How do I take out my computer's harddrive and put it in another computer?

Question

Ok my computer crashed months ago (it's really old, probably made in 1998, and its an AND Duran) and since then I have gotten a new computer. I've been looking up ways to retreive all of your files from your old computer and everyone says "just take out your hard drive and put it in your new computer". BUT HOW DO YOU DO THAT?! Can someone explain this in a simple fashion...

Answer 1

Ok, this is easy if you've ever seen it done by someone, but if you're not knowledgeable about this stuff it might take a long message to describe everything in detail.

DO NOT LISTEN TO THE IDIOT THAT SAYS TO PULL THE POWER CORD ON THE MACHINE... you need the power cord there to ground everything and keep you from frying it with static.
If you don't take the power supply apart the voltage inside the rest of the computer is not enough to worry about AT ALL.

Open the computer you're taking the drive from and locate the hard drive you want to take out. It is connected with one ribbon cable and a power cable (the one with yellow red and black wires).
Take a good look at how the connectors go in there, particularly at the ribbon cable There's a red line on the cable. make a note of which way that line is facing (is the line close to the power supply cable or away from it)
Pull the two connectors out and take out whatever screws are holding the drive in there and slide the drive out.

Look on the drive for a set of 3 jumper connectors, they're usually labeled C S M.
M-Master
S-Slave
C-CableSelect
you want to put one of those little jumpers so short out the two pins where it says S (that puts it in slave mode). other drives show you how to connect the jumpers for the different modes... just look on the hard drive label.

Now there is a ribbon cable that goes from your cdrom to the motherboard
and one that goes from the existing hard drive to the motherboard. You can connect the new drive to either one of those cables as a secondary.
Either one of those cables should have an extra connector somewhere in the middle or at the end. If there are not 2 connectors on the cable, you need another cable with 2 connectors.
Connect the hard drive to the ribbon cable on the connector that is free and make sure the red line on the ribbon cable is facing the same direction as on the old drive.
Find a power connector (there should be a couple extras in there), they're the ones with the yellow red and black wires) Connect it to the hard drive the same way the other hard drive is connected.

Place the drive in the case somewhere where the cables will reach to it properly.

You might have to go into your cmos setup to detect the new drive, or it might be automatic. (This is different from computer to computer... on some you press DEL or F1 when you turn the computer on.) look for an option to autodetect hard drives. or it will say Primary, Secondary. Set the secondary to autodetect. Then save and exit and let it restart.

you're done.

Answer 2

Depending on your particular setup in your new system, it may not be quite as simple. Your old system likely used an IDE ribbon (ATA) to connect the hard disk. Your new system could use the same ribbon setup or it could use a newer technology like SATA. I would expect though that your system would still have legacy IDE support but without knowing the system I can't say for sure. As for moving the disk to a new system, removal involves opening the case up. This could be as simple as a button on the back or toward the back of the computer or it could be screwed on. Disconnecting the drive will involve removing a power connector and the IDE connector. Both should disconnect with a small amount of force (no locks). As for removal from the tower frame, this could be a rail system or the disk could just be screwed into the frame. Once you have it open, it should be pretty obvious on how to remove it.

As for connecting it to the new system, if you only have one hard disk in it now and it uses the ATA ribbon, you will then need to look at setting the master/slave jumper on the back of the disk (near the connector points). Your primary disk will be the master and your old disk should be the slave disk. You'll mount your disk into the tower using a similar setup to what is already in your new system. If they use a rail system, you might have to visit a PC shop to find an equivalent setup or you can rig something up (as long as you don't intend to shake the system up too much). After that, the disk will be available to bring online in the OS. Assuming MS Windows 2000/XP, look in the Computer Management interface for Disk Management.

If you have SATA drives in your new system (this will be a much smaller connection for the disk than the old ATA ribbon), you may need to use your old ATA ribbon from your old PC. This of course assumes that you have a place to hook up the ribbon on your new system. If no, a fairly inexpensive PCI card can be purchased from a local computer shop.

Answer 3

If you had to ask, then you should not do it yourself.Ask the question of a repair shop as to whether it can be done. You might ruin the drive if you try it yourself.
You may have an operating system on it that is no longer supported, so be sure all is OK before doing anything to the computer.

Answer 4

Open the computer and look at the way its connected. Now disconnect the harddrive and connect it exactly as it was before. An easier way would be to get an external Harddrive Enclosure (sold at retail stores: bestbuy, circuit city etc).. put the harddrive in there and it converts it into USB. This makes life a lot easier.

Goodluck

Answer 5

open the case of the old computer, and unscrew and unplug the hard drive. then on the back of the hard drive move the pin jumper from mas to slv, and open the new computer up and screw this one in below it. the same ide cable that connects the primary has a center connection on it for a slave, hook it up and plug in one of the 4-pin power connections and close the system. then fire it up

Answer 6

Turn off your computer and unplug it. Open the case and you will see the hard drive there, remove the cables and screws and just slide it out. Then hook it up as a SLAVE drive on the other computer and it will be recognized and automatically installed under My Computer.

Answer 7

This is the basic for one Drive.
Apply it to Each Machine, and it should help:
http://www.fonerbooks.com/r_hard.htm
About the only thing that will be a bug is the pin setting for the second drive. You need to search and find out what the PIN for slave would be for the old drive

Answer 8

just take it out and plug it into a free connector on an ide cable ... or to a sata watever u have .....it may need to have the jumper position in the back changed to slave or cableselect depending on where u put it on a cable in relation to another drive ...cs usually works ..

Answer 9

Heck man take the cover off pull it out and plug it in the new one aint but one place it will fit

Answer 10

Maybe, you should get a qualified, time-tested and reputed professional over to your premise, and stipulate to him, your specific requirements, as accurately as possible. He can, then, do the needful with you, alongside.