Moving hard drives (urgent!)

ellingham

ellingham

ellingham

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29 Jun 2010
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Basically a computer i bought about 4 years ago broke, it crashed mid update i turned it off and now it is stuck in a re boot loop. I have another ancient pc that i am using for the time being, on the HDD of the one that broke there are some pictures that i would like to retrieve, i was wondering if i could remove the HDD and put it in the pc i'm using now. I'm guessing i would have to run both HDD's at the same time so i can actually boot the pc.

Any ideas?
 
Yup, as long as the power supply on your current pc has the necessary molex/sats power requirements I'm guessing its molex and a spare IDE or sata again guessing IDE it should work fine, it will show up like a USB stick in My Computer so instead of just Local disc C it will have Local Disk D aswell or whatever yours are called.
 
Arcimbaldo said:
Yup, as long as the power supply on your current pc has the necessary molex/sats power requirements I'm guessing its molex and a spare IDE or sata again guessing IDE it should work fine, it will show up like a USB stick in My Computer so instead of just Local disc C it will have Local Disk D aswell or whatever yours are called.
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I am a dumb arse when it comes to pc's but i think the jist of what you're saying is, if this pc has enough connection points for my HDD i should be good to go?
 
Basically yes, if you just take the side panel off you should find enough power connectors which have 4 holes in them, then there should be a wide cable going to the hard drive. you will need another one these to plug the second one into, or if i remember there will be a second connector half way along the cable, im not sure if this works for hard drives though as it is something to do with the slave and master drive settings.
 
Arcimbaldo said:
Basically yes, if you just take the side panel off you should find enough power connectors which have 4 holes in them, then there should be a wide cable going to the hard drive. you will need another one these to plug the second one into, or if i remember there will be a second connector half way along the cable, im not sure if this works for hard drives though as it is something to do with the slave and master drive settings.
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would i use the original HDD for the master drive and the one i want to get the pictures off as the slave?
 
Yeah, if its IDE (long thin connector with 20 odd pins {google for what it looks like}) then you want the drive with the pics on as the slave, this will then appear as the D drive most likely.

If it is a SATA drive (again google for image) and your older machine doesnt have the connections then the best bet might be to buy a USB caddy for it.

Have you tried fixing your PC that is stuck in a loop? safe mode, system restore etc?
 
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os_X_VII said:
Do you know if the drive is SATA or IDE? Hopefully with the age range both machines you had will have either both or the one you need.
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i'm pretty sure it's an IDE

J.B said:
Yeah, if its IDE (long thin connector with 20 odd pins {google for what it looks like}) then you want the drive with the pics on as the slave, this will then appear as the D drive most likely.

If it is a SATA drive (again google for image) and your older machine doesnt have the connections then the best bet might be to buy a USB caddy for it.

Have you tried fixing your PC that is stuck in a loop? safe mode, system restore etc?
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It won't boot no matter what boot mode or settings i use.
How much would a usb caddy set me back?
 
You could probably pick one up for £10-20 if you arent too fussed about build quality. OCuK used to sell them, I imagine they still do.

If you can get your drive into your old PC on IDE though there isnt much point.

Did it boot up when you selected safe mode?
 
You could re-install windows onto the same drive and it would fix your broken windows installation. this should leave your documents/photos untouched and moved to documents.old. However, I probably wouldn't risk this even though I know thats what it does if they were my photos. How big is the HDD? If it's 4 years old it's probably around 160gb-250gb? You could buy a 500gb-1tb drive for £30-40, install windows to that and have your old drive as a 2nd drive. If you take the PC to be fixed, they will probably just re-install windows. It's not worth their time or your money to sit trouble-shooting a problem installation.


EDIT: I've just had an idea. Use your windows disc to try and repair your installation. It does work in some situations. Definitely worth a try.
 
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You really need to state what the new pc supports. If you are a novice at pc repair we can rule out fixing the boot loader so the HDD will work in the old pc. Better safe than sorry, you don't want to worry about losing the data.

You need to open the case and see what the new pc uses. Hopefully it will support both SATA and IDE.

If the new system HDD is IDE as stated you can fit the "data" drive as slave. You will most likely need to change the jumper (lil plastic bit) at the back though. Note what the "new" drive is set to. Would be best to set both to CS (cable select) then plug the "data" drive on the available connector below the "new" drive.

If the "new" system is using the DVD drive on the IDE this is ok as you can swap the cables to the HDD. You'll lose the DVD obviously till the cable is put back.

A caddy is an option, if you go this route ensure that you buy one that is IDE, most will be sata i think you'll find.

I've made this sound more complicated than it really is, take your time and think. Ask if you have doubts......there are no stupid questions, just stupid people who dont ask questions ;p
 
J.B said:
You could probably pick one up for £10-20 if you arent too fussed about build quality. OCuK used to sell them, I imagine they still do.

