hy,
my old computer broke down and i bought a new one and now i want to add my old hard drive to the new computer.ido i have to partition the old disk before using it and if so wil i loose all dat , or if anybody knows a better way to save my files please let me know
thanks

Just some food for thought since this is not my area of expertise...

Maybe you should make the old drive a "slave" to the "master" (read "New") drive. What OS(s) are each drive? That will likely factor in this too. I'm sure someone with more skills will be along soon, so any additional info. you can provide them will be most helpful.

my old drive had windows xp and my new one has windows xp media center.
of course i will do it as master and slave but i want to know if i have to get ghost or grive image to copy the old drive to the new one or it is not necesarilly.neither one of the drives is partitioned so do i need to patitione the old one when i hook it up to the nwe one or not?

Hi mrpeanut,

You can hook your old HD as slave and copy whatever you want to the other and vice-versa with no changes. Just set your BIOS to auto... if there is some problem (only on very old HD), you should have all information provided to set it up on a sticker (cylinders, heads, sectors, etc...)

Do not touch partitions.
After having it working and your data saved, you can eventually partition/reformat if you want.

Note that most programs on your old HD will not work, as they were not registered by your new OS.

Post back and report how it goes.

i wil try it tomorow morning and i`ll let you know.
if i reinstall the programs from the old drive will they work?

Sure... if you have the installers on it, no problem. If not, you'll need the original disks.

Chris

Try running the programs from the old drive. If they work, you can create a shortcut to the .exe and put it in your Program Menu or on the desktop. (Right-click the .exe, Send to... Desktop as shortcut.) I've found that many of the smaller programs will run fine without reinstalling. You may have to re-enter registration info or serial numbers for some of them, however. If you're planning on formatting the old drive later, you can move the entire program folder from the old Program Files to the new one, then create the shortcut.

Usually about 75% of the programs will run without reinstalling. Mostly the larger ones require a reinstall to enter needed registry info for them to run, or to add required drivers/.dlls to the system. If you get a missing file message, copying that file from the old drive to the new system32 folder will usually cure the problem.

i have one more question before i install the old drive:shold i partition the new drive now when it`s empty or leave it for later on?is the partition really important because i don`t know too much about it.

Partitioning is purely a personal preference type thing. Just like having a very large number of folders and files in an office, it becomes necessary to have many file cabinets, which are akin to partitions, to make things more organized and easier to find. If you're operating system is on one smaller partition and your programs and documents are on others, then it's usually quicker and easier for the operating system to find the system files on it's own - smaller - partition. If you want to install more than one operating system (multi-boot), then partitions are required.

You can read more about "Why partition" at these sites....

http://www.tpcug.org/newsletter/nl_2002/ma...2/partition.htm

http://www.cheap-hard-drives.com/partition_hdd.htm

http://www.acronis.com/oem/resource/soluti...ion-my-hdd.html

And a Microsoft article on Partitioning in XP.

now i have another problem...i opened the case and the new hard drive is diferent than the old one.this hard drive doesn`t have the wide gray cable going into it but it has a thin red cable that goes to the moderboard and it has no extra ends to hook up another drive.the power suplly is there it has 5 wires in it and a black end not white but it has extra ends.
my comp. is a sony vaio vga-rb 38g
anybody any ideas?!??

i forgot to mention that there is a gray wide cable in the computer but it`s conected to both optical drives and not to the hard drive

Are you sure you don't have both and IDE and SATA hard drive?

what is IDE and SATA?
in that bay there is only 1 drive and ther is room for another one

Your motherboard have two connections for Hard drives, called IDE0 and IDE1... on IDE0, is your hard disk attached with a grey cable (primary master), on IDE1, as you are saying, you have a grey cable connecting two optical drives (secondary master and slave).

The grey cable which is connected to the hard drive, may have two connectors. You can connect your old HD on it, after removing its jumper or set it to SL (slave).

If this cable (attached tou your hard disk) have only one connector, you'll need to replace it by another one.

The other wires (red-red,black-black,yellow-yellow), are the power cord from your PSU.

From your optical drives, you may have other wirings to the motherboard, which are for sound pusposes.


