How to stick old HDD into new PC

[d_source]

I'm buying a new PC for my b-in-law who stuffed his: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4651460&CatId=2663

The HDD from the old PC should still be fine so I want to add it to the new PC so that we can grab the files off of it. The new PC comes with Vista already installed and the new HDD is SATA II. The old HDD is most likely an IDE drive and has some form of XP installed. Obviously i don't want the old HDD as the master, it should be the slave. I don't remember the jumper settings that i need to change for slave. Do i need to play with the jumper settings, or is the new HDD already set as master in the BIOS? I am sure Vista will be set up on C: and i'm sure the old OS was on C: as well, so how will VIsta recognize the old HDD once booted up? Will there be conflicts with drive letters?

Thanks.

 

[Mantook]

It should show two OS installed and let you select. You could possibly run both Vista and XP

 

[d_source]

^^^The Vista MBR will be single boot, not dual, so it shouldn't recognize the other OS.

 

[AzNVi3t2007]

I think just setting the jumper to a slave should do it. Just check the settings in your BIOS. U should still be able to access your files...

Oh and u also might need a SATA to IDE converter for the connection.

***Correct me if im wrong someone.***

 

[cboucher]

SATA doesn't have master/slave settings. If your old drive is IDE, just make sure the new PC has an IDE port. You should only set the hard drive to slave if your CD drive is already set to master and you only have one IDE port. And actually, it would probably be better to set the hard drive to master and the CD drive to slave.

 

[AzNVi3t2007]

Oh thats right my mistake. Thanks for correcting lol

 

[d_source]

SATA doesn't have master/slave settings. If your old drive is IDE, just make sure the new PC has an IDE port. You should only set the hard drive to slave if your CD drive is already set to master and you only have one IDE port. And actually, it would probably be better to set the hard drive to master and the CD drive to slave.

But if the IDE drive is set as the master, won't the system try to boot off of that then, or is there somwhere in the bios telling it to boot off of SATA?

 

[Atomic Rooster]

The IDE drive will need to be set as master as it will be the only drive on the IDE channel. The system will only recognize the current SATA drive as the primary boot drive as it is set that way in the BIOS. You should have no problems just plugging the IDE drive in, booting up, and accessing the needed files on it.

 

[cboucher]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure SATA will always be the default boot device over IDE so long as the correct SATA port is enabled in BIOS.

 

[d_source]

I added the old IDE drive into the box. I didn't change any of the jumper settings, which i believe the jumper was actually missing (which may mean master). Booted up vista. It booted up fine. No dual boot. The drive was recognized as drive I: and all the files were there and accessible even the winXP OS files. Thanks all.