Hypothetical Case

[archierob]

Your computer dies, power supply, MB all die but not the hard disk
where all your precious stuff is.

Get second hand working comp, chuck the hard disk, put in your old
hard disk and carry on - (assuming non re-activate Operating system
say XP Pro, Windows 2000).

Will it work? Should it work? Would it work well enough to say copy
your personal files to CD?

 

[Jan Alter]

Yeh, it should work, setting the old hdd as a slave on the same cable as the
hdd that the master hdd starts the machine. Make sure the hdd from the
working machine is jumpered for master+slave.

It may also work if you place the hdd from the dead machine on its own
cable but I would be thoughtful that the new computer might attempt to see
two OS's now instead of one, so I'd avoid that if possible.

 

[Groove]

archierob said this...

Get second hand working comp, chuck the hard disk, put in your old
hard disk and carry on - (assuming non re-activate Operating system
say XP Pro, Windows 2000).

Will it work? Should it work? Would it work well enough to say copy
your personal files to CD?

Will it work? Not likely due to driver differences.
Far better to install your precious HD as a slave in the new box.

Install any OS on the unimportant HD on the second-hand box then add your
own HD as slave. Add to the mix a cd writer and appropriate software and
you're ready to roll.

 

[TonyC]

Your computer dies, power supply, MB all die but not the hard disk
where all your precious stuff is.

Get second hand working comp, chuck the hard disk, put in your old
hard disk and carry on - (assuming non re-activate Operating system
say XP Pro, Windows 2000).

Will it work? Should it work? Would it work well enough to say copy
your personal files to CD?

No problem, boot from a KNOPPIX CD, reads all filesystems just doesn't write
to NFTS.

 

[John Weiss]

Your computer dies, power supply, MB all die but not the hard disk
where all your precious stuff is.

Get second hand working comp, chuck the hard disk, put in your old
hard disk and carry on - (assuming non re-activate Operating system
say XP Pro, Windows 2000).

Will it work? Should it work? Would it work well enough to say copy
your personal files to CD?

Better to install the "precious" HD as a second HD on the second-hand comp and
copy all your files to that HD or a CD (or a 3rd, NEW HD) before chucking
anything... Just make sure you know where ALL your personal files are...

 

[David Maynard]

Your computer dies, power supply, MB all die but not the hard disk
where all your precious stuff is.

Get second hand working comp, chuck the hard disk, put in your old
hard disk and carry on - (assuming non re-activate Operating system
say XP Pro, Windows 2000).

Will it work? Should it work? Would it work well enough to say copy
your personal files to CD?

The procedure you've described won't work because the hardware
configuration/drivers on the hard drive would almost certainly be different
than the system you're shoving it into. It won't, unless you're incredibly
lucky (or pick a second hand system identical to the first), boot and run.

What would work is to have a bootable system (either a typical hard drive
installed O.S. or a live CD) on the second hand computer, that is capable
of reading the hard drive, and install it as a slave drive for copying data
off to something else.

Another alternative would be to put the hard drive in the second hand
computer as the main drive, boot the install CD, and do a repair install so
that it detects, what to it is, the 'new' hardware and 'fixes' the Windows
installation to match. However, you have a higher chance of destroying data
in that process even if by no other means than human error (e.g. oops,
didn't mean to remove and replace the partition).

 

[cpliu]

I might work. My old system died and I bought a new motherboard and new
CPU (switched from P4 to AMD4) with the same HD. It actually booted
fine. If you just want to get the data back, maybe you can just put the
HD to a external USB HD enclosure. Then, you can retrieve the data on
any PC you like.

 

[DaveW]

If you change the motherboard that you will be using with a harddrive
containing the OS, then you MUST reformat the harddrive and do a fresh
install of the OS to avoid getting nasty ongoing Registry errors and data
corruption. In your case, you can probably install an OS on the new
harddrive and then install your old harddrive as the secondary harddrive to
get your old data off of it.

 

[David Maynard]

If you change the motherboard that you will be using with a harddrive
containing the OS, then you MUST reformat the harddrive and do a fresh
install of the OS to avoid getting nasty ongoing Registry errors and data
corruption.

Maybe if you reformatted your head and did a fresh install you could get
rid of that faulty information you dump at every opportunity.

 

[Des]

Not exactly ! !

if it is a new motherboard your operating system will give you greef
with found new hardware. Get pc up and running with new hard disk,
re-installing windows. Add your old hard disk as a second hard disk.
copy all your valubale data across. If your old hard disk is in good
condition you could format it. and keep both in your pc.

It Works. trust me.

Desmond.

 

[Ed Medlin]

Not exactly ! !

if it is a new motherboard your operating system will give you greef
with found new hardware. Get pc up and running with new hard disk,
re-installing windows. Add your old hard disk as a second hard disk.
copy all your valubale data across. If your old hard disk is in good
condition you could format it. and keep both in your pc.

It Works. trust me.

Desmond.

Sure, that will work. I find the easiest way is to boot to your XP cd and do
a repair install. I hate reinstalling hundreds of programs and setting up a
good working network. I haven't had a repair install fail yet over several
years. When you boot to XP, it will detect your new hardware and even keep
your raid, network and email/newsgroup settings just fine. I would always
recommend backing up your important data first, just in case.

Ed