Computer question, hard drive related

edbert

Alright, so I have a great new computer that is working very well. I have an old computer that while I would love to use it as some sort of music server or something, I know that I won't do it anytime soon. I do know that the hard drive in the old computer is still good and I would love to use it as a slave drive. Here's the question, I want to first make sure that I have backed up everything on the old hard drive onto the new one(pretty sure that I have except for music). How would I do that first and then setup the old drive as a second hard drive or slave drive so that I can use it to store music, pictures, whatever on?

Oh yeah, I am running XP Pro. Thanks again!

phuz

Easiest way is to just get an external USB hard drive holder/caddy from newegg.com or tigerdirect.com. They're about $30-$40. Put your old drive in the caddy, plug it in, and plug the USB port into your new PC. Viola, the disk mounts and has all of your stuff on it. You can sift through it and make sure you've gotten everything you need... then reformat that sucker and use it for storage.

Same principle as all the external drives you see for sale at electronics/computer stores, except you already have the drive... you just need the enclosure.

edbert

That would work, but I forgot one other item. I would like to do this for free. I have the cables to hook it up and all that, I just want to make sure I do things correctly so that I don't mess anything up on my current computer.

Thanks again.

eeagle

Most new machines now use the SATA (serial ATA) standard. It is the successor to the legacy Advanced Technology Attachment standard (ATA), retroactively renamed Parallel ATA or PATA which is most likely what your old machine has. SATA uses smaller round data cables rather than the flat ribbon cables of days past.

You could still mount the older drive in the new machine, but it will likely take another board to provide the older parallel interface for the older drive.

By far the easiest is the USB hard drive holder/caddy suggested.

Sami

Just connect the old drive as slave and then transfer the files to your new drive. It's simple as that.

VSchneider

eeagle wrote: »

Most new machines now use the SATA (serial ATA) standard. It is the successor to the legacy Advanced Technology Attachment standard (ATA), retroactively renamed Parallel ATA or PATA which is most likely what your old machine has. SATA uses smaller round data cables rather than the flat ribbon cables of days past.

You could still mount the older drive in the new machine, but it will likely take another board to provide the older parallel interface for the older drive.

Very true, but I am yet to see a PC (other than the super-slim office desktops) w/o at least one PATA connector on board. With that - it's at least 2 PATA devices that can be connected.

phuz

VSchneider wrote: »

Very true, but I am yet to see a PC (other than the super-slim office desktops) w/o at least one PATA connector on board. With that - it's at least 2 PATA devices that can be connected.

This is true. Crack the case of your new computer open and slave it up. Just make sure jumpers on the old drive - if it has any - are set to slave.

edbert

I do have a PATA connector, I do know that. I didn't think it would be as easy as changing the jumper settings to slave. I will have to give that a try here in the next day or two.

Thanks again!

VSchneider

Actually, even that might not be necessary. If the drive is the only thing hanging off of that PATA cable, then the current jumper settings (master or cable select) will work, too.

- Val

edbert

Done. Just moved the jumper over to slave, installed it in the new computer and WHAMMO!, another 60GB of space! I just have to make sure that I have everything copied over from the old hard drive and then I will format it and start to rip everything over to it to save space on the bigger hard drive for music and home movie editing. Thanks again!