my new computer?

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Comment from Bill Adams on 2006-11-01

2006-11-01T15:39:26Z

When installing an old hard drive in a new computer,does the old operating system need to be removed? Both are xp home with sp2.

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Comment from dave tune on 2006-10-22

2006-10-22T10:30:05Z

I have a new motherboard and tower i would like to use my old hard drive in the new computer as the primery drive i have put the old drive int the new one but it will not boot up can you help me with a step by step yours THANKS

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Comment from Alisha on 2006-10-06

2006-10-06T14:12:08Z

I am trying to use an XP HD and connect to a 98 computer to retrieve files from it. Is it possible? And how? All I get is a white line going across the bottom of the screen.

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Comment from Huckle on 2006-09-02

2006-09-02T12:40:01Z

I have a similar question to matthew; I have just been given an old pc with XP pro on it. The pc I use now has ME. The one I have been given has no space for a second hard drive, however, my ME pc does. May it be possible to put the XP hard drive in the ME pc ? If so could I boot from it? Thanks.

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Comment from Darren on 2006-08-20

2006-08-20T19:48:47Z

I too am trying to use my old hard drive from my previous computer (ME OS) as a slave HDD on my new computer. The problem I have is when I hook up the old HDD to the new computer, it boots from that old HDD and not the new HDD with XP on it, even tho I've checked the jumper settings on the old HDD to ensure it is set up as a slave. Do you know how I would go about disabling the old HDD from booting up first?

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Comment from kjm on 2006-08-09

2006-08-09T17:34:06Z

I just transferred an old Win98 drive to a new computer as the boot drive. It works after much driver wrangling in the new system (P4 - 2.5mhz/1gb RAM). Problem is WIN 98 under the new PC is still hanging a bit and looking for the old sound card, even after the sound card was uninstalled in windows. I did run registry mechanic and Destroy IT! to get rid of erroneous registry entries, figuring it would solve some of the problems of moving an old OS into a new PC. THe computer crashes a bit more than it did under the old PC, but my dad doesn't want to lose any data by starting with a fresh install of WIN98 on a new pc. There lies my dilemma.

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2006-07-31

2006-07-31T23:48:08Z

All I can say is "maybe". Especially with Win98, it's ability to detect and compensate for any other changes that it might encounter is not assured. You'd be safer installing it as a second drive and copying over data.

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Comment from Bob on 2006-07-31

2006-07-31T23:17:08Z

Can I remove my existing hard drive from my pc and instal in my spare pc, remove the hd from the spare. Both are windows 98se machines. Only difference is my spare is a p3 at 500mz old one is p2 at 300mz. I want the spare to operate the same as my existing. Thanks much.

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Comment from Leo on 2006-07-08

2006-07-09T06:07:49Z

Require? No, there are other ways. But that type of enclosure may well be one of the easiest ways.

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Comment from dave on 2006-07-08

2006-07-09T06:01:06Z

Hi
I'd like to use the hard drive from my burnt out WinME PC as an external HD for my XP laptop. Do I need a product like Adaptec's USB Hard Drive Enclosure to do this?

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Comment from Jack on 2006-07-08

2006-07-08T18:14:33Z

I put my old drive in my new computer and I can see it with Explorer but it denies me access to My Documentds even though I am the Computer Administator on the new machine. I did have a seperate user id and log-in on my old machine. Is there a way around this?

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Comment from Anoop on 2006-07-06

2006-07-06T13:28:35Z

Hi,
I'm planning to move an old hard drive to a new PC. The old drive has Win 2K Prof installed and I'm using it as an MS SQL server. The new system is a brand new Dell PC with XP installed. I can remove XP or the new disc altogether. Will the OS in the old disc boot up in the new system or will it cause any data loss ?

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Comment from Leo on 2006-06-19

2006-06-20T00:08:51Z

I'd give it about a 50/50 chance. It depends on how similar the old and new machines are. But it's not something I would count on working.

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Comment from matthew on 2006-06-17

2006-06-17T20:40:31Z

hi, im planning to buy new pc (new one currently has no operating system (ebay jobby)) if i put my current hd with windows xp in newbie pc and put it as master drive with new one as slave...will it recognise and accept windows xp like my current pc?

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Comment from Denis on 2006-03-11

2006-03-12T01:16:25Z

After installing new hard drive I installed all data from old drive including Windows XP using system recovery disks. One thing I cannot understand after booting etc,. I ran Disk Investigator and ran search for site I visited whilst on old hard drive, now removed, and to my surprise got positive results. How could this be I had not even visited any sites whatsoever since installing new hard drive.

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Comment from Scott Merritt on 2006-01-21

2006-01-21T18:46:19Z

I was successful in moving my old computer HD to my New one and it looks like the BIOS are good to go. Also, when I go into my computer I can see the new drive as drive E:. However, when I double click the new drive it says "The Disk is drive E: is not formatted, would you like to format now?". I am pretty sure that if I format it I will lose all data... so, how do I get my new computer to be able to read the old hard drive. Seems like I am almost there but please help????

Thanks,
Scott

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Comment from Phil on 2006-01-20

2006-01-21T05:20:31Z

mschilling: There is a setting in your BIOS which needs to be switched. You get in to that during boot up by holding the delete key. I'm not positive which setting it is, but this may give you enough info to ask someone else. Hope it helped.

