Old Hard Drive in New Computer

[Sandman]

I have a new computer on the way, I was thinking of taking the hard drive out of the computer I am presently using (XP) and installing it in the new computer as a second hard drive (D) and eventually purge unnecessary files from it.

My question since the present hard drive is bootable will I have problems when installing in the new computer, will it cause a conflict when turning the machine on.

Thanks
Bob

[Cyclone]

Most hard drives have a jumper on them that make them a master or a slave. A Master Hard Drive is usually one you boot from. Since its from your old computer, its likely set to Master. You might want to make a slave by changing the jumper before you put it in your new system. There should be a legend on the drive showing the jumper settings.

[Sandman]

Thanks, I knew that but for some reason did not give that a thought, really feel dumb.

Bob

[kiddk1]

Most hard drives have a jumper on them that make them a master or a slave. A Master Hard Drive is usually one you boot from. Since its from your old computer, its likely set to Master. You might want to make a slave by changing the jumper before you put it in your new system. There should be a legend on the drive showing the jumper settings.


actually you dont have to play with the jumpers at all, just make sure the second HD is not connected to your primary IDE(or the one your computer boots from) or you may want to boot from it and just install new drivers for your mobo. Good luck

[Bogy]

actually you dont have to play with the jumpers at all, just make sure the second HD is not connected to your primary IDE(or the one your computer boots from) or you may want to boot from it and just install new drivers for your mobo. Good luck
YMMV. It all depends. Some computers/motherboard/Bios are Cable Select. Some demand that the cable position and jumper settings are in synch. Others don't care about position but are dependent upon jumper settings. I would recommend that when your new computer is delivered you check out it's manual and see how your system is set. 2 things to keep in mind. If you have XP, and reuse your current drive as the master, it will almost certainly rebel and make you re-register, since it is going to realize its not in Kansas anymore. If you use it as the slave the applications you have on it will very likely not work because they aren't on drive C, they way they think they should be, and will send you all kinds of messages that they can't find what they need to work. However, I am going to make a guess that you really want to use your new HD as your master because it is much bigger and will be handier, and you just want to use the old one as backup or to store stuff you don't use all the time. If that is the case, I would (and have) transfer all the files I wanted to save to the new HD and then reformat the old drive and start out fresh. Otherwise you will face the problem of potential old applications hanging around. Plus, why keep hundreds of megs of XP on a drive when you really don't need it there.

[Sandman]

What I want to do is install the old drive in the enw computer and transfer from old to new, some small programs I like and my data and pic files, once everything is transfered and working to my satisfaction I was going to delete everything I no longer needed, thought this would be simpler than coping to cd and transferring.
Bob

[RichW]

"YMMV. It all depends. Some computers/motherboard/Bios are Cable Select. Some demand that the cable position and jumper settings are in synch"

I think what kiddk1 was referring to is the fact that most MoBos these days have TWO IDE Ports. So you can just put the old disk on the SECOND IDE port without changing jumpers (usually). Also this prevents any problems if you are using drives from different manufacturers.


"...some small programs I like and my data and pic files"

Sandman, I would NOT reccomend transferring PROGRAMS in the way you describe. Transferring data from D to C is no problem but programs usually must be installed. The reason is that most programs for Win2K and WinXP require registry changes as well as the .exe and .dll files. A good rule of thumb is that if the program had a unique Icon associated with it, it probably requires registry entries.

[Bogy]

"YMMV. It all depends. Some computers/motherboard/Bios are Cable Select. Some demand that the cable position and jumper settings are in synch"

I think what kiddk1 was referring to is the fact that most MoBos these days have TWO IDE Ports. So you can just put the old disk on the SECOND IDE port without changing jumpers (usually). Also this prevents any problems if you are using drives from different manufacturers. However, unless I am missing something, you normally have two IDE ports, with two cables with two connectors each. Normally, the end connector is the master position, and the middle connector is the slave position. But not always, which is why, especially if your computer is not reading your drive you need to check the documentation. Also, you normally have drive C on the first port master setting, with drive D on the first port slave setting. The CD/DVD drive then normally takes the master position on the 2 port. While you can certainly try switching these around, because of the way CD/DVD drives load in comparison to HD's, I have had problems getting everything to be recognized on some systems. I am certainly assuming that the new computer will have at least a CD drive and think setting up the old HD as anything other than the slave on the first port is complicating things unnecessarily.


"...some small programs I like and my data and pic files"

Sandman, I would NOT reccomend transferring PROGRAMS in the way you describe. Transferring data from D to C is no problem but programs usually must be installed. The reason is that most programs for Win2K and WinXP require registry changes as well as the .exe and .dll files. A good rule of thumb is that if the program had a unique Icon associated with it, it probably requires registry entries.
This is what I meant in my post about "applications". As Rich says, programs cannot be transferred in this way, they must be installed. But as I said before, this is the perfect way to transfer all those data and pic files.

[RichW]

Bogy, I understand your reasoning, now. The only thing I might add to the commentary is that most IDE CD/DVD drives come configured as slaves.

Sandman, here is what I would do, since the second hard drive is not going to be permanent.

1. Build your system with your new HD as master and the CD drive as slave on IDE 0 (the first IDE port). Generally, the factory defaults on the drives will be this configuration. Do not connect your old drive yet. If you do, you will have a harder time installing a new system and when you do, the system drive will be assigned a drive letter other than C:.

2. Keep the "skins" off the case and load Windows XP. When the XP install completes, your HD will be "C:" and your CD/DVD will be "D:". (At this point I like to change the drive letter of the CD to "G:" using admin tools in the control panel, for reasons I will explain later.)

3. Power down (of course) and connect you old HD to IDE 1 (the second IDE port). Power up and Reboot. Your old HD will come up using the next available drive letter. Transfer your old data files to your C: drive. Power down again. Disconnect the old drive and then power up again.

I manage around 60 computers in my job. Some have only one HD. Some have 3 or more (SCSI drives, External USB/Firewire drives, USB Flash readers, etc). For consistency, I like to assign the CD drive to "G:" in all systems. Likewise "Zip" drives get assigned to "F:" in all configurations. It makes support easier over the phone.

[Sandman]

The system I am getting will have a 160 ghz HD a cd reader and a combo cd/dvd burner so I would think the spare ide connector will on the primary and the cd's on the second ide connector, will have to wait until I get the machine to be sure, just received an telephone call that it will be delayed about 10 days because the video card I ordered is back ordered. (128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9800(R) w/ TV-out & DVI cap )

Bob

[kiddk1]

Everyone is making way too much of this, as you guys stated earlier, Programs must be reinstalled, files can be transferred. most newer mobos have two extra IDE's(for raid) that you can use to hook up your HD to without having to run raid. I dont know if the one your going to purchase has this or not but if it does then this will allow you to run up to 8 devices, I had 3 HD's, cd burner, dvd burner, and dvd reader not to mention an additional SCSI HD and CD Reader.

Good luck, you have lots of people here who can help.