Connecting old harddrive to new HD...
 

I want to hook up my old HD to my new one so that i can transfer all my Pictures etc etc over to my computer.

I have slight idea on how to do this..But i'm not positive and i would like to make sure that i'm doing it right before i do this.

My old computer is a compaq presario and i can't get the harddrive out of it. It's sitting vertical against the front of the case inside a metal housing case.

So if i disconnect the IDE cable from the motherboard and plug that into the slave IDE part of my IDE cable in my new system..will my new computer recognize it? Does the power on my old computer also have to be on to do this?

Thanks.

You sure you can't get it out?

Not that that's relevant. What you posted will work exactly. What you probably should do is disconnect the power from the old hard drive and plug that into the new computer as well, but you probably don't need to. If you don't, the other computer will need to be on, otherwise the old hard drive won't be able to spin or send any data.

Just make sure the jumpers on both hard drives are set correctly. That might be a little hard to verify if you can't pull the old hard drive out, as it's usually written on top. If it doesn't work right the first time, I would bet nearly anything that it's a jumper setting - if you can't find a label that has them written, you may just have to play around with it.

Good luck!

You mean that my new computer will be able to power the old HD enough to transfer without having the old computers power on?

Ya and getting my old HD out of my compaq aint happening, The hard drive is sittting in that metal case vertical against the front wall and then there's another case behind it for i guess a second HD, And the drive bays for CD/DVD etc etc are sitting about 2 inches above these vertical casing's.

Compaq really doesn't want you to be able to take anything they have put in out.

Just want to make sure you are not trying to plug an IDE cable into another IDE cable, because unless technology has changed since I last built my computer, that is impossible. You want to take one hard drive out of one computer (IE unplug its power and take it off the IDE chain) and put it on the other computer's IDE cable as a slave, and plug a power cable from the power supply into it. then reboot the computer and make sure you see that it was recognized in the computer's self test while booting. Then it should appear in windows and you can copy your data over to the other hard drive on the IDE cable.

You would be able to get it out - sometimes you have to do lots of disassembly to do it though.
Someone had to put it together in the first place.

ah yes...I do this sometimes when I feel lazy, as long as the ide and power cable for your new computer is long enough to reach the old hd you do not need your old computer on. I like to call it a form of computer sex...

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Ya..I didn't even think of that, I put them beside eachother and went to plug them in and oops..that aint gonna work.

I'm gonna see if i can rip the hard drive out of my compaq.

I had an old compaq it is possible to get it out, but I had to remove the front cover to access a single screw that was holding it in place that i could not get to from the inside.

Thay got it in there, so you can get it out. Even if it means a cutting torch heeh.

Of course it can power it enough. Many computers have multiple hard drives in them. The thing you seem to be forgetting is that POWER doesn't go through the IDE cable. It goes through the power cable. Each hard drive has two cables plugged into it. What I was saying is you should use the power cable from the new PC, as well.

However, since the IDE cables don't seem to reach the old hard drive, it looks like you need to remove it anyway. I'm sure you CAN get it out, as I've done it before, but I don't remember exactly how. On many commercial PCs there is a lever or button to release the front face plate so you can access the drives.

Ya i got the HD out of the compaq..what a pain in the ass.

I hooked it all up..and when i turned it on..windows didn't load..it was askin to choose a proper boot device, I don't know what to pick lol. I just shut it down and disconnected. I guess you can say i'm alittle paranoid with this new computer because, I put it together lol.

Sounds like you need to reset your jumpers. Make sure that the drive you want to boot from is set as the master, and that the other is set to slave or cable select. Hope this helps.