Since my old desktop's motherboard died, can I take it (used XP Pro) and hook it up in the Vista machine and transfer my files to it--since both have different OS, will this work?

Reason I ask is, a friend who does my network work on my office computers, took my old XP Pro hard drive and and used Total Media backup and dumped my old files onto an external hard drive.

When I explore this "data" I cannot find anything that I was expecting...meaning what you see with windows exporer and the list of things on the hard drive. This PC file is a data file and a cabinet file.

This is new to me and wondered if I can install or hookup my old hard drive in my new computer and pick off what I want to keep?

Afternoon TxDoc
You will have to change the jumper setting to slave on the old hard drive and make sure you use the middle cable 40 pin connector to hook it up to, That way your Bios will pick it up and tell your puter what is there, I do worry about having the operating system on the secondary HD. When I would use the old HD to either copy the files on to my new HD or keep em on there for a back up I always took off the system files. You might want to check your Bios settings and make sure the secondary/slave is set on auto.

quote:

Originally posted by hobbles:
When I would use the old HD to either copy the files on to my new HD

That is what I am trying to do. My old computer's motherboard is out. I was not sure how to get to the point of copying the files without getting power to it from my new computer. But, this internal HD has no USB connection or anything.

Also, I have an external HD with some of my files I want that is a USB capable drive. When I hook it up to my new computer via the USB, the computer recognizes it, but when I try to open any folder, it says the folder is empty. I suspect this is a file sharing configuration problem? I want to tell it to share all files, I guess, but not sure how to get there from here.

Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by TxDoc:

quote:

Originally posted by hobbles:
When I would use the old HD to either copy the files on to my new HD

That is what I am trying to do. My old computer's motherboard is out. I was not sure how to get to the point of copying the files without getting power to it from my new computer. But, this internal HD has no USB connection or anything.


Thanks

evenin TxDoc
You say you are hooking up the 2nd(old) hard drive to a usb port and not the gray 40 pin connector??

I use Norton Commander but you can use windows Explorer and see if it can read you other hard drive (it should be d: now I think) and to copy/move to your c:. After you get them moved over, you might have to use the task bar to set the old programs up.

I have the new computer with the Vista OS. I also have my HD out of my old computer (dead motherboard) with the XP Pro OS.

What is the easiest way to get power to my old HD, and be able to sit down and pick thru what files I want to transfer over to the new HD?

Where I am at right now is:
I got some files from an external HD with USB that was intended to be used for backing up...but, I was not as good at routinely doing that as I should have been. I did get it to work and transfered some files that I needed, but some are still on the old HD that does not have the USB connection.

Does that make more sense?

TxDoc, the cabinet file should be a collection of all your files from your old disk, like a zip file, assuming they guy from the office did it that way.

Your old disk, should be readable in a Vista machine but it depends on the motherboard capabilities. Some new motherboards come with Serial ATA support only!, or they are set up with a SATA drive and IDE support turned off.

You may need to go to the BIOS settings and see if you have IDE support.

If not don’t fret you can buy a IDE to USB adapter for under $30. You plug your old drive into it and plug it into a USB port and copy everything off.

Poke around a bit to see what you have on the new machine then drop a note here.

Evenin TxDoc
I'm not sure if we are talking about the same kind of hard drive. A hard drive has a 40 pin connector and a 4 pin power plug.


Stan by,, I got to go out to my quad and get my camera and take a picture of a old hard drive I have,

TxDoc

left side is the 40 pin connector, middle is the jumper's and on the right is the power supply. Is this what you have and where you are at?
YnotAZ might be able to explain this better then I, If so, I'll back out. I don't want you to lose the files you have.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hobbles,

First of all, it doesn't matter to another machine if OS files are on the second hard drive. There are pointers on your current hard drive that will only allow it to boot from what you are using now. Consequently there shouldn't be any problems. FYI - the only way it will matter on a second drive is if you install the OS to the second drive - which you are not planning on doing.

If I understand you correctly, you are telling us you have a third drive, with a USB connection that you have used for back up purposes. If that is the case, I am +99% sure it has internally, the same connection as the old hard drive. You should be able to open the case and temporarily put the old drive in the USB assembly and connect it with your USB cable.

The old drive most likely is an IDE drive. Another option is like ynotaz says - purchase an IDE to USB box and put the old drive in it. This option will give you an additional backup drive for your current system as well.

Let me know what you need help with and we can go from there.

I will take it out and let y'all know what I have. In the event it is an IDE, can I get the IDE-->USB box at Best Buy?

TXD.. Best Buy might carry it. They run about $10 for the adapter alone or less than $20 for the adapter and a power supply.

The one I have does IDE, notebook IDE and SATA to USB.. works great for the type of thing you are doing.

Source on the net

That is exactly what I wanted, but did not know it existed!

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/pc-66-3-rocketfish-35...drive-enclosure.aspx
This is what I got and it was a simple plug and go.

Boy, I cannot tell you how much of a headache I have had over this for the last two weeks! I thought I had lost everything and no way to get the info back. I had bookmarks, tech documents and owners manuals and tips for motors, engines, hunting and ATV and family and dog pics, many of which were taken on a Sony Mavica with floppy discs and not sure where they are at, now. I felt like I was doing a term paper and had it all typed up and ready to go and lost it.

I am going to take a 500 MB external drive and set up all of this on there and select my important files and documents to automatically backup, from now on. I guess I better keep the backup next to, but not plugged in, just in case of some unexpected lighting phenomenon.

This whole thing started with by LCD TV flickering. I tried a new video card and in less than two days, my motherboard went from doing very weird and unexpected things, to dying. I think the word for the day is BACKUP. I have never really had any computer problems in the eight years with the old Dell. I religiously did disc cleanup, defrag, etc., and was blindsided by the sudden cascade of my problem.

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP, AND TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT I WAS DESCRIBING. If I can repay the favor, let me know.

Backups are something I hate to have to do. But with that having been said, I treat backups as a necessary evil and just do them. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times a backup has saved someone. TxDoc, I do believe you have become a believer.

Once you have taken the files off of your old drive, reformat it and use it regularly for backups as well. I can guarantee you that having two backups can sometimes be a good thing. It definitely won't hurt anything.

Glad it worked out good for ya!