Transfer Hard Drive to new XP Machine

[JSS]

I have a secondary hard drive in my old Win98 machine
that has all my pictures and docs on it. Can I just
unplug that and move it to my new XP computer? Seems
like that would be a whole lot easier than doing the XP
file transfer procedure - and I want the hard drive
anyway for storage. I don't care about transferring the
settings and all as described in that wizard. I just
need to know if XP will see the old hard drive and the
files - or do they have to be converted some way?

Any help - much appreciated..........

[Frankovich]

No problem at all but I would suggest using a Promise Controller.
Plugs into PCI slot and auto selects your hard drive.
I do not mean a Raid Controller.
Email me if you need info.

[Don Burnette]

JSS wrote:
> I have a secondary hard drive in my old Win98 machine
> that has all my pictures and docs on it. Can I just
> unplug that and move it to my new XP computer? Seems
> like that would be a whole lot easier than doing the XP
> file transfer procedure - and I want the hard drive
> anyway for storage. I don't care about transferring the
> settings and all as described in that wizard. I just
> need to know if XP will see the old hard drive and the
> files - or do they have to be converted some way?
>
> Any help - much appreciated..........

It will work just fine. Set it to slave, sounds like it probably already is,
and install it in your XP machine.
You should be able to view, copy, delete, whatever any data files that are
on that hard drive without any problem.

I have done the same a couple of times.

--
Don Burnette

remove clothes when replying via email

[Sharon F]

On Sat, 17 May 2003 22:06:32 -0700, "JSS" > wrote:

>I have a secondary hard drive in my old Win98 machine
>that has all my pictures and docs on it. Can I just
>unplug that and move it to my new XP computer? Seems
>like that would be a whole lot easier than doing the XP
>file transfer procedure - and I want the hard drive
>anyway for storage. I don't care about transferring the
>settings and all as described in that wizard. I just
>need to know if XP will see the old hard drive and the
>files - or do they have to be converted some way?
>
>Any help - much appreciated..........

Should work fine. Adjust the jumpers on the drive if necessary. Also, if
the Win98 hard drive is being monitored by GoBack, uninstall that
program before moving the drive. It writes to portion of the disk that
is very fundamental. If that GoBack info is not removed, XP will not be
able to use the drive.

Sharon F
MS MVP [Shell/User]

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

"JSS" > wrote in message

> I have a secondary hard drive in my old Win98 machine
> that has all my pictures and docs on it. Can I just
> unplug that and move it to my new XP computer? Seems
> like that would be a whole lot easier than doing the XP
> file transfer procedure - and I want the hard drive
> anyway for storage. I don't care about transferring the
> settings and all as described in that wizard. I just
> need to know if XP will see the old hard drive and the
> files - or do they have to be converted some way?
>
> Any help - much appreciated..........

When I did this the old drive was already jumpered as Slave, but since it
was on the same cable as my C: drive I had to change the jumper on that from
Single to Master. With only a little bit of luck both drives will have
diagrams on their labels telling you how to set the jumpers.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com

[Alex Nichol]

JSS wrote:

>I have a secondary hard drive in my old Win98 machine
>that has all my pictures and docs on it. Can I just
>unplug that and move it to my new XP computer?


Yes. Make sure that it is on the second IDE channel, or that you adjust
the jumpers so as to make it a slave and not conflict with the primary
master one where the system is. Power up and go into BIOS setup to
ensure it is correctly detected, and windows will find it as a new item
in My Computer.

Only time this gives trouble is if it had some 'overlay' loaded at boot
to allow a large drive to be used on an old BIOS which had limitations.
If so, the drive does not now get loaded and the drive will not be
accessible. There is no real way round that - you would have to find
other means of transfer


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
Bournemouth, U.K.

[Peter Hutchison]

On Sat, 17 May 2003 22:06:32 -0700, "JSS" > wrote:

>I have a secondary hard drive in my old Win98 machine
>that has all my pictures and docs on it. Can I just
>unplug that and move it to my new XP computer? Seems
>like that would be a whole lot easier than doing the XP
>file transfer procedure - and I want the hard drive
>anyway for storage. I don't care about transferring the
>settings and all as described in that wizard. I just
>need to know if XP will see the old hard drive and the
>files - or do they have to be converted some way?
>
>Any help - much appreciated..........

Set up the disk as slave and add it to your IDE chain.
The load up Disk Management console to set up and allocate a drive
letter.

Peter Hutchison
Windows FAQ
http://www.pcguru.plus.com/winfaqs.html