Computer Related Question

[Philly_SWAT]

My old computer is toast. I have a new one. I dont think there is anything wrong with the hard drive of the old one. I have removed it from the tower. Is it a simple thing to make it a slave and hook it up to the new computer, or are there some possible negative side effects that could occur for a hardware novice? Do I need any special type odf software to do this, or is hooking it up all I need to do? Any advice would be appreciated.

[axlish]

I would definitely wipe the old hard drive clean before installing it on your new rig. Most likely, your old HD has an operating system installed, and this could conflict with the new rig. Snag all your precious data off of the old one, and then wipe it. There could be other problems, like ATA/SATA issues. Is your new rig set up with an SATA HD? If your old HD is ATA, and your new is SATA, then I wouldn't even bother putting the old one on your new rig. They have different connectors and operate differently, so you'd have to get a converter, not really worth it to be honest. SATA is much cooler because it connects straight to the mother board and operates separately from the main HD.

[acealive1]

actually u dont need much. maybe it could be a backup HD like most computers come with nowadays? if it has an OS on it already,i'd recommend transferring it to a new HD first

[MikePizzoff]

I turned one of my old main hard drives into a slave drive in about 5 minutes (that includes the time it took to turn on the computer) and didn't delete anything off of it, not even the OS, and it still worked fine with no conflicts. As long as you tell your computer to boot the OS off the new HD and not the slave, there shouldn't be any problems. Although, I'm not a computer tech so if anything happens to go wrong for you... don't blame me.

[Philly_SWAT]

I turned one of my old main hard drives into a slave drive in about 5 minutes (that includes the time it took to turn on the computer) and didn't delete anything off of it, not even the OS, and it still worked fine with no conflicts. As long as you tell your computer to boot the OS off the new HD and not the slave, there shouldn't be any problems. Although, I'm not a computer tech so if anything happens to go wrong for you... don't blame me.
Is there an easy way to tell me how to tell my computer to boot off the new HD, not the slave? The main thing I am trying to accomplish is to save stuff that is on the old HD, so wiping it would not help in that regard. Also, I have no way to save stuff off the old HD first, that is what I am trying to do. I dont really need a slave drive, I just need to save stuff that is on the old HD, such as mp3s, Dawn cues, etc.

[axlish]

Any idea if your new rig's HD is SATA?

If you manage to install the old HD on the new system, set the jumper to slave. If the PC F's up and tries to boot off of the old HD (which I can almost gurantee that it won't), then set the boot settings in your BIOS.

No CD/DVD burner on the old rig?

[Philly_SWAT]

Any idea if your new rig's HD is SATA?

If you manage to install the old HD on the new system, set the jumper to slave. If the PC F's up and tries to boot off of the old HD (which I can almost gurantee that it won't), then set the boot settings in your BIOS.

No CD/DVD burner on the old rig?
There is a CD burner on the old rig, but I believe that the problem is some type of electrical problem. Instead of booting up, it makes weird beeping noises. If I mess around with it, i.e. keep hitting reset, unplugging and plugging back in, etc. eventually it boots up, but usually shuts off power before the desktop comes up. Then I have to leave it off for a while before it will do anything.

[DeadJonas190]

There is a CD burner on the old rig, but I believe that the problem is some type of electrical problem. Instead of booting up, it makes weird beeping noises. If I mess around with it, i.e. keep hitting reset, unplugging and plugging back in, etc. eventually it boots up, but usually shuts off power before the desktop comes up. Then I have to leave it off for a while before it will do anything.

I had that problem, I replaced the power supply and the computer worked fine afterwards, but the beeping is usually a warning signal and depending on how it is beeping depends on the problem. Usually it will tell you in the manual for your motherboard what the beeping is signaling, but if you bought it prebuilt then it may say it in the owners manual.

As far as slaving your drive, as long as you set the jumper to slave, put it on the slave part of the ide cable and then set it to slave in the motherboard bios you should not have a problem.

[MikePizzoff]

There is a CD burner on the old rig, but I believe that the problem is some type of electrical problem. Instead of booting up, it makes weird beeping noises. If I mess around with it, i.e. keep hitting reset, unplugging and plugging back in, etc. eventually it boots up, but usually shuts off power before the desktop comes up. Then I have to leave it off for a while before it will do anything.

That's either your motherboard or power supply crapping out.