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Comment from daanderud on 2006-01-13

2006-01-14T00:05:29Z

How can I get someone to help me with my previous question. I see no one has responded but I feel there are others out there with the same or similar issue.. Appreciate some help on this if possible or respond to daanderud@adelphia.net.

Thanks in advance

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Comment from mschilling on 2006-01-13

2006-01-13T15:12:16Z

I have the same problem as Dennis does with the SATA drive installed, but the IDE backup not being recognized in Win XP. I have a feeling it has to do with the drives being different types which is causing a conflict. I am going to put the old IDE drive in a external case and try to plug it in using USB and see what happens, unless there is a way to recognize the IDE while it is intalled in the PC?

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Comment from DAanderud on 2006-01-08

2006-01-08T19:58:28Z

Hi... I've noticed others seem to have a similar problem but I coudn't find where you responded to this issue.

I've installed my not too old Seagate IDE C drive that used to be on windows xp onto my newly built XP but windows does not see it. The device manager shows it as being there and operational but it does not show up as a local drive anywhere. I did a lookup in DOS and it just doesnt show up. I've never had this happen before. I have info on it I would like to transfer to the new computer. My SATA drive shows up fine.

Can you please give me some suggestions?

Thanks

Dennis

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Comment from Brad on 2006-01-07

2006-01-07T20:36:53Z

My Gateway computer failed. The hard functions. Can I build a new computer use my old hard drive with installed XP operating system in the new computer?

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Comment from Leo on 2006-01-04

2006-01-05T05:31:56Z

For serial ports, they were called "null modems". For ethernet they're called reversing cables. Not sure if USB cables have a special name for that or not.

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Comment from Jean on 2006-01-04

2006-01-04T23:36:55Z

What's the name of the cable that you can buy to transfer data from one computer to the other. I think we used to call them "dumb cables". What's the technical name and are they still used?

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Comment from Daniel on 2005-11-10

2005-11-10T21:13:57Z

installing drivers on hard drive bayed in another computer...

ok here goes,
firstly il say where it all went wrong:

My freind was drinkin next to my computer and decided my keyboard was thirsty. Well i have a usb keyboard and mouse because of no psu connections or what ever the standerd mouse an keyboard connections are called. Anyway it seemed to have fried my usbs on my motherboard and they no longer work, so now i dont have a working keyboard and mouse :( its sad but i figued out a solution, one of many firstly i thought "wouldnt the usbs have a fuse of some kind to stop surges", and realized i dont want to get messy with my built in usb's, so i decided on a pci usb card to connect my mouse and keyboard and then realized how am i surposed to install the drivers for this new pci card! So i then decide i will install the drivers on my harddrive main one with root folders.. c:\ on my freinds computer with working mouse and keyboard, now i am having trouble viewing my hard drive i can see it on computer management and am seeking help to install this software on my hard drive using another computer! Or any other sugestions on how to install drivers on to my hard drive...
Thanks, Danny.

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Comment from Leo on 2005-11-09

2005-11-10T03:26:04Z

It depends on the old system, but typically the answer is yes.

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Comment from lynda on 2005-11-06

2005-11-06T20:29:25Z

can I move my old hard drive to a new Dell system

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Comment from Nabil on 2005-10-26

2005-10-26T11:01:30Z

Hi I recently unpluged 1 of the IDE cables that was attached to one of my hard drives as I needed to attach my friend hard drive to translate data from him.
I have to do this as I all ready have 3 hard drives installed on my PC + a dvd writer

Any way I have just re-attached my hard drive and it isnt showing up in "my computer".

i have gone to device manager and the hard drive is showing up under "disk drives".

any ideas on what I need to do >> ??

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Comment from eddie veiga on 2005-10-17

2005-10-17T18:28:02Z

I cannot find the d drive on my pc. I'm trying to install a printer and the pc is definitely detecting it but the pc is asking for the disc that came with the printer. When I insert the disc nothing happens. I have installed other things in my pc so I'm sure the dive is working. Can you help me?

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Comment from Warehous on 2005-10-11

2005-10-11T15:32:02Z

I need to move my old hard drive (windows xp home) to a new PC.

My problem is, I recently had a house fire and my PC (windows xp home edition) was still running when the firemen put the fire out. They cut the power to the house right off. Then the smoke and water was the other problem.

The power supply and the mother board is inop.

The hard drive still runs and has my data.
I have connected the hard drive to a lesser operating system (windows me) pc to read the drive and all the data points to recovery type files. I do not recognize any of the file names that I used.

Do you have any ideas?

Thank you

Warehous

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Comment from Greg Bulmash on 2005-09-23

2005-09-23T08:32:49Z

I was a little confused by the name "hard drive extensions" in Jica A's response. They're more commonly called "enclosures". If you search Amazon for "External Hard Drive Enclosure" you'll find dozens.

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Comment from Jica A. on 2005-09-20

2005-09-20T15:26:19Z

Hello Leo,

I have done copies like these using hard drive extensions. This is a non-obstrusive way to transfer data and eventually can be used for backup. They usually are priced bet $18-$30. Common type of interfacing is by USB.
You put the old hard drive in the extension, use the USB connection to connect to your new pc and let XP search for the drivers. If XP can't find it, use the drivers provided by the extension's manufacturer.

The extension will show up in your Explorer as your D: drive. When you are done with your copy, you can reformat the drive and use it as a backup. It really works well if you have multiple PCs like I do.

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