Old HDD...help please

tyranus

tyranus

tyranus

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Joined
27 Jun 2004
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Location
Rayleigh, Essex
I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but...

New build in sig, what I would like to do is to fit the old HDD from the previous build so I can retrieve a few files and then format it for future backups.

What I'd like to know is..

A) The old HDD is a SATA like the new one, is this ok? New one is in SATA 0, where should the new one go?

B) The old HDD has XP installed on it, along with an anti-virus and firewall. Will these try and boot up/start up causing conflicts? (New build has Vista 64 installed) I'm guessing that if Xp doesn't boot then the firewall and anti-virus will not attempt to start..

C) Is it even possible to format the old one from vista?

Phew...sorry about my n00bness..
 
far as i know, just aslong as both of the drives are SATA there should be no problem,
make sure you configure the boot order to boot from the new HD and not the old one.
you should be able to format the drive using vista after you have removed the files you want. there should be another slot in your case with a spare cable to attach.
 
tyranus said:
How do I tell the difference between the HDD's in the BIOS?

Sorry, only ever had one HDD installed:o
Click to expand...

It displays different name if they are different models for example say you have 2 HDDs & 1 is a Seagate the other is Western Digital in the BIOS it'd show like "SG604ASC" & "WD106W2" (Not their real naming/number codes just a random example) You'd be able to tell which HDD they are because they usually have the make at the start like Seagate or WD for Western Digital or Maxtor & the rest...

You can access all the files if you boot from Vista & have the old HDD installed, you can boot from Vista, access the old drive, get all the files you want from the old drive & then format it from Vista & use for storage, or something like that.
 
tyranus said:
I've installed the ol HDD and vista isn't picking it up. any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Hmm try Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management... See if it appears in there usually if there is any HDD that it can pick up a connection with it'll be there that you can see it. If not there then it maybe somewhat a faulty connection, I remember a few months back I had a HDD which suddenly stopped working, it wouldn't show in My Computer properly & would in computer management, but still couldn't access it, turns out the power wire had become faulty & wasn't supplying enough power. General point being is that sometimes it's not obvious why the cause but it could be something similar with the connection?
 
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