Old HD into New Computer--How to do it?

[madmag]

Hi everyone,

I'm the guy who previously inquired how to fix my possibly fried computer. I did order a new power supply and installed it. Nothing. So instead of trying a new MOB (which is probably beyond my tech capability), I bought a new Compaq (200G HD, 1024 DDR RAM).

Now, I want to take the HD from my busted eMachines and make it a secondary HD in the new Compaq. Is it as easy as opening the Compaq, placing the old HD next to the new one and plugging in the pins? When I boot up, will I see the old HD in the "My Computer " section?

Any other issues to be aware of?

Thanks,
John

[Rick]

The first thing you need to know is what kind of drive is in both machines.
( IDE and or sata )
If both are say IDE then one should be jumpered to master and the old second drive should be jumpered to slave

If the new system is sata and the old is ide.
Then jumper the old drive to slave and place it on the IDE0 channel and leave the cd-rom/dvd on IDE1
then select boot from sata in your bios and disable boot from ide0

Then all the drives will work and be seen from within windows

If both drives are sata then place the old drive on sata 1 the new drive should be already on sata0

[madmag]

Thanks, Rick.

How do I determine what kind of drive they are? Are they marked somewhere?


How do I locate "IDE0 channel", or "sata 1" or "sata0"? Are these marked on the MOB or on the jumpers?

John

[Rick]

IDE is a 40/80 wire wide cable with a 40 pin connector on the end.
Sata is a small 4/5 wire cable

The ide0/1 and sata 0/1 should be printed on the mobo and or in the system manual

The ide jumper settings are normally printed on the drive label

[mjc]

That depends...

What types of drives are we talking about? SATA/PATA? Are there available connections in the Compaq?

Does the Compaq warranty allow for it?

[madmag]

Wow. Good point, mjc. I haven't even taken the Compaq out of its box yet.

My new direction is to buy a USB HDD external enclosure. This way, I don't have to open up the new Compaq, and now I have a portable hard drive.

2 Qs:

1) Can anyone recommend a good model/brand of a USB HDD external enclosure?

2) Will the type of Hard drive (IDE, SATA, etc.) be noted on the hard drive itself? I have the old one removed, but haven't really looked at it too closely yet.

Any heads up on what this'll be like? After I hook it up, will I look in "My Computer" on the Compaq and see the new drive in there? Will this just be a bunch of files becasue it's not being used with the old operating system (XP home)?

Is there a way to look at the old HDD with the new OS (XP MEdia)?

How could one view e-mails, for example, from the old HD?