swapping hard drives

[gregnic17]

My friend gave me his old computer with a 20 gb hard drive. I have an older
computer with a 60 gb master and a 40 gb slave. I was wondering if it was
possible to remove the 20 gb hard drive and replace it with the two from my
computer?

 

[PD]

My friend gave me his old computer with a 20 gb hard drive.  I have an older
computer with a 60 gb master and a 40 gb slave.  I was wondering if it was
possible to remove the 20 gb hard drive and replace it with the two from my
computer?

go for it

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

My friend gave me his old computer with a 20 gb hard drive. I have
an older computer with a 60 gb master and a 40 gb slave. I was
wondering if it was possible to remove the 20 gb hard drive and
replace it with the two from my computer?

Yes, but you will probably have to do a "Repair Install" as the drivers will
not match (unless the newer machine has the same hardware as the older one).
Make sure you have the correct motherboard, sound, graphic drivers etc on
hand.

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[mayayana]

My friend gave me his old computer with a 20 gb hard drive. I have an older
computer with a 60 gb master and a 40 gb slave. I was wondering if it was
possible to remove the 20 gb hard drive and replace it with the two from my
computer?

Be wary of your power supply if you don't
already have 2 disks installed. It's not likely
to be a problem, but most OEM PCs are built
with cheap, minimal power supplies. Each drive
in the box requires a given wattage. If the
draw from all drives exceeds what the power supply
can handle it could blow. ...Not very common,
but if you smell electrical smoke turn off the PC
very quickly and replace the power supply.
Otherwise you're likely to burn out everything in
the box.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My friend gave me his old computer with a 20 gb hard drive. I have an older
computer with a 60 gb master and a 40 gb slave. I was wondering if it was
possible to remove the 20 gb hard drive and replace it with the two from my
computer?

Yes, almost certainly. You can probably even keep the 20GB drive and
add the other two.

The only constraints are these:

1. You need available drive bays--space to physically mount the extra
drive(s).

2. Motherboards normally have two IDE channels, each supporting two
drives So you can't exceed four drives--including the CD/DVD
drive(s)--unless you also install an add-in IDE card.

3. You need adequate power to run all the installed hardware. If you
add drives, and your power supply is small, you might possibly also
need to replace the power supply with a larger (greater number of
watts) one.

4. You need adequate cooling for all your installed hardware. More
drives create more heat, and you might want to install an additional
case fan if you do this (they are inexpensive).

 

[gregnic17]

Yes, almost certainly. You can probably even keep the 20GB drive and
add the other two.

The only constraints are these:

1. You need available drive bays--space to physically mount the extra
drive(s).

2. Motherboards normally have two IDE channels, each supporting two
drives So you can't exceed four drives--including the CD/DVD
drive(s)--unless you also install an add-in IDE card.

3. You need adequate power to run all the installed hardware. If you
add drives, and your power supply is small, you might possibly also
need to replace the power supply with a larger (greater number of
watts) one.

4. You need adequate cooling for all your installed hardware. More
drives create more heat, and you might want to install an additional
case fan if you do this (they are inexpensive).

Ok, thanks for the info. However, after I installed the hard drives in the
new computer it says its having problems booting. So, I insert the cd with
my windows xp when it tells me to and it reads it for a minute and then the
screen goes black and stays that way. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[PD]

Ok, thanks for the info.  However, after I installed the hard drives in the
new computer it says its having problems booting.  So, I insert the cd with
my windows xp when it tells me to and it reads it for a minute and then the
screen goes black and stays that way.  

Did you set the jumpers on the disks properly?

Do you KNOW that you will have to run a Repair installation of XP to
get the system to load Windows?? (all of the hardware has changed, so
all of the drivers have to be changed too).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ok, thanks for the info. However, after I installed the hard drives in the
new computer it says its having problems booting.

Have you set the drive jumpers correctly, so that on each IDE cable
with two drives, one of them is Master and the other Slave.

 

[Plato]

4. You need adequate cooling for all your installed hardware. More
drives create more heat, and you might want to install an additional
case fan if you do this (they are inexpensive).

Also note that many cases one can mount two HDDs right on top of each
other. Which may cause a heat problem.