How do I copy data from one hard drive to another?

Question

My computer has a hard drive that is missing a NT loader, and I don't want to lose my data. So I want to know how do I copy my data? I've been told that I need a IDE cable and make my hard drive a slave drive (or something) and that was all, is there anything else?

Answer 1

Thats it. Plug the drive in and you're away! Rather than much about with master and slave, set the drive to "Cable Select" - much easier!

Answer 2

Drives are cheap these days so use a second drive as a slave by putting the jumper on the back in the slave position. On your original drive put the jumper in the master position. The third position on the back of the drive is cable select -- don't use it. You already have the IDE cable in your computer so plug it in to the new drive along with a power lead from your power supply. Windows should do the rest when you turn on your computer. Western Digital has a disk which comes with their drive which prompts you to copy to the new drive and programs like Copy It are available should everything else fail. May be cheaper in the long run to pay a computer geek (or COMPUSA) to do it for you.

Answer 3

Set the jumper setting to slave in the hard disk from which u need to retrieve data. The jumper settings are usually printed on the hard drive. There will be no need to buy any cable.
Open the cabinet of the working PC & check for the cable that connects to the good hard disk. It will have one additional link to connect another hard drive or CD ROM. Connect the hard disk to this link & boot the PC. If u have WinXP then it will automatically detect the new hard drive & assign drive letters to it. Before you transfer data run a virus scan. Also run scan disk on the problematic drive. That might usually reset your NT loader. Then back-up the data from the problematic drive to the good drive.

A much easier Method 2.:
Just buy a IDE to USB converter (This converts all IDE devices like Hard Disk & CD Drives to USB devices). It is very cheap & usually available in all PC stores. Connect the USB cable provided to the problematic hard disk & power-up the hard drive with the provided power cable.
Now boot your working PC. After it completely boots connect the other end of the USB cable to any USB port on your PC.
If you are running WInXP then the hard disk should be immediately detected & might need a reboot. Just reboot your system & transfer all data from the problematic hard disk. As suggested above also run a virus scan & scan disk on the disk.

Answer 4

Your system reports a missing NTFS Loader

NTFS (New Techonology File System) Loader is part of the Windows XP start sequence. If it is missing or corrupted Windows XP can not start.

Your Data should still be Ok as long as you don't start messing with the thing.

If your data is important take the machine to a repair facility.

Also you could try looking here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822800

and in general http:/support.microsoft.com

and seach for missing NTFS Loader.

and/or www.theeldergeek.com

Another option is to remove the HDD from your machine and install it into a friends. Then copy and paste the contents into the host HDD.

Burn the stuff you need to a DVD/CD and when you get your problem sorted out copy the stuff back to your HDD

Answer 5

Check the back of the non-working harddrive and make sure the pin is set to slave.

I'm assuming you know what to do. Also if it does not recognize the your slave drive you might have to go into your BIOS and search for it manually (even though most bios' do an automatic check for new hardware).

Answer 6

thats it ...
just plug the IDE cabel onto ur hard drive and the other side into ur mother bord then start th PC and u will find ur hard disk as any other part of the hard like ( C, D, E, ....then your hard )

Answer 7

Thats it on the nose !!!