(Ram or harddrive) chang out. total newbie

amp27

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ok first post and i am not a total newbie. but i dont no names(just the main components) i have no clue about what certain slots are called or what formats or brands.


ok my friend had a old computer and they said it stoped working so i look at it.

(ok first of all i thought it was called the RAM. but then i heard the term harddrive too. it is not the chips the plug it to the mother board.
it is what is called the C:drive and/or the local disk. i will call it the ram for the rest of this post.)

now it works but it is running Windows Me (i know nothing about that)

i plan to chang that and couldn't bring back the whole computer. so i took the RAM (what ever it is) back home with me

Can i just plug my computer into it or are there risks to that

also: if the computer it is in was running windows Me.. if i put it in my computer with it say windows me still or will it run what i had on my computer before (i am asking if the ram is what make your computer your computer so if i put it in it will be just like it was at his house)

it is a maxtor:

model: 33073u4

30 gigabytes about 28.3 useable space on disk.

i am running a dell with windows 2000 pofessinal* this is just a 'at home' computer. i am going to clean it out and add antivirus software. and change it to PC99(is that better then "Me"?)

all of what i said could be way fu*ked up, so yea.

my goal:

put the ram i got and put it in place of the one in my computer.(then clean it up... and update it)
 
The component is called a Hard Drive

What are his pc specs (make, model etc)?

It may boot in your pc but I can't say without more information.

What is PC99???
 
Okay, first- lets face the facts.

If you don't know any of these extremely basic names, you are obviously a total newbie. How can you understand the components, if you don't even know what they are?

Now. Your computer SHOULD be able to use the drive as a slave drive to your master drive (the one you use currently, and that's mapped to C:/). As your desktop is running 2000, I'm assuming it's fairly old, so your currently hard drive is most likely using an IDE connection (This means a ribbon cable [wide and flat]).

Here's how to install it:

http://www.pcmech.com/article/installing-a-hard-drive-step-by-step/

Then, once you're done that, you can boot up, and go to "My Computer", right click, and format the drive. Make sure you use FAT32 as your file system.

I understand that this may sound confusing, but if you have any problems along the way, we are here to help you. :)
 
I wouldnt suggest installing aOS onto the Harddrive while on your pc...changing the HDD between Mobo's like that will probably cause mad BSOD's :-(
 
If you're calling the hard drive your RAM I don't know how comfortable I'd be letting you tinker with the software running on my hard drive (no offense). I'm also wondering what PC99 is, but to address your question, yes, you could certainly swap out the hard drives, which would probably be easier for you than setting up a master/slave array. As Osak said though, that is not advisable.
Just wondering though, if it's working now, why do you need to fix it? And if it's just a matter of installing a new OS or something, couldn't you just as easily do that at your friends house on his computer? Instead of going through the hassle of bringing the hard drive (RAM) home and installing it into your computer.
 
it is not that i didnt no what it was, it is just that my parents friend came over and he works on computers for a living. and we never finished what he was saying while he was trying to add more memory. and yes it has a flat cable going to the HDD. with a power cord(4wires).

i do understand alittle.

ok maybe PC99 is not it. i am going by what the CD says.

Whats the RAM then? just trying to learn the basics.

are there different formats for HDD?

if i switch them out will it run just like his computer?(to a point) is the OS on the HDD?

will anything form the his HDD mess up my computer when i get my HDD back in?

so what exartly do you need to know about his and/or my computer.

his is a hp and mine is a dell
his harddrive is a Maxtor and mine i wouls have to look

and his has way more space on the disk and the model number is 33073u4

my computer: is a Dell Dimension L866r
 
give him some slack he's fuckin new you ungreatful kids

ok first post and i am not a total newbie. but i dont no names(just the main components) i have no clue about what certain slots are called or what formats or brands.


ok my friend had a old computer and they said it stoped working so i look at it.

