i just inherited a 3 year old dell desktop and completely reformatted and reinstalled xp. i also have a 5 year old dell desktop that came with ME (funny...i know) and now runs 2000. what i want to do is use my hard drive as well as the RAM from my old 5 year old computer in conjunction with my "new" computer. is this stuff going to be compatible with my 3 year old comp? how do i go about hooking up a 2nd hard drive and installing more ram?
ram and hard drive
- Thread starter maxitaxi7
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mammikoura
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the hdd is probably compatible, ram probably isn't.
Take out the ram from the old computer and see if u can attach it to the mobo of the new pc, if u can then try booting and see if it works. The ram in the old computer is most likely going to be slower, so even if u get it working it might not be a good idea to use it.
And about the harddrives, they are probably both IDE, so just plug the 2nd hdd in and set the jumpers so that the original hdd is set to master and the 2nd one is set to slave.
Take out the ram from the old computer and see if u can attach it to the mobo of the new pc, if u can then try booting and see if it works. The ram in the old computer is most likely going to be slower, so even if u get it working it might not be a good idea to use it.
And about the harddrives, they are probably both IDE, so just plug the 2nd hdd in and set the jumpers so that the original hdd is set to master and the 2nd one is set to slave.
thanks! the RAM stick will not fit in the new computer anyways...not to mention it says 133 mhz on the old stick and 333 mhz on the new, so i'm assuming that means it's fairly slower.
now the next task is installing the new hard drive. i've googled "installing 2nd hard drive", and all the instructions and diagrams i get show placing the 2nd HD in an empty slot in the computer. well the hard drives in the 2 dells i have been working with are secured to the front of the computer and not in any type of slot. where these slots are shown in the diagrams, i have 2 cd-rom drives and a floppy disk drive. is there anyway to install this 2nd HD without any of these empty slots?
now the next task is installing the new hard drive. i've googled "installing 2nd hard drive", and all the instructions and diagrams i get show placing the 2nd HD in an empty slot in the computer. well the hard drives in the 2 dells i have been working with are secured to the front of the computer and not in any type of slot. where these slots are shown in the diagrams, i have 2 cd-rom drives and a floppy disk drive. is there anyway to install this 2nd HD without any of these empty slots?
joelbeveridge
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Your Ram can only run as fast as the slowest MHz speed. So if you have 2 sticks and one is 133Mhz and one is 233Mhz. The fastest it can ever run is 133Mhz. Check if the Ram is SD Ram or DDR. DDR has 1 cutout on the bottom and SD Ram has 2
it it's only three years old I'm assuming it's in one of those funky black (midnight grey) cases, with the little green things to secure it in place?
is it a tower case, or a desktop case? if its a small form factor desktop case then there might simply be no room for a second hard drive.
normally, there may be some space underneath the floppy drive, where you can install a harddrive. or there may be some space above the old drive....
if it has the little green things then you should unattache some of the space ones from the case where they are stored, attached them to the drive and then push it into position, (till you hear the cilps snap into place) in an avai;able space, (before you use the clips thies space will have seemed too big).
if there are no clips then there should (hopefully) be a spare space in a harddisk cage somewhere, (as I said this might be under or on top of the existing hard drive, or the floppy drive. or in some cases, there is a space under neath the larger cage where the CD drives are bolted in, (useually the CD drive cage comes out if thise is true).
is it a tower case, or a desktop case? if its a small form factor desktop case then there might simply be no room for a second hard drive.
normally, there may be some space underneath the floppy drive, where you can install a harddrive. or there may be some space above the old drive....
if it has the little green things then you should unattache some of the space ones from the case where they are stored, attached them to the drive and then push it into position, (till you hear the cilps snap into place) in an avai;able space, (before you use the clips thies space will have seemed too big).
if there are no clips then there should (hopefully) be a spare space in a harddisk cage somewhere, (as I said this might be under or on top of the existing hard drive, or the floppy drive. or in some cases, there is a space under neath the larger cage where the CD drives are bolted in, (useually the CD drive cage comes out if thise is true).
joelbeveridge
In Runtime
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Most of the older hard drives can work in just about any PC. Now the only reason it might not work is. If the Hard Drive is SCIS or SATA and you only have IDE that might stop you doing anything. But If i had a PC that already had a IDE hard drive in there and i wanted to put another IDE hard drive in, Nothing would stop me. I would just set one as slave and one as Master. And away i go. But for you people that have SATA drives and IDE drives, they will both work in one system so dont think you need them to be both IDE or both SATA to have 2 drives.
sweet. thanks for all the input. i've found all i need is a mounting bracket and a ribbon cable that will allow 2 HDs to connect. my HDs are configured to "cable select" i believe, so it's just a matter of hooking up the old drive first and the new drive 2nd, and i'll have my master (with the operating system and programs) and my slave (with my music/pictures etc.).
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