Back with a new question. My aunt's IBM thinkpad 390E died. No power, even with AC adapter. Was probably the battery. However, my aunt already purchased a new laptop running vista. She is needing me to install XP on this new laptop to run a sewing maching program that has no vista drivers. I am in need of a cable that will convert the HD to usb so that I may plug it into the new laptop and retrieve her info. Do you know if anyone makes such a cable?

Thanks again. You all are awesome help!

Kamel0

I suggest you purchase an enclosure for a USB external drive and install the old laptop HDD in there. You can also use it for storage after the data is transferred and subsequently formatted.

Do you have the XP drivers and OS available to make that new Vista laptop run XP?

This adapter converter cable (http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-USB-DSC5-3-5-Inch-Converter-Adapter/dp/B000HJ99DI) works with nearly all sorts of hard drives including SATA and 2.5" IDE.

Quite a good thing to have in one's kit anyway. But as PrntRhd suggest an enclosure has other uses. Just be sure to buy one specific to the type of hard drive.

Thanks for the info. I will get an enclosure and give it a shot. The XP drivers are on the old drive, although we have the cd for the xp drivers. Was going to try to install XP off the old drive and then call microsoft and tell them what happened and hope they would validate the old copy. This has worked for me in the past with dead puters. Have already partitioned the vista laptop and just need the adapter to move everything over. I surely appreciate your quick response!

Thanks again,

kamel0

Actually it depends on the version of XP whether it is legal to load onto a new PC.
OEM licenses are only good for the hardware it was originally installed on.
Full retail versions are legal if you remove the XP from the obsolete PC.

The drivers required for the new PC may not be the ones used for the old hardware.

Windows Activation is a very hit and miss affair. I have activated systems immediately and over the internet that I was sure would be problematic without so much as a boo from MS. Others that should have been straightforward reinstalls of retail editions on the same hardware have forced a telephone reactivation. Go figure.

I so agree about the activation hit and miss. I have found the same thing! I will have to check whether the XP version on the old laptop is OEM. If not, I told my aunt she may need to be another XP cd to load onto the new laptop. I may be getting back with you all if I have troubles with the load. This is only my second laptop experience. I have done a bunch of PCs, but laptops are kinda foreign to me. Thanks again. You are an invaluable resource and I am certainly glad I joined back when I did. You have always been able to help me through issues I can't figure out!

Kamel0

Do check with the maker as to whether the drivers for XP are available or not.

BTW - Pre-installed Vista Business and Ultimate editions should entitle one to downgrade to WinXP (http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=543) using the Vista Key and a telephone call activation.

1. How about running the sewing machine program under WINE within a Puppy Linux environment?
Puppy will take care of the hardware, and you can specify a Windows environment to use within WINE.
Keep the Vista install and run any number of Puppies in addition.

2. There are any number of FREE Puppy Linux puplets available, and you can run as many of them as you like.
They can be run in a variety of ways.
e.g.
(a) Full install to an added Linux partition on the internal HDD.

Or even better:
(b) Full install to a Linux partition on a USB Flash Drive.

(c) "Frugal Install" to any handy [NTFS, FAT, Linux] partition on the internal HDD or any kind of external storage.
Initiate boot from an optical disk.