Need Help Using Old Hard Drive with New Motherboard and Processor

[lee42lee]

I am replacing my old motherboard and processor and I want to use the same hard drive for now. Can someone give me some help on what I need to do to make this work? I don't want to loose any of my files.

 

[xtremezx2]

what do you mean making it work?? if it's an IDE hard drive and you have a board with only 1 IDE channel taken up by a cd drive, or 2. You have a few options:
1. Only 1 Optical - put the hdd as a slave on that IDE channel.
2. Buy a PCI card that will give you some more IDE channels.
You should really give some more information on what exactly your trying to accomplish, you shouldn't have any issues getting an older drive to work on a newer computer.

 

[A True Folder]

You may/should be able to do a straight swap but you will need to install all the new m/board drivers for the new board, preferably remove your old boards drivers as well.

You may be forced to do a repair install of Windows to accomodate the new board, this leaves your files intact.

 

[lee42lee]

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Yes you can use your old drive with it's current OS installation..

This tutorial will show you how: Swapping your board without so much as a reinstall. I've used this method a couple of times without a hitch.

Another way would be to do a repair install immediately upon first boot. This will explain how to do it: How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install. This method will leave all files and programs intact, but you will need to reinstall ALL drivers, service packs and updates.

 

[lee42lee]

Ok one more question. My hard drive is a IDE drive but my new motherboard only has one IDE plug. How can I hook up both my hard drive and my DVD Rom?

 

[A True Folder]

Your ide cable should have three plugs, one for the m/board and two for drives, does it not have three plugs??

 

[lee42lee]

Yes it does but it is not long enough to do all three. I guess I will have to go buy a longer cable. Also which one do I set as master and which as slave?

 

[A True Folder]

Yes it does but it is not long enough to do all three. I guess I will have to go buy a longer cable.

Yeah, that's a pain in the ass, either a longer cable or move the drives, still a PITA though.

Also which one do I set as master and which as slave?

Set the HDD as master and the rom drive as slave

 

[lee42lee]

Yes it is a PITA. I have a full tower case and the rom is in the very top and the HDD is all the way at the bottom. Thanks for the help.