How do you copy a hard drive from one pc to another?

[BossChase]

Hello

I got a new pc and I want to copy the files from my old pc onto it.

The old pc will not load windows I but I can get a dos prompt.

Is there any way I can plug the old hard drive into the new system and copy the files that way?

 

[cavemangrinder]

Yeah, just hook up your old hard drive into your new system as a secondary hard drive. Then just turn on your computer and copy the files you need to your new hard drive.

 

[BossChase]

Is there anything I need to do to make sure its set as a secondary drive?

 

[cavemangrinder]

If its an IDE hard drive make sure the jumpers are set as (slave) on the secondary hard drive (see the back of your hard drive for jumper setting configurations. Here is a guide for that if you need further help: http://www.chotocheeta.com/2007/08/...-as-master-slave-configuration-using-jumpers/

If its SATA, then just plug the hard drive in and your set.

 

[BossChase]

Thanks so much for the help guys i'm going to give it a try.

I'm not sure where to plug in the old hard drive on the new system. The small plug has 2 slots next to it. Does it matter which one I use? Here is a pic

Also the big plug I think the power supply only has one. But in the nest of wires there are some loose wires that look like they may be extra power supply cords are they? Here is a pic

Thanks for all the help

I just got a reply back from yahoo answers and wanted to run it buy you guys.

It shouldn't really matter what port you plug the SATA data cable into as long as one of them isn't dedicated to RAID or something like that. (And I doubt that is the case.) Which port may slightly affect the order that the harddrives are detected and listed as though, worst case scenario you might need to swap the boot order in the BIOS for the harddrives if it tries to boot the old drive.

SATA drives are normally intended to be used with SATA power cables. It looks like the drive that is plugged in is using a Molex to SATA Power adapter, you might need another of those if the old drive can't use a Molex directly. (A Molex connector is what you are holding in the pic. Modern power supplies now usually have multiple SATA Power cables in addition to the regular Molex connectors.) If you can, you should double check any documentation you can get to verify if the old drive can use a Molex

In the old system my hd was using a flap plug but it has a port for the 4 pronged one or the molex that I was holding in the pic.

Should I just plug it in and see what happens or could I mess something up?

 

[cavemangrinder]

Does your old hard drive have the same connectors as the new one? I can't really tell which one I'm looking at in the pics

 

[BossChase]

Yes they have the same ports on both hard drives but the pc only has one power supply cable going to the new hard drive in the 2nd pic. Its the cord on the right thats alittle bigger

If you look close at the 2nd pic to the left of the smaller red cord you can see a 4 pronged port. There are plugs in the nest of wires that fit that plug.

I'm trying to decide if I should try to use one of them on the older drive.

Whats the worst that could happen

 

[cavemangrinder]

Ok, i think I get you. Yeah, just plug in the molex power connector (the one in your hand) into the hard drive. It is the same thing, just a different type of connection. Also, it doesnt matter where you plug in the smaller red cable, just connect it to one of the empty slots on your motherboard.

 

[BossChase]

Thanks so much for the help it got it connected and I can access files on it but no where near all of my files are showing up.

Is there something I should be doing besides just opening it up and dragging and dropping files?

On the old pc it has like 100gb of space used and on the new pc it is only showing 747MB of space used.

Is there anything else I can do to get more files off of it?

 

[cavemangrinder]

Glad you got it working man. I don't know why all of your files aren't showing up. What operating system did it have before? And why did it stop loading windows?