How do you insert a hard drive from your old pc into your new one?

Question

If you want to know, it is from an old dell into a new one. I know where I put it but do I need to format it first or install it. Is there anything I need to change on the hard drive (a friend said something about changing it from a master drive to a slave drive)

How do I set the new system to slave?

Answer 1

you need to set the one you are adding to the new system to slave,that is if you are using it as a second drive
the way it works is your main drive(the one with windows on )is allways set to master,and if you add a second drive(for storage)you set that to slave
there are normally settings diagrams on the top of the drive,allways check these as different hard drives have different jumper settings,if you are not sure go to the hard drives website,there are jumper settings flash demos which show you how to set the drives
good luck

Answer 2

On the back of the drive, probably in between the Data connector and the power connector, there will be a bunch of pins with one or two "jumpers" on some of the pins. The jumpers tell the drive if it is a master drive or a slave drive. Usually the drive label has what position the jumper needs to be in to be master or slave. Make sure that your new drive is set to master, and the old drive is set to slave.

This is only if both drives are IDE (uses a wide ribbon). If the drives are SATA (uses a small narrow cable) you need to have the new drive in the primary slot and the old drive in a secondary slot. If you have both an IDE and SATA, you need to do into the BIOS and set the SATA drive to boot first, so it doesn't try to boot off of the IDE drive.

Formatting the drive is up to you. If you don't want any of the data on the old drive, you should probably format it so it will be clean and ready to be used. If you want to get to the data, don't format the drive.

To format the drive while Windows is running, go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management->Right click on the drive and choose format.

Answer 3

Assuming they're compatible, installing a hard drive is actually pretty easy. First, the old drive will need power from the new computer. Disk and Hard drive power cords are usually 4 wires (Black, yellow, red orange) with a white tip. Simply plug any one of these (your computer should have several strung together) into the hard drive.

Next, the computer will need to be able to communicate with the drive. Most commonly, this is through an IDE/ATA cable (a ribbon about 3 inches wide, usually grey). Newer computers will have an SATA cable, (Smaller ribbon, often red, about 1 inch wide.) Each IDE Cable should have 3 plugs (One is plugged into your computer, don't unplug this one :D). Ideally, you'd put your new computer's main hard drive on the *end* plug of one cable, and the old drive on the *middle* plug of the same cable. (If your new drive uses a SATA cable, you can string your hard drive in with a CD or DVD drive.) This indicates that the new drive is the 'master' (and therefore more important) over the old drive.

The only other thing to check is the master/slave setting on your old drive. Between the power and IDE plugs in the back of your old hard drive, there should be a set of prongs with a white or black 'plug' covering two of the prongs. Hopefully, there will be a label somewhere that tells you that one pair of prongs is MS (master), another is SL (slave), and a third that says CS (Cable select). This basically tells the hard drive how 'important' that drive is. Set it to slave, and it will be less important than your main drive.

That's a very brief glazing over of all the details, assuming that your old drive is compatible with your new computer. Hope it helps!

Answer 4

ok here we go...i hope you have a harddrive in your new pc and you have an operating system running on it.
What your friend said was correct, u need to make your old hard drive a slave. and your new hard drive will be the master

IN your new pc it should be the master. Now remove your old drive, behind it you will find a slot, over which you can see the marking MA SL and something else I dont remember. You will find a plastic casing below the MA, that connects two pins. Now remove it using a pointed device, a nose plyer should be ok, and insert the same on the pair of pins below the writing SL. Now you have made your harddisk a slave. Now you can connect this hard disk to your new pc.

The PC should boot from the master and when you go My computer and check out you will find your old drive too listed.

Bingo

Good luck

Answer 5

Everybody is giving you v good advice regarding setting your old drive as a SLAVE...however...some of the advice is overlooking something!
Your new mother board may only have 1 x IDE port...and your new ATA hardrive (if it is an ATA drive) will of course be plugged into that....and then you will almost certainly have a CD drive or DVD writer etc...which will also come off that same cable and IDE port. The CD or DVD drive will be set to slave...and the new Hard drive will be set to master.
This all being the case .....you are stuck ...because you can only run 2 x IDE devices off 1 x IDE port.

Its not a problem though!! you can purcahse a seperate card for £10-20 which is a contoller card with another 1 or 2 ide ports. The car would fit in one of the WHITE PCI slots. This will give you another 1 or 2 IDE PORTS to play with.