(ok first of all i thought it was called the RAM. but then i heard the term harddrive too. it is not the chips the plug it to the mother board.
it is what is called the C:drive and/or the local disk. i will call it the ram for the rest of this post.)

now it works but it is running Windows Me (i know nothing about that)

i plan to chang that and couldn't bring back the whole computer. so i took the RAM (what ever it is) back home with me

Can i just plug my computer into it or are there risks to that

also: if the computer it is in was running windows Me.. if i put it in my computer with it say windows me still or will it run what i had on my computer before (i am asking if the ram is what make your computer your computer so if i put it in it will be just like it was at his house)

it is a maxtor:

model: 33073u4

30 gigabytes about 28.3 useable space on disk.

i am running a dell with windows 2000 pofessinal* this is just a 'at home' computer. i am going to clean it out and add antivirus software. and change it to PC99(is that better then "Me"?)

all of what i said could be way fu*ked up, so yea.

my goal:

put the ram i got and put it in place of the one in my computer.(then clean it up... and update it)



Bascailly im afriad you can't just take a harddrive (ram) out of your pc and hope it will work in another, it dont work like this, i mean sometimes it will boot and blah blah but it will not be stable and after a while you will see a blue screen well, thats only if you take it out and add it in a complete diffrent pc.


And as for the lasrt bit, if you have a ram in your case, no, you can't and it will not show that, you must set your own harddrive to master and then 4mat it and then it will work.

if your using two harddrivers then set one as slave and the bootable as master.

google.com will help you with slav/master goodluck
 
1/. The RAM (Random Access Memory) is the little thin pcb (printed circuit board) cards that are on their edge plugged into the m/board

2/. There are different formats you can use on your hard drive to - FAT (never used these days) FAT16 (rarely used these days), FAT32 (still used somewhat these days) and NTFS (the main stream today)

3/. Unless you m/boards are exactly the same you will probably encounter drivers errors, but yes, the os is on the Hard Drive

4/. No, physically swapping hardware won't do anuthing unless you damage a component during the changeout

The fact that you two different brand name pc's makes this difficult to say what will happen, my advice would be to "plug it in and see if it boots". If it doesn't you've lost nothing, if it does all is good.
 
ok thanks guys i have been entering all these terms in at newegg and getting a visual thought of the name. i have also been looking at threads titled 'my build' or 'look what i bought'. and clicking on the links. very useful

4/. No, physically swapping hardware won't do anuthing unless you damage a component during the changeout

The fact that you two different brand name pc's makes this difficult to say what will happen, my advice would be to "plug it in and see if it boots". If it doesn't you've lost nothing, if it does all is good.
ok that is the main key i wanted to know, becasue i dont want to mess up my moms (family's) computer. i almost no it will not work. different brand HDD and Dell and hp mostly likely will not mix well.

i will look into the master/slave subject. how does that never mind i can learn on google.

i guess i will just have to go over a get the whole tower from him.

so can i mess up his HDD and make it not work in his hp if it doesnt work in mine. i am not going to try to make it work o mine, cause i plan to give it back to him.
 
If you just plug it in to see if it will boot then there is very little that can go wrong, the main thing to look out for is the IDE cable plug, it has one blank pin also a raised "notch" on it, these must be orientated correctly or you will damage the pcb in the hard drive. The power plug (molex connector) is shaped (one side has rounded corners) so it can only be plugged in one way easily, if you have to use force it is probably round the wrong way.

A simple way to remember it is "The yellow wire goes towards the outside of the drive"

You'll see what i mean when you have a look.

The whole master/slave thing will probably only confuse the issue at this stage, by all means read up on it but until we get more information on the operating system you intend to use it is pure guess work. You see, most brand name computers (HP, Dell, Gateway etc) usually come with a Restore CD that loads a factory preset version of windows that virtually returns the pc to the same state as the day you purchased it.

By removing this partition/operating system you also remove all the hardware drivers which may no longer be available to d/load (depending on the pc's age) This then creates a new problem of trying to find drivers.

Does the PC owner not have their restore cd(s) at all??
 
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