Hard drives

[Bob H]

I have hard drives from both Win 98 SE and XP machines. I currently use a
system with Vista 32. Is it possible to hook up these drives to my Vista
machine and transfer the data to the Vista drive?

 

[Adam Albright]

I have hard drives from both Win 98 SE and XP machines. I currently use a
system with Vista 32. Is it possible to hook up these drives to my Vista
machine and transfer the data to the Vista drive?

Drives don't care what OS you're using. You should be able to easily
use them or copy/move files from them just as long as they get
reconfigured so Vista can "see" them. This may involve changing some
jumper on the drive if they were a master/slave on a prior system.

Unless the drives are really old, most can be seen correctly in BIOS
if set to auto detect. It really is as simple as having a empty IDE
controller to plug in the data cable and a space power connector.
Ditto for SATA,Firewire or USB drives.

 

[Nonny]

I have hard drives from both Win 98 SE and XP machines. I currently use a
system with Vista 32. Is it possible to hook up these drives to my Vista
machine and transfer the data to the Vista drive?

yes

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Bob.

Sure. As Adam said, the HDs are more concerned with FILE systems than with
OPERATING systems - and even file systems can be easily changed, from FAT to
FAT32 to NTFS, for example. And they simply don't know or care if we are
running 32-bit or 64-bit systems.

For years, I have been dual-booting (multi-booting, actually) my one
computer with various combinations of Win9x, WinNT, Win2K, WinXP and now
Vista installed on it, mix and match. Right now, I have both WinXP x86 and
Vista x64 installed on a single HD. And I can access any file on any of my
HDs from any installed OS. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have hard drives from both Win 98 SE and XP machines. I currently use a
system with Vista 32. Is it possible to hook up these drives to my Vista
machine and transfer the data to the Vista drive?

Sure, and it's hard for it to be easier. Get a USB2 drive adapter, attach
it to the drive, plug it in. Copy off the data. On teh XP system, you may
need to Take Ownership.

The adapter, you can also use the circuitry from an external drive case,
starts around $20.

HTH
-pk

 

[Bob H]

Sure, and it's hard for it to be easier. Get a USB2 drive adapter, attach
it to the drive, plug it in. Copy off the data. On teh XP system, you
may need to Take Ownership.

The adapter, you can also use the circuitry from an external drive case,
starts around $20.

HTH
-pk

If I just attach it to the spare IDE and power connector will the Vista
system recognize it at bootup, assign it a drive letter and go from there
and then it's just a matter of data transfer? You speak of a USB drive
adapter and I guess that's a physical thing but I don't understand that.

 

[Nonny]

If I just attach it to the spare IDE and power connector will the Vista
system recognize it at bootup, assign it a drive letter and go from there
and then it's just a matter of data transfer?
Yes.

You speak of a USB drive adapter and I guess that's a physical thing
but I don't understand that.

The comboof drive and adapter/enclosure is what is known as an
external hard drive and it connects to your computer via a USB cable..

Understand that?

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Bob.

If I just attach it to the spare IDE and power connector will the Vista
system recognize it at bootup,

Most likely. We can't say for sure because we don't know very much at all
about your computer, but in most cases, yes, an IDE drive should be
recognized when you plug it in.

assign it a drive letter and go from there

Yes, but... Have you run Disk Management? It has been a feature of all
Windows since Win2K and the Vista version is the best yet. This built-in
utility (the techies call it a Snap-in to the Microsoft Management Console -
MMC - but most of us never use that term) does all the jobs that we used to
do with other utilities in DOS and Win9x. Use it to create and delete
partitions, format and label (name) them and assign "drive" letters. It's
in Computer Management, but I like to just type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter -
and furnish the Administrator password.

There MAY be a couple of flies in the ointment, but probably not. You MAY
have to initialize that "foreign" drive; instructions are in Disk
Management's Help file. And you MAY need to give yourself permission to see
the files on the drive because of UAC, Vista's User Access Control security
features. If you hit either of these snags, post back with details for
further guidance.

But it probably will "just work". ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

 

[Patrick Keenan]

If I just attach it to the spare IDE and power connector will the Vista
system recognize it at bootup, assign it a drive letter and go from there
and then it's just a matter of data transfer?

If your system physically supports that and you want to open the case, yes.
Not all systems have the cabling or space to do this these days.

You speak of a USB drive adapter and I guess that's a physical thing but I
don't understand that.

If you've seen external drives that attach via USB2, those cases are also
available empty, and as case-less adapters. They are very handy to have
around.

HTH
-pk