how to copy old hard drive onto new machine?

Question

I have old computer running Win 95,want to copy all old drive to new computer running Win XP Proffesional,I have old drive in a caddy with usb port,is it straight forward to transfer all hard drive contents to new hard drive or will there be a conflict as a lot of files are in DOS Thanks bavis

Answer 1

Hi - in this situation I always install the old hard drive as a slave so I can simply copy My Documents across from the old drive to the new C drive. Simply link the old drive using the spare connector on your hard drive ribbon and make sure that you have removed the jumper (little black plastic thing across one pair of a group of 3 or 4 sets of pins on the rear of the drive) from the back of the old drive. That sets it as a slave.
You can copy any files across (e.g. using Windows Explorer) but, of course, Windows programmes need to be reinstalled on your new hard drive though you can copy DOS programmes (exe files) across. But you could as easily run them from the old drive unless you need to take it out of your computer for some reason.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The computer or operating system don't really care that the files are in DOS. The applications that try to open them may care, but generally good programs have what is called backwards compatibility. This means that old data can be used by new programs of the same make.

If I understand what you mean by the old drive being in a caddy, you can plug it straight into your new computer and tell it to copy. But DON'T copy into the root drive. Make a folder and then let it copy the files and folders into the folder you make. This will prevent overwriting files in your XP operating system.

If I misunderstand you and the hard drive is still in the old computer then look up an XP utility called file transfer and follow the instructions for utilizing this good tool.

Answer 3

I'm going to assume that you just want the data on the old hard drive in a folder on the new computer, not to actually replace the new Windows XP installation.

In this case, since you have the old drive already in a caddy, just make a folder on the new hard drive called backup and select all the files and folders on the old hard drive and right-click go to copy.....go to the backup folder on the new hard drive and right-click paste.

You won't run into any issues or problems copying it. Whenever you copy older OSes to new ones, you have no problems....new to old is a different story.

Answer 4

There are two types of hard drives, Parellel Hard-drives and Serial Hard-drives. It will be easy if the two drives are of the same to hook them up. One master and the second Slave.
It has to work fine because I have done exactly the same.
I got 2 Pc's. I found on old Pc in the dumster whereI live, I checked it out and had Microsoft Office 2003 programs. of course I wanted to keep that so I added it as a slave on one of my pc running XP pro. That was about 6 months ago and still running good. If the drives are not the same Parallel and Serial, you Fries Electronics and get an adapter to match them
So you can do the same, too.
Ok. Good luck to you.

Answer 5

If you have the drive in a usb caddy, you should be able to move the files manually. Generally, data files would be stored in your My Documents folder and you can simply drag-and-drop that file into your new hard drive (you may have to rename it something like My Old Documents first). Another method would be to put the drive back into your old computer, connect them both to a network, and then use ftp to transfer the files. You can download free ftp servers from various locations - just do a search for free ftp server.

If you have programs installed that you want to move over, you will need to install the programs from scratch on the new machine. You could move over related data files. Check your hard drive carefully for any data files which are deep in the structure and not stored in your My Documents folder, as each program determines on its own where it will store its data files. Especially look out for anything related to financial software, tax returns, e-mail archives, downloaded music, video, or other entertainment related files.

Answer 6

OK well if you put your windows XP CD in the drive, with your computer turned on their is a section located on the CD its self for transferring data from one drive to the other.

Be very carful when transfering certain things from an OS with 95 on it to XP. Make sure you do not transfer your drivers from 95 if it asks you because it will cause serious problems.

Nortan System Ghost is a great tool to use for data Transfer of an Hard Drive.
I hope this helped you out.

Answer 7

Basically you should insert your old hard drive into your new computer. Then from here you should use some sort of imaging software to copy the contents of the hard drive to your new one.

Here's a link to a program:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/

The trial is free, it lasts 10 days which is more than enough for your needs.

Answer 8

Drag and drop should work.

No problems, as far as I know about copying data. The only conflict you could have is trying to run certain old DOS files. Probably program files (likely to have '.com' endings)

Answer 9

You can copy your document,pictures,videos, but not any of your programs will work without installing them again without the install disk or file. If you have downloaded programs they can be copied to the new drive and installed from there.

Answer 10

Word documents are backword compatible so you should not meet any problems there. Programs would perform faster on a system that supports WinXP. Incompatibilities exist for printer/scanner drivers.