I have the hard drive from my last computer. How can I connect and remove stored information from it?

HSchil, November 2008

Dont worry about it being the same make, it makes no difference.

If you are connecting it to the same ribbon cable as your new drive then it needs to be set as SLAVE and make sure new one is set as MASTER.

To do this look on back of drive there is a series of 7 or 8 pins which have a small jumper across 2 of them. The number of pins and configuration varies by make of drive but there should be a label on the drive to show which configuration you need for master or slave.

If your CD/DVD rom is connected to the same ribbon as your new hard drive then the old drive should be connected to the secondary IDE socket on motherboard. this is located next to the Primary IDE socket (connected to new hard drive). In this case the old drive must be set as MASTER.

Once this is connected, including the power socket, boot the computer up as normal. when in windows, goto "MY COMPUTER" and your old drive will be shown in there, You can then do what you like with the information on that drive, move to "MY DOCUMENTS" etc.

*** Main thing to remember is that if you have 2 drives on the same ribbon whether it hard drive, CD or DVD, one must be set as MASTER and the other must be SLAVE. - Main Hard drive MUST ALWAYS be connected to the Primary IDE socket (usually Blue) and set as MASTER. if you only have one drive connected to ribbon then it must be set as MASTER ***

Any programs installed on old drive most likely wont run without re-installing as they are not added to the registry of your new system. This will be the case no matter how you transfer the data.

I personally would then leave the drive (as long as its not faulty) In the system and format it so it can be used as additional storage.

Cougar, November 2008

If the computers were the same make you can remove the information on the old hard drive by doing a fast swap. you just unplug the hard drive in the new computer and plug the old hard drive into the new computer. you don't even have to remove the hard drive from the new computer to do this. once you have the hard drive from the old computer pluged into the new computer just find the information you want to store on the new computer and place it in your my documents folder. then just hook up the hard drive of the new computer and replace the case. go to the my documents folder and scroll down until you come to the information you placed there from the old hard drive.

mickey-G, November 2008