Installing My Current HDD On To A New Mobo - Is It Hard?

[Vanchatron]

I'm getting a new motherboard for Christmas tomorrow and at present I have 2 Hard Drives:

One 40gb HDD (C Drive)
One 4gb HDD (Recovery Drive)

As I've never installed a new mobo or a attached a HDD to one I have no idea what to do and I don't want to mess it up. I'd appreciate any help in the matter, thanks.

P.s. I really don't want to lose ANY of the data already on the HDD if that's possible.


HK

[ComputerNerd19]

First off if you want to set your computer up with both harddrives you will need to adjust your jumper setting so that one f your drives will be the master and the other be the slave. Second when installing the motherboard near the side there are three slots one for IDE hard drive cable and one for cd-rom it should be listed in small print under it primary ide. This is where you will need to plug in the cable. May i suggest you use a grounding cable when doing this.

[jlreich]

I really don't want to lose ANY of the data already on the HDD if that's possible.
What OS? It's usually recommended to do a fresh install of windows when changing motherboards, but if you are running XP you can do a repair install (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm).

If you want to do a repair install do not try to boot the OS before you do it. And it's best to back up any important data before attempting.


If you just want to save data, then burn it onto CD/DVD's, or other media as installing windows will overwrite it, at least whatever partition you install windows on will be overwritten.

As I've never installed a new mobo or a attached a HDD to one I have no idea what to do and I don't want to mess it up.
I suggest you do some reading before you attempt it if you have never done it before. Here (http://www.pcguide.com/byop/byop_Chapter3InstallingtheCPUHeatsinkandRAMOnTheMa inboa.htm) is a good place to start. It's another good site by the owner of the forums.

[Vanchatron]

What OS? It's usually recommended to do a fresh install of windows when changing motherboards, but if you are running XP you can do a repair install (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm).

If you want to do a repair install do not try to boot the OS before you do it. And it's best to back up any important data before attempting.


If you just want to save data, then burn it onto CD/DVD's, or other media as installing windows will overwrite it, at least whatever partition you install windows on will be overwritten.


I suggest you do some reading before you attempt it if you have never done it before. Here (http://www.pcguide.com/byop/byop_Chapter3InstallingtheCPUHeatsinkandRAMOnTheMa inboa.htm) is a good place to start. It's another good site by the owner of the forums.

I'm running Windows XP Home Edition. I think I'm gonna just do a whole reinstall of Windows XP instead of a repair, but the only thing I'm bothered about is that I have around 10gb of Music/Videos on my PC and I DON'T want to lose it all as it's taken me over 3 years to amass the collection.

I have some 4gb blank DVD CD's... Would I be able to put the music onto them and then when I've done the reinstall of Windows, put the music back onto the PC from the discs?


HK

[jlreich]

I have some 4gb blank DVD CD's... Would I be able to put the music onto them and then when I've done the reinstall of Windows, put the music back onto the PC from the discs?

Yes, as long as the music isn't DRM protected. I would make the DVD's, try them on another computer to make sure they will transfer OK before proceeding with a fresh install.

[Erik]

Are you sure it is two physical hard drives? Many times those recovery "drives" are just a small partition of the main drive. What is on the recovery drive? What brand of PC are we talking about here?