How to move old HD to new computer?

[rsteve]

I am trying to build/upgrade 2 computers and build one. I want to move a hard drive from one of the old computers to a new one. The new computer will have only the one hard drive. I need to know how to do this. I am not sure, but think I cannot just remove it from the old computer and put it in the new one, without doing some things. I think I understand the slave/master/etc. settings, so am only asking what I have to do for the new computer to boot up with the old drive.

The old computer has a 400 MHz Pentium Celeron processor. The HD is a Western Digital 80Gb, 7200 and is the only thing I will salvage.

The new computer will have a MSI KT3V MB, and an AMD 1800 processor.

The HD had Win98 installed by the manufacturer and I don't think installation disks are available. Therefore, it would be nice to be able to install the HD with the OS intact.

Will appreciate any help.

[Telexen]

To install the hard drive, just set it as a master and connect it to the new computer

You won't be able to leave the OS for the new system though...the drive must be formatted and the OS reinstalled.

With the OS already installed on the HD, its not a good plan to simple switch computers. May work or may not work. Even if it works, it will not have recognized all the components on the MB/Video/Sound Card.

In my opinion, when you move a drive to another PC and want to have the Operating System on it (that is you want to boot off the drive), it is preferable and sometimes necessary to install the OS from scratch.

Not having the windows disks will be an issue.

I'd try and get an OS cheap from somewhere (maybe the trading forums here) or some online site because it just won't work well otherwise.

[rsteve]

Thanks for the fast response. I was afraid that would be the answer. When I built the present system (my first attempt) I remember that I had an awful time trying to move a HD from my old computer. Can't remember the details though.

[daveleau]

It is not recommended to try and move the entire OS, but it can be done. You can try it and you should know fairly soon after boot-up if you are going to have a ton of troubles or not. The system will probably run quite a bit slower, but it might be good enough to burn some backup cds and/or reinstall 98 over top of itself, which will regain a lot of the speed that would be gotten by a complete reinstallation. Another option is one of the PC moving softwares. I have an app called PC Relocate. I used it once to move some files for a friend, and it seemed to work ok.

Again, if you have all the cds for the apps that you already have on the system, then it is best to do a fresh installation.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Welcome to TechIMO!

This may help.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/inst.../preaction.htm

Bill

[billniceguy]

use ghost or fx

[XShadowZxX]

Ahh ima buy a new HD anybody wanna buy a 60 gig maxtor ?

[rsteve]

Thanks everyone. I decided it is too much of a hassle to try to save it and will just install WinXP.