Old HD in new Machine?? Problems?? 1

[ssimatt]

Okay, a friend of mine had his computer crash, but was fortunately able to save the old harddrive. He bought a new computer, with the same OS as the old one, and the machines are two years apart in age.

Would there be a problem for him to install the old HD in the new computer (along with the new HD)?

How would he go about doing so?

Thanks,
Matt U.

 

[paparazi]

Two years old means the old drive is very likely a normal PATA IDE unit.
His new system could be the newer SATA type or traditional PATA like the old one.
Remember you need the system to boot from the NEW drive and NOT the old, so set the small bridge jumpers on the old drive to SLAVE.
Now this drive needs connecting ideally to the secondary IDE cable, with say a CDrom device (CDRom set as master)

As long as the new drive is set first in the boot order (look in bios settings, boot order) it should boot normally and once detected the old drive should operate as normal.
Just remember two devices per IDE cable, one jumpered as master the other as slave.
Also this cable need to be the finer 80core "ultra" type as this hard drive will certainly be ATA66 or faster.

Martin


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[PRPhx]

IF the new computer's HD is a SATA drive and the old drive is a PATA drive, then you will have major issues when you install the old drive in the new pc. You will, in fact, most probably have to re-install the OS, with the SATA drivers (you will be prompted to hit the F6 key during install to install additional drivers for the SATA drive. The drivers SHOULD be on the cd for the motherboard and you will need to copy them to a floppy). At least this has been my experience. Windows doesn't really know how to handle SATA drives with a PATA drive also installed. PATA drives still seem to have priority over SATA drives when it comes to booting.

OTOH, if both drives are PATA, make sure the newer drive is either set to MASTER (oops Primary) and the older drive as Secondary on the same channel OR both set to cable select.

 

[paparazi]

PRPhx
I would agree in part about PATA and SATA, motherboards generally will try to boot from a PATA drive first but as long as the new drive is set "first" in the boot sequence there shouldn't be a problem.
Alot depends on the bios and what options are available.

Martin

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