If you can get your drive into your old PC on IDE though there isnt much point.

Did it boot up when you selected safe mode?
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what ever mode i boot in it gets to the windows xp logo and then reboots.

mame said:
You could re-install windows onto the same drive and it would fix your broken windows installation. this should leave your documents/photos untouched and moved to documents.old. However, I probably wouldn't risk this even though I know thats what it does if they were my photos. How big is the HDD? If it's 4 years old it's probably around 160gb-250gb? You could buy a 500gb-1tb drive for £30-40, install windows to that and have your old drive as a 2nd drive. If you take the PC to be fixed, they will probably just re-install windows. It's not worth their time or your money to sit trouble-shooting a problem installation.


EDIT: I've just had an idea. Use your windows disc to try and repair your installation. It does work in some situations. Definitely worth a try.
Click to expand...

I should mention, i am not bothered about fixing the pc as i will be doing my first build in a few months, i just want to get the pictures off the HDD.
But if it is easy then i will fix it.
I have taken the HDD out of the broken pc and here is some info if it helps:
Western digital
160gb
Pretty sure it uses a sata connection (the pc i'm using now is IDE)
Then there is some text which reads "master/slave jumper not required for jumper pins 1 and 2 enable SSC jumper pins 5 and 6 enable SATA 150 MB/s only operation."
"Warning: use either SATA power or legacy power connector. DO NOT use both which may result in damage of the hard drive."

honosuseri said:
You really need to state what the new pc supports. If you are a novice at pc repair we can rule out fixing the boot loader so the HDD will work in the old pc. Better safe than sorry, you don't want to worry about losing the data.

You need to open the case and see what the new pc uses. Hopefully it will support both SATA and IDE.

If the new system HDD is IDE as stated you can fit the "data" drive as slave. You will most likely need to change the jumper (lil plastic bit) at the back though. Note what the "new" drive is set to. Would be best to set both to CS (cable select) then plug the "data" drive on the available connector below the "new" drive.

If the "new" system is using the DVD drive on the IDE this is ok as you can swap the cables to the HDD. You'll lose the DVD obviously till the cable is put back.

A caddy is an option, if you go this route ensure that you buy one that is IDE, most will be sata i think you'll find.

I've made this sound more complicated than it really is, take your time and think. Ask if you have doubts......there are no stupid questions, just stupid people who dont ask questions ;p
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See above for some info on the HDD
 
Then it's SATA for sure. You'll need SATA ports on your old PC then. They've been around for ages so you may have a couple even on your old PC.

If you don't have any on your old motherboard them you can buy a USB data caddy or an add in PCI sata card, or just wait unt your new build which will have SATA.

Just plugging the drive in and booting the old machine should automatically allocate it a drive letter, although it may insist on trying to boot from it. May need a BIOS setting change.
 
Could you not try using an Ubuntu Live CD to get your files off? Basically it boots and runs Ubuntu off a CD so you can access your HDD's etc. I've used it a few times before with great success (said in a Borat voice, if you like) to rescue files off dead systems.

A guide how to do it:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

Just remember to select the "run without making any changes to my system" option, and it should be fine. I've never actually had to bother with any commands to get the HDD's to open up, though.

It might be worth trying this before buying a caddy etc :)
 
Tealc said:
Then it's SATA for sure. You'll need SATA ports on your old PC then. They've been around for ages so you may have a couple even on your old PC.

If you don't have any on your old motherboard them you can buy a USB data caddy or an add in PCI sata card, or just wait unt your new build which will have SATA.

Just plugging the drive in and booting the old machine should automatically allocate it a drive letter, although it may insist on trying to boot from it. May need a BIOS setting change.
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Thanks for the help mate

Hikari Kisugi said:
Have you tried a safe mode boot to see if the booting cycle ceases?
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as I've all ready said a couple times it doesn't boot in any mode

admoo said:
Could you not try using an Ubuntu Live CD to get your files off? Basically it boots and runs Ubuntu off a CD so you can access your HDD's etc. I've used it a few times before with great success (said in a Borat voice, if you like) to rescue files off dead systems.

A guide how to do it:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

Just remember to select the "run without making any changes to my system" option, and it should be fine. I've never actually had to bother with any commands to get the HDD's to open up, though.

It might be worth trying this before buying a caddy etc :)
Click to expand...

thanks for the help, i'll give that a try and see what happens!
 
admoo said:
Could you not try using an Ubuntu Live CD to get your files off? Basically it boots and runs Ubuntu off a CD so you can access your HDD's etc. I've used it a few times before with great success (said in a Borat voice, if you like) to rescue files off dead systems.

A guide how to do it:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

Just remember to select the "run without making any changes to my system" option, and it should be fine. I've never actually had to bother with any commands to get the HDD's to open up, though.

It might be worth trying this before buying a caddy etc :)
Click to expand...

what disk type do i need to burn ubuntu to?
 
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