I replaced a hard drive in a pc due to the thing not working properly. I want to know if I can attach the old HD to the cable and download info from the old one to the new one.
2007-02-26 08:07:28 · 12 answers · asked by Eddie F 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Absolutely. As long as the old drive still works. Just set the old one as a slave and you should be able to copy everything over. Other than that, make sure your boot drive is set to your master drive in the BIOS so it will launch into your new hard drive instead of the old one.
2007-02-26 08:09:51 · answer #1 · answered by anonfuture 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The only way to find out is to try.
Honestly, when a hard drive starts to die, it can be very flaky. It will work sometimes and other times it will not.
I can tell you from experience that it will work better if the drive stays cool. You can do this by keeping a couple of fans on it while it works.
It is really a shot in the dark though, if it was kinda working last time you used it then I would be optimistic that it will still work to at least retrieve some of the data.
2007-02-26 08:12:31 · answer #2 · answered by Bjorn 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, you will have to set the jumpers on the new hard drive to master, and the jumpers on the old one to slave if you want to connect the drives to the same cable. If you don't have any intention of keeping the old drive in the computer the easy way is to disconnect the drive cable and power cable from your cd rom and temporarily connect your old hard drive that way. (you don't have to mount the drive to the case) Boot the computer and copy the files you want to save to your new C: drive (the old one will be D or E). Once you have copied the files remove the old drive and reconnect your cd rom.
Remember to unplug the computer and ground yourself when messing around inside the box.
2007-02-26 08:14:32 · answer #3 · answered by Fremen 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes! If it has the same type interface you can set one hard drive as master and the other as slave. There are jumper settings on the hard drive. Connect the hard drive to the same interface cable. When you boot your computer the slave will show as another drive such as D: or E: you can then simply drag and drop into the new hard drive. I would definitely make sure there is no viruses in the old hard drive.
2007-02-26 08:14:26 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the old broken hard drive was making loud, broken "noise", then probably not, it was a physical problem.
However if it just stopped working, you may have just fried the circuitboard. You can buy the exact model of hard-drive (off ebay). When you get it, unscrew the circuitboard off the new one and put it on the broken one. Plug it in and if you're lucky, it'll work again! I've done this before and I know it works!
2007-02-26 08:13:15 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This depends, if they are the same type (IDE-EIDE) you can use a dual device cable and setup a master and slave. However sometimes this works, sometimes it dont (with older drives).
As a contingency, I would try to setup a network connection between two computers (one with the old drive) and copy the drive contents across a network connection (ethernet).
2007-02-26 08:12:16 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the drive is functioning, you can certainly do this...
If the drive has some physical damage, you need to contact a data recovery service to repair the drive...
See the referenced site for more info on hard drive backup/recovery...
2007-02-26 08:29:12 · answer #7 · answered by N2FC 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course you can provided you set the old one up as slave and have the right settings on both drives.
2007-02-26 08:10:16 · answer #8 · answered by snvffy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You MAY be able to depending on the conditon of the old drive.
Sure can't hurt to try, just make sure the change the pins to SLAVE
2007-02-26 08:11:25 · answer #9 · answered by mrresearchman 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes. make the old one a slave and the new one the master. If it isn't dammaged to bad you can copy to the new one.
2007-02-26 08:10:52 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