On the other hand you may just find your new PC motherboard does have 2 x IDE ports....in which case its easy.

So my advice is....check to see if your new PC's configuration is ATA ...and also how many IDE ports you have on the motherboard (Dell will you tell you all this...or check the docs that came with the PC...or just look inside the PC)

If your new drive however is a SATA (serial ATA) drive....that will be connected to the Serial ATA port.....and if that is the case.....your CD/DVD drive...will most likley be connected to your IDE port.

Now if thats the case....then the DVD will be set to master....is which case you set your DRIVE to slave...and slot it in on the end of that cable.....or if it were me..prob set your drive to master...and the DVD to slave.

SLAVE OR MASTER: This is simply done by looking at the various configurations normally on a label on your drive. You simply set the jumper block accordingly....or in a lot of cases....you can remove the jumper altogther ...and that will set the drive to slave. If the config label is not there....check the drive out on the drive makers support site...and they will tell you which way to set the jumper block. ITS DEAD SIMPLE THOUGH...and you won't hurt it by getting it wrong....it just won't be recognised if its wrong!!

Make sure you connect the old drive properly.....the IDE Cable will have 1 wire on 1 side which will be red.....and that almost always goes next to the POWER cable which will be shaped to fit one way...and will also have a red cable...make sure those cables are NEXT to each other (red next to red) .....push the IDE cable in v carefully or you will bend the little pins!!

EASIEST OF ALL!

Finally...if you want it really easy...and in a way more use!! You can purchase for about £5 off ebay, a USB to IDE converter cable!

This will come with a 240v Power cable and everything you need. You simply connect it up (all done externally and without ripping the new pc apart) setting your drive to master.....and then under My PC...you will see your connected old drive appear. You can drag and drop to your hearts content....and best of all ...using the same drive connect it to any other PC with a USB port....and do the same. Its all drag and drop....when you're done....you can store the drive very carefully wherver you want.

I have got a seperate drive I use for this purpose...and I store it away from my office...so if GOD FORBID...there was a fire at the office.....I still have my vital files (templates and docs etc) all backed up on the drive!!

Hope that all helps you squire!!!!

Answer 6

If you look on the hard drive, there will normally be a little tiny plastic jumper that you can move between pins on the end where the power cable and ribbon cable plug in. Hopefully there will be marks by the jumper, or on a lable on the hard drive somewhere, that show which set of pins are Master, Slave, and Cable Select.

If the hard drive is going on a ribbon cable by itself, it does not matter where the jumper is set. But recommend Master.
If it is going on the same ribbon cable as your current hard drive, you have to set it to "Slave".

If it is going on the ribbon cable with your CD drive, it must be set the opposite of the CD drive (If the CD is master, the hard drive must be slave - if the CD is slave the hard drive must be master)

If you set it wrong, your PC will either not boot, or if it does, you will not see either of the drives on the ribbon cable where you installed the hard drive. You are unlikely to damage the drive by putting the jumper on wrong. The PC will not boot, or not recognize it, to avoid damaging it Shut down and move the jumper of the hard drive to the opposite setting. (There are usually one three settings - plus "no jumper" can be one of the setting. So if you have to do it by trial and error, should take no more than 4 tries)

Once you have the drive installed and recognized in Windows, you can format the drive by right-clicking on it and choosing "Format" from the menu that appears.

Good luck

Answer 7

you will need to change the jumper settings these are located on the rear of the drive you will see a block of 8 pins you simply remove the small block from the master setting to the slave setting (it should show the setting required on the drive )

format after installing and you have transferred your old files are transferred to your new PC HDD

Answer 8

To set it to slave......... as has been said before, assuming it's an IDE drive there should be some jumper cables at the back.
You'll have to look up the hard drive manufacturer's website to see where exactly you have to stick the pins (if at all)...... from what I've been able to make out from the instructions for the HDD caddy I bought for the PC I'm building different make HDD's use different jumper positions.

Try this article I just found for more info:
http://www.pcmech.com/show/harddrive/43/

Answer 9

see if in computer 1 Hdd is already installed then u have to convery ur 2 hdd to slave through jumper or install it in 2 slot and there is no need to format 2 hdd but if u wanna clean the used space from ur 2 hdd u have to formte it to store new data

Answer 10

base line, you will ought to open up your Dell and spot if it has an IDE controller on the Motherboard. If it does, then you definately can plug the previous perplexingchronic with it is cable into that.