i'd like to take my old hard drive from a Windows XP professional pc and put it in a new one with XP Home, but i'd like to keep the data on the old drive, is it possible?
2006-09-12 00:43:36 · 14 answers · asked by yourselforsomeonelikeyou04 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
If you mean to add the old drive as a second drive with all the data still on it - yes. If you open the PC, you will normally see to flat ribbon-like cables. One will run to the hard drive. The other to the CD drive. Normally one or both of the ribbon cables with have an extra connector on it. You would simply plug the old drive into that extra connector and plug in a power cable and you are good to go.
Before plugging in the hard drive, you will need to change the drive from "master" to "slave". Normally near where the power and ribbon cable connect you will find a series of 4-6 pairs of pins. Normally there is a very small plastic jumper over one of the pairs of pins. The placement of the jumper informs the computer whether the drive is the main drive (master) or a second drive (slave). Usually somewhere on the drive will be a little chart, or it will have M,S and CS etched by the pins, to tell you what setting is Master, Slave and Cable select. You may need to move the jumper to the slave setting.
You do realize that you will NOT be able to run any of the programs that are on the old drive. It will just become extra storage space. So at some point you will want to delete the Windows and Program File directories off the old drive.
2006-09-12 00:50:20 · answer #1 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you are adding the old hard drive as a second hard disk to the new computer than nothing will happen to your data and you can use it without any problems. If you want to put the hard disk as a primary hard disk to the new PC and you want to place the Windows XP Home as the operating system. Then if you have a partition on the hard disk , tranfer all your data to d: or any other partition and keep the C: partition free from data. This C: you format and then install windows xp home and access all your old data from the other partitions like d: or e: etc. If you have only one partition on the old hard disk then you have to backup all your data on pen drive or a DVD/CD before you format or if you can use Norton Ghost you can partition your hard disk without damaging the data and transfer all the data to that newly created partition D:
2006-09-12 00:56:48 · answer #2 · answered by ssmindia 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you mean add it as a secondary drive then yes you can. Make sure you change the primary / slave jumper if nessecary.
If you mean to use it as the primary drive and boot from it then you're in for a lot of fun with Windows, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Windows has a lock on how many device changes you can have before you need a new key, no idea how many changes that it but I doubt it's an entire new machine.
2006-09-12 00:48:16 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it is possible. When u open yur computer, make sure the data cable can hold another place for a disk drive and also your power. The put the jumper to cable select (CS) or slave. Then go into yur bios and make sure it is registered into the bios so the computer can recognize it. Laterz!
2006-09-12 02:42:21 · answer #4 · answered by The Honourable 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, you can run both the hdd simultaneously. set the jumpers of the hard disk to master and slave and connect it with single data cable. boot the pc from xp home operating system.
happy.....
2006-09-12 02:41:15 · answer #5 · answered by shahjigu 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes it is possible. i had music files on my old pc useing 98 that i wanted on my new puter. you have to move the jumpers to the "slave" setting. then conect to the new pc. should be loose conecters available. serial and power supply. restart new puter and windows should detect it as a cache. xp has programs taht will save user files and trash the old windows files for you under disk cleanup.
2006-09-12 00:52:40 · answer #6 · answered by lavoywilliams 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Make the new HD the Master, and the old one the Slave. Use the jumpers at the rear of the drives.
2006-09-12 00:51:50 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't forget to enter CMOS and update your computer's hardware configuration to include the new hard drive. Most CMOS systems do an automatic check now, but you can manually enter CMOS (to update hard drives, change boot sequence, change your system clock, etc.) by pressing the Delete key as soon as your computer starts up.
2006-09-12 00:53:34 · answer #8 · answered by Jonathan R 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your data will be safe but you have to install audio drivers and Video drivers according to your new PC's mother board
2006-09-12 00:46:39 · answer #9 · answered by Mr.Perfect 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1- save old data in another partition
2- re install windows
3- copy data to the same partition of windows
like my documents and desktop will find it in {C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\My Documents} and so on
Mohammed zaki
2006-09-12 00:50:02 · answer #10 · answered by BonDuq 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