Old hard drive - new pc

highfield · July 1st, 2005, 04:29 PM

Sorry - I first put this in the technical support thread...... I think it belongs here.

I have built some PC's in the past so I know the principles. My problem is that I bought a new PC - a Compaq SR1421UK with SIS760 chipset, and to save the task of reinstalling all my software and data wanted to swap the new HDD with my old one. Sounds simple.

My old PC died as a result of moving house (don't ask) but it is completely dead with suspected PSU issue. I can and will address this later.

The new PC has a hard drive with the new slim serial cable connector - i have never seen one of these before. The old HDD has the IDE cable. I am sure I can buy some kind of convertor but in the meantime, this is what I did:

I firstly tried just installing the old drive alongside the new one in the IDE slot with a seperate cable. I didn't expect it to work - and it didn't.

I secondly unplugged the new drive (power and serial cable - but only from the drive) and tried it with the old drive. It didn't get to a Windows screen but just went around in cirles with the Compaq boot up screeen.

The old drive has been set with the jumpers to Cable Select, which is what the PC handbook requires.

In the BIOS the old driveis correctly listed by name, and it is the secondary boot drive (the DVD is first). There seems to be brief disk activity when I boot, but then it goes back to the boot screen, and gives me the chance to safe boot. I try this, but it goes around in a circle once again.

I have a lot of data on that drive that I don't want to to lose. all help appreciated - you guys rock!

nwo75200 · July 1st, 2005, 04:42 PM

1 thread is enough

http://www.techimo.com/forum/t145992.html

JLK03F150 · July 1st, 2005, 04:45 PM

Try setting that old drive up as a slave - don't try to boot with it. The different drivers like mobo, video, NIC, etc are causing problems with windows trying to boot.

**Whir** · July 1st, 2005, 04:45 PM

If you read his post, he said something about that. kthxbai.

You should be able to use a serial and parallel drive in the same system.

I'm not really clear from your post, but you're trying to install Windows on the new serial drive without losing all the data that's on the old one? Or is there something else?

How are you connecting the new drive to an IDE channel exactly?

This sounds fishy. :X

highfield · July 1st, 2005, 04:55 PM

OK - first sorry NWO - didn't mean to post twice but didn't see the relevent place first time.

I am not trying to install Windows - all my apps and os are on my old drive - I just want the new pc to boot from the old drive so I don't have to reinstall everything and have my old files as well.

The new pc came with an hdd that had a very narrow connecting cable, but the motherboard has a connector with the old style thick (39 pin?) cable as well, helpfully labelled ide. I therefore took my old cable and installed my old hdd and plugged it into the hdd slot on the mobo. I unplugged the cable from the new hdd and booted but whilst the bios seemed to recognise the old hdd that was all - no Windows screen.

highfield · July 1st, 2005, 04:56 PM

jlk

Can't set up the dirve as a slave becasue of the differing connections.

**Whir** · July 1st, 2005, 05:05 PM

Now I get it.

You need to make sure that your primary boot drive is set to IDE0 then. That should be the old hard drive. Unless it's in the secondary IDE slot, then it will be IDE2 (as master).

You'll probably run into some problems just booting up a pre-installed hard drive on a new System. That's probably why you're getting the Windows screen reboots. Windows doesn't care for that kind of thing. You'll probably have to reinstall everything anyway.

And honestly, using that serial hard drive will probably speed up the machine a bit anyway. If you install Windows to that new drive, all your old data will still be on the old one, you'll just have to reinstall the programs.

highfield · July 1st, 2005, 05:13 PM

Unfortunately whir there is no Windows screen at all - that's what I don't understand. I already have Windows installed on the new drive (using it now) but I have so much software installed on the old drive and lots of data, I just wanted to avoid installing everything again. also I am worried that the old machine will not resurrect even with a new psu, in which case I have to get to it from the new machine - and right now I can't.

The secondary boot (it boots first from the DVD) is already set to IDE0

elroy · July 1st, 2005, 05:20 PM

You have one option, maybe it isn't an option since it is the only thing to do.
Unhook the old IDE drive, hook up the new serial drive and install Windows onto the new drive. Now hook up the old IDE drive as a slave and you can move your files over to the new drive but all programs will need to be re-installed. The old drive is not going to boot when hooked to the new machine.

highfield · July 1st, 2005, 05:29 PM

thanks Elroy - as I said I can't hook up as a slave becasue of the different cables (or can I plug in 2 hdds with different cables?), but I take your point. Am I just being stupid- what is it that prevents the old drive from booting? I mean surely if it has Windows, the drivers etc should load automatically at least to some basic, usable degree. I am missing something and it is bugging me.