need some info, please

[calleagh]

several months ago my old pc died. wouldnt even POST. rather than repairing it i bought a new pc. old pc had xp and new one has vista. what i need to know is how do i extract the info off of old hard drive since computer won't even boot up and would there be a conflict between the two OS? will a USB to IDE adapter work? i'd really hate to lose ten yrs of files.

any help appreciated!

[Ddrak]

A USB to IDE adapter will be the easiest way to do this. There won't be any conflict - just put the old HDD in an external case and plug it in.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Yep, that will do the trick. Those adapters run $15-25 on newegg.com. You could probably get an external case for cheaper, but it's a hassle mounting and unmounting the drive if you just want to pull data off of it. The external case is better if you plan to leave the drive as an external for a period of time.

If the old drive had a virus on it, be careful with Windows auto-play when you plug it in. Other than that, it should give you no problems. Good luck!

[Klast Brell]

Look inside the case many motherboards still have an IDE socket for legacy support.

[calleagh]

thanks for all the info but i need some clarification on something. using the usb to ide adapter does it still store stuff on old hard drive or can i migrate everything to new computer and toss the old hard drive? it is virus-free btw.

[Ddrak]

thanks for all the info but i need some clarification on something. using the usb to ide adapter does it still store stuff on old hard drive or can i migrate everything to new computer and toss the old hard drive? it is virus-free btw.

When you plug it in, it will turn up as a another separate disk drive in your computer (probably E:). You can drag stuff to the new drive or leave it on the old one as you choose.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

What DD said. The system treats it like any other internal, external, flash, etc.

And yes, you can copy everything over to the new computer and toss the old drive, although it doesn't hurt to leave it in a drawer as a backup.

[calleagh]

one more question. does it matter that new pc is SATA?

[Ddrak]

Nope.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

one more question. does it matter that new pc is SATA?

Only if you're plugging the old drive into the system internally. The adapter cable everyone is talking about is USB, the U being Universal, so it should work on any machine.

[calleagh]

one more question. does it matter that new pc is SATA?

Only if you're plugging the old drive into the system internally. The adapter cable everyone is talking about is USB, the U being Universal, so it should work on any machine.

yeah i know it's universal. just clarifying since someone told me over the weekend that it would not work on a SATA drive since old HD is ide. didnt make a lot of sense to me so i thought it best to ask.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

It does make a difference when you buy the adapter. Some are IDE-->USB and some are SATA-->USB, and some do both. But once you get a USB connector on one side of it, the system doesn't care what it is.