Adding a hard drive from my old computer to new one

[SeaBeeSC]

My old computer had a motherboard crash and I plan to add the old hard drive
to my new computer. Now the OS of my old computer was windows XP and the new
one is Vista Home Basic. The last time I had to do anything like this was
when I was running DOS 3.2 and you know there was no problem then. But
now....

This brings up several questions.

1. With all the new features that Vista has, does it have one that would
automatically configure the OS in the old hard drive to be used as a
additional drive?

2. Once the old hard drive is installed, what kinds of problems may I
expect to occur?

3. Would it be feasable to just delete the WinXP OS from the old hard drive?

Any assistance on this would be appreciated.

SeaBeeSC

 

[Mike Brannigan]

My old computer had a motherboard crash and I plan to add the old hard
drive
to my new computer. Now the OS of my old computer was windows XP and the
new
one is Vista Home Basic. The last time I had to do anything like this was
when I was running DOS 3.2 and you know there was no problem then. But
now....

This brings up several questions.

1. With all the new features that Vista has, does it have one that would
automatically configure the OS in the old hard drive to be used as a
additional drive?

If you just install the drive in the new PC it will be seen by Windows
Vista. You can then choose a drive letter for it and it will just work.
You may need to reset the permission on some files and folders if it was
NTFS formatted, but cross that bridge once you have the drive in the
machine.

2. Once the old hard drive is installed, what kinds of problems may I
expect to occur?

You may not be able to access files or folders on the drive due to security
from your previous OS. You just need to take ownership of these files and
folders and reset the permissions on them - the Help and Support will tell
you how to do this. Forget about the XP install on this drive or any
installed application unless you want to get into more complex issues of
trying to have a dual boot system. Just use the new drive for data as you
already have a perfectly good Vista OS on the other drive in the PC.

3. Would it be feasable to just delete the WinXP OS from the old hard
drive?

Yes absolutely.