the hard drive is from an IBM pentium3 and wish to install into compaq pentium2 the 3 is history. The computer I want to install to is used by my daughter for school and the Harddrive is very small and limited help would be appreciated.
2006-09-20 12:26:58 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Yes you can install the drive. I would recommend making it a slave and keeping the original drive on the Pentium II as the master or OS drive. I would recommend that you wipe the drive before you attempt to install it so you won't have any OS conflicts. Then when you install the drive you can format it and use it as a media drive and transfer your media files to it, keeping only operating software on the original drive. This is the setup I use and my computer runs much smoother with less probability of crashes.
2006-09-20 12:38:25 · answer #1 · answered by mufasa 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Naturally all desktop IDE hard drives are interchangeable to some extent, but there are definite issues in the swap you have in mind. First may be that the operating system is not backwards compatible but probably is. Next is that you don't want to pass along a virus that may be what killed the P3. Other than that, there is the issues of needing to re-install the proper drivers for the sound, video, etc. If both are running the same OS, then you have 1/2 the battle won. However if the P3 was WindowsXP you will have to reactivate it, and the numbers from Compaq will not match those on the IBM for the license key. If you are running windows 98 you should be fine. For the drivers issue, you will need to visit http://www.driverguide.com to get the proper drivers. So first, run the P2 and get every bit of system hardware information you can from the accessories tools menu so that you have it before you need it. I would recommend wiping the larger hard drive and using it as a second hard drive for data storage and leave the original in place. As long as the system has room for it, it is as simple as changing the little jumper from master to slave on the larger drive, connecting the power and the data ribbon cable. The ribbon cable has a red wire down one side to idetify that as ID #1 which goes closest to the power connector.
2006-09-20 12:37:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am not sure what your goal is.
If you are thinking that you are going to move it with Windows, there are a lot of pitfalls. None of the drivers will be right and you will have to manually fix all them. You might do a repair install after you move it and that will fix most of them but probably won't fix it all. You also run the risk that the older computer won't handle the OS that is on the dive. You try to put XP on the P2 and it chokes.
If you are moving it to get to the documents and use the storage space, that isn't a big deal. You just have to change the jumper to slave and plug it to the same IDE cable as the other hard drive. The slave is closest to the motherboard on the ribbon. Plug in the power and start the boot. Go into the BIOS and make sure that it picks up the second drive and you are done.
One other thing. If the drive is formatted NTFS and you put it on Windows 98, you will have to reformat it because it won't read it.
2006-09-20 12:47:18 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If your Pentium 3 is toast, and you want to put the HDD into the P2, you should not have any problems, you mat want to take the RAM as well to beef up your daughters pc.
When you install the HDD it may ask you for the installation CD to find new drivers. Thats the only thing i can think of.
Good luck
2006-09-20 13:51:21 · answer #4 · answered by Waz 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes you should keep the original drive. That way you don't need to install windows again. Be sure your jumpers are either on cable select or slave before installing the drive. I would also say don't put it on the same IDE cable as the cd drive.
2006-09-20 12:41:40 · answer #5 · answered by mrwords2002 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, you can use hard drive from another computer and put it on another. BUT you can't use it as a MASTER drive. You may add to your computer as SLAVE drive. If you want to use alone (as MASTER) on your computer, you have to clean it first (see link how to do it).
And as you said it is very small in space, the best you can do is just put it as SLAVE to your computer. If hard drive is just a slave, you can safely format this hard drive.
2006-09-20 12:38:57 · answer #6 · answered by VBACCESSpert 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
your options is to replace it with hers and if it has windows 98/me on it you not need to reinstall windows just update the drivers.
you can install it as a slave drive and delete all the information on it so you have more space available.
2006-09-20 12:32:45 · answer #7 · answered by Bill 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am afraid your bios would not support the change from 3 to 2. I would like to see other opinions.
2006-09-20 12:30:55 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do that alot to install on a older computer.
2006-09-20 12:36:43 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