Forgot to remove data from old hard drive: doh!

  • Thread starter Thread starter turkishjim
  • Start date Start date
T

turkishjim

Can anyone help? I've just upgraded to Athlon 64 (XP3500+ socket 939
on MSI K8T Neo2 motherboard, 2 x 512Mb PC3200 DDr RAM)and took the
opportunity to install a new OEM XP Pro on a new hard disk. Everything
works well but I have just realised that I omitted to copy all my data
from the old hard drive. I have a USB2 to IDE connector which I could
use to connect the old disk to my PC to try to get at my data but have
2 worries:
1. The old disk has XP Home installed - will this cause any conflict
if I connect it to the new motherboard?
2. The old disk was connected to the old motherboard by a RAID
adaptor, although RAID was not actually set up. Will the data be
accessible?
I'm a relative newcomer to computing and apologise in advance if these
are stupid questions. Thank you in advance.
 
1. this setup will work, just plug in USB hard drive after you boot system
up.

2. not sure, it should work if you didn't setup RAID (wou would need 2
drives min anyway for that, and it sounds like it wasn't a case)
 
Hi, Jim.

Can't you just check the jumpers on the old HDD and plug it in to your new
machine as secondary or slave? Then use Disk Management to be sure it's
recognized properly, and to see which drive letter(s) it is using (and
change them if you like). Then just drag'n'drop or use good old Copy or
Xcopy to transfer the files.

WinXP Pro doesn't care whether the old HD has WinXP Home on it. It wouldn't
even mind if the old drive had Win98 (or no operating system at all) and was
formatted FAT32. And if the old drive was not actually part of a RAID, then
all the files on it should be complete and ready to copy or use.

RC
 
turkishjim said:
Can anyone help? I've just upgraded to Athlon 64 (XP3500+ socket 939
on MSI K8T Neo2 motherboard, 2 x 512Mb PC3200 DDr RAM)and took the
opportunity to install a new OEM XP Pro on a new hard disk. Everything
works well but I have just realised that I omitted to copy all my data
from the old hard drive. I have a USB2 to IDE connector which I could
use to connect the old disk to my PC to try to get at my data but have
2 worries:
1. The old disk has XP Home installed - will this cause any conflict
if I connect it to the new motherboard?
2. The old disk was connected to the old motherboard by a RAID
adaptor, although RAID was not actually set up. Will the data be
accessible?
I'm a relative newcomer to computing and apologise in advance if these
are stupid questions. Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

Your question suggests that you may not be aware of the
iron rule to computing. It says that all important files must
be backed up to an independent medium at least once every
week. Ultimately, everybody follows this rule. Many people
wait until they get a very unpleasant reminder (i.e. when they
lose the lot).
 
Your question suggests that you may not be aware of the
iron rule to computing. It says that all important files must
be backed up to an independent medium at least once every
week. Ultimately, everybody follows this rule. Many people
wait until they get a very unpleasant reminder (i.e. when they
lose the lot).
Click to expand...

Many thanks to you all. Will give it a go when work permits: I'll
probably try the USB adaptor first as there's not a lot of room inside
the case and no free IDE slots.

Jim
 
Back
Top