Hello,

I'm building my first new computer in 6 years. I have assembled a list of components that I would like to use but am a little concerned regarding the hard drives.

My current "C" drive (IDE) has 6 years worth of games, home networking info, internet access thru the cable modem settings, etc. I really don't want to go through setting all that up again. Can I just stick my old hard drive in the new system and have it work?

I am running Windows XP Pro....will that just recognize all the new stuff and work (I know I'll have to install the drivers for new video, etc.)?

If anyone would care to share a better way of migrating the data over to new drives (SATA)? I'd be very grateful for that info. I wasn't planning on buying new drives but I will if I have to.

Thank you!

Welcome to SAF, WeekendSquire!

A couple of reasons to consider retiring the old drive:

1- It's old! You may install and get it working just to have it fail in a couple of months.

2- Older drives are slower drives. If you want to gain the advantage of having Windows load much faster, as well your programs, then consider the added speed of SATA drives. They'll read and write at least twice the speed of the old IDE drive. Running a pair in RAID 0 will double the speed again, and using a pair of 10,000 RPM Raptors in RAID 0 will double the speed again. You'll be amazed when you see your browser and other programs open almost instantly, or you move a 500 meg. file from one partition to another in about 3 seconds.

Networking shouldn't be an issue since the new board will most likely have the LAN built in and simply plugging into your home network should have it up and going. The only thing I run in Network is TCP-IP, since I don't run a shared computer.

You can hook up the old IDE drive, either internally or through a USB adapter (around $20), and try copying all the games to the new install. You'll find that most of them will run when you fire up the .exe for them. Many games don't use registry entries. If they don't run, just rerun the installation into the same location to get them going. You'll at least have your saved info already there for it to use.

I've found that most smaller applications can be copied, too, and they'll run fine (usually around 75% of them). The larger programs, like Office and Paint Shop, will need reinstalling. Again, if you have added images or materials in the folders, just copy the folders over to the new system before doing the install.

It's possible that the OS will load and run if you install the drive into the new box, but often the hardware detection is so complex that it will blue-screen. If it does, you can try booting into Safe Mode first. A lot of drivers can be installed there, and booting normally may get you up and running after that.

Good luck! And check back here for additional suggestions and to let us know how it goes.

Thank you very much for your reply and all the info! I'm a few months away from making te purchases and doing the deal, but I will check back to let you know how it went. Just an FYI - here's what I selected:

GA-EP35C-DS3R LGA 775 mobo
G.SKILL 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Intel Quad Core Q6600
eVGA 8800GTS 320mb Graphics (this may change)
New Case w/550W PS
SE16 WD4000AAKS 400GB 7200 RPM 16MB
Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM SATA Drives

Reuse WinXP Pro, Existing IDE drive, floppy drive, DVD drive

Thanks again!