Need some computer help

[Cupooterluvr]

OK so I got a hard drive from my old computer that's got 160 gigs on it and I would like to put it in this computer, or at least use it for a back up. My problem is that it's still got a lot of data on it.

My question is can I retrieve that data by plugging it in to the slave plug on the hard drive cable (master and slave drives--any nerd would know) and if that wouldn't work, could I take THIS drive out and plug the 160 in, then transfer the stuff to an external drive? This computer has a different motherboard and BIOS than the other computer so I didn't want to screw up my data.

 

[alpinehyperlite]

there is a possibility that data might be lost. I had 2 hd's with that problem, and one erased some data, and one erased none.

 

[Cupooterluvr]

Would it work if I took out the current drive and replaced it with the 160 gig? If so I could transfer all of that data to an external drive and then back to the drive that's currently in my computer.

Oh, and the 160 gig drive has the same OS (Windows XP) as the current one, so there's no licensing issues.

 

[alpinehyperlite]

yea, but make sure that you have the drive set to slave when putting in external drive, then back to master when putting in computer.

 

[beason]

you would probably not be able to boot the old drive in the new machine with different hardware without doing a repair install on windows. but you should be able to slave it just fine and pull whatever data you wanted off of it.

 

[Cupooterluvr]

Yeah I just tried it and it didn't boot. So then using the Windows install disk to repair it would still allow me to use the data on it?

Unfortunately my computer's a piece of crap and it only has one hard drive plug. No master/slave.

 

[HeartBreak]

you would probably not be able to boot the old drive in the new machine with different hardware without doing a repair install on windows. but you should be able to slave it just fine and pull whatever data you wanted off of it.

Depends on the file system. NTFS' security sometimes won't allow this. The best bet is to plug it into an external USB case (on eBay for about $15).

That being said, unless the hardware is pretty close to identical, XP will throw a monumental tantrum. You'll get, at best a re-activation notice... At worst, you'll get stop errors (blue screens). XP is pretty tolerant, so your best bet is to plug it in and see what it does.

When XP boots, it checks several things. The mainboard Chipset ID, the CPU serial number, amount of ram, video card, LAN MAC address, just to name a few. You can change up to three things unlimited times, but the second you change a 4th, XP requires reactivation.

Like Beason said, you can do a repair installation, which basically resets your registry. It's pretty easy to do; the instructions are on Google all over the place.

The best option is to pull what data you want to keep off onto a CD/DVD/External drive (pending on which you have), and just nuke the puppy with a full format. Less problems overall.

 

[Cupooterluvr]

Well I found out the hard drives are the exact same other than the size (Both Seagate Barracudas, one 80gb and the other 160gb). I'm gonna try what Beason said up there before I do anything else. If that doesn't work I'll just wait until we get a drive case (since we're gonna get one for the 250 gig drive we got laying around anyways) and then download it all.

When I booted the drive it got as far as the BIOS and then the "Windows did not boot correctly" safe mode screen thing came up.

I have a Windows restore disk that came with the computer and I'll use that tomorrow when I try it.

 

[HeartBreak]

Well I found out the hard drives are the exact same other than the size (Both Seagate Barracudas, one 80gb and the other 160gb). I'm gonna try what Beason said up there before I do anything else. If that doesn't work I'll just wait until we get a drive case (since we're gonna get one for the 250 gig drive we got laying around anyways) and then download it all.

When I booted the drive it got as far as the BIOS and then the "Windows did not boot correctly" safe mode screen thing came up.

I have a Windows restore disk that came with the computer and I'll use that tomorrow when I try it.

A restore disc will format and restore an image of windows... Use that, and all data will go bye-bye forever...

 

[Cupooterluvr]

Ahh... I guess I'll have to use a drive case then.

Thanks for your help, guys.