Post back if you need more help.

my hard drive has a red cable conected to it not gray and it`s thin , 3 times thiner than the gray cables on most hard drives.the hard drive doesn`t even have that long receptacle to connect a gray cable and the red cable it doesn`t have an extra conector to conect a second drive.
what should i do?

ther is also a bunch of cables coming out from the PU(i guess!)which are not conected to anything they are just tied togheter.could any of this cables be able to conect to my old drive?
i just checked and neither one of this cables is conected to the motherboard they are coming aout from the power supply.

Ok mrpeanut, scouted around and did not found your computer model... so, I cannot look at your motherboard specs.

If your (new) Hard disk is SATA, let it alone. You may try to disconnect one of your optical drives and connect your old HD (which I suppose is an IDE one).

There are only two cables to connect, the grey one and the power cord from your power supply. The power cord is a standard connector, so it will fit on your HD corectly. The grey cable can eventually be inverted, so watch to the red strip. Normally, it will be installed with the red strip looking to the power cord.

Chris

i am sorry i gave you the wrong model number the corect one is VGC-RB 38G.so if i unplug one of the optical drives and plu my old drive will it work?the cable is ok will work with the hard drive

Yes, it will... you just have to set its jumper corectly as master or slave, depending on what optical device you disconnect/replace.

Chris

PS - found specs at http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/VGC...CRB38G_mksp.pdf

The main drive is a Serial ATA (SATA) 250gB 7200 rpm

how do i set the jumper straight?i know i have to go in BIOS and set the hard drive settings to auto.if i will remove the last conector on the gray cable that means that the drive i will conect to it will be the slave?
thank you very much for your time to help me solve this problem!

Yes, in theory. The master drive have a jumper on it, the slave may have it or not... take a look and see if there is a jumper on SL (slave) or no jumper.

i am sorry but i don`t know how a jumper loos like.anyway, i looked and i did not see anything diferent on any drive.i have 2 drives:dvd+r and dvd rom.could be the first one the master?this one is conected at the end of the gray cable and the dvd rom is conected first.

QUOTE

A jumper is an electrically conductive component that you place over pairs of pins to connect them electronically. For example, a jumper is one way to designate a hard drive as master or slave

it's a litlle plastic box/pin inserted near the cables at the back of the drive, connecting one of 4 (or more) pairs of pins...

i just tried to see if i can conect the old hd to the power supply on the hard drive and it won`t work.i saw a cable coming from the power unit that would fit to the hd and it is not in use.can i use it?

Yes, you can... or you can use one from disconnected optical device. There is no way to plug it wrong.

i can not see anything.i saw on the power supply to the drives written P3 and P4.does this makes any diference?

i think i found the master.i took out the cable from the first drive and i saw in the back a little box with 3 setsof pins.the third set of pins had a green plastic on it.on top of those pins said central slave master(master coresponde to the green plastic pins).if this is the master drive can i go ahead and attach the old drive?it`s sure it will work?1what will happen to the computer if it doesn`t work?

the hard drive in the new copmuter has no jumpers
so should i put the jumpers on the old drive on master or slave knowing that i will disconect the optical drive that is a master

Hi again, excuse for the delay (family problems)...

It will work if you remove the jumper from it and put it on the hard drive... I think you'd better attach it at the other end, as slave, which probably have no jumpers to mess with

Nothing bad will happen to your computer. After transferring your data, you can plug your optical drive again

i will go ahead and do it.i will let you know how was it if my computer doesn`t break down
thank you again!

QUOTE

if my computer doesn`t break down

I can not imagine any reason for that, if you do not try to copy Windows files to your new and working hard disk.

i`m back!!1this means that my computer works.i hooked up the old drive and i copied everything to the new one and everything went good.i don`t think that i will get all programs from the old drive working but overall i am satisfied that i saved my files.
thank you very much Ironman for your help.You are a true gentelman!

QUOTE

thank you very much Ironman for your help

Sounds like I was promoted

You are always welcome, mrpeanut.

Have a safe and fun week-end,

Chris

Give this site a look. Select the manufacturer of the drive you are trying to hook up, and you'll find images of what the jumpers look like and what each position is.

QUOTE (mrpeanut @ Jul 23 2005, 11:18 PM)

.i don`t think that i will get all programs from the old drive working but overall i am satisfied that i saved my files.

Nope. Those need to be reinstalled so they are in the registry and windows knows what to do (file locations, dll's, shared dll's, etc).