New PC_old hard drives

JoHubb · 14 Dec 2010 at 11:47

I've just had a mobo failure on a 6 year old PC (XP). I will replace this machine with a new Windows 7 PC (probably another homebuild) equipped with a solid state drive. However, I have fairly important data on two HHDs from the failed machine (WD Caviar IDE WD400; WD Raptor SATA WD740). One of these (not sure which) has the XP OS installed on it.

If I build the new PC , install W7 x64, and then connect the two old HDDs, will they be recognised? And will I be able to access the various data files? I know how to install a dual boot system if necessary.

Advice please!

John

Dinoburger · 14 Dec 2010 at 11:49

Should be no problem at all installing the additional drives, as long as you tell the pc what the current bootable drive is there should be no problems

JoHubb · 14 Dec 2010 at 11:51

Wow! So fast! Thanks.

Will I need to install XP on a separate partition before plugging in the old HDDs? Or will they work in W7 x64?

J

mp260767 · 14 Dec 2010 at 11:58

w7 64bit picked up my xp drives ok, so you should be fine.

Marky · 14 Dec 2010 at 11:58

Should be fine.

And no need to install XP on a seperate partition - Just install Windows 7 on your shiny new SSD and you should be able to just grab the important data off the old drives from "My Computer".

Or alternatively, you could just boot from your old drives temporarily and it'll be like surfing on your old computer

JoHubb · 14 Dec 2010 at 12:00

Brilliant guys! Many thanks.

John