[dustygal]

i have a dell dual core computer. i assume it has a sata hard drive. can an ide drive be installed in the same computer. my old computer went dead and i need the info off the old drive. i would like to install the old drive in my new computer. can this be done? will my computer auto recognize the old drive as a slave drive or will i need to make some settings? i don't know the first thing about installing a hard drive. so can anyone advise me?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
dustygal

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yeah...as long as your computer has an IDE controller (haven't seen a machine without one since before they were invented)...you should just be able to throw the drive in there and windows should detect it...you shouldn't need to worry about jumpering the drive differently than it is...because your system is already set to boot from the sata drive...

[dsenette]

yeah...as long as your computer has an IDE controller (haven't seen a machine without one since before they were invented)...you should just be able to throw the drive in there and windows should detect it...you shouldn't need to worry about jumpering the drive differently than it is...because your system is already set to boot from the sata drive...

[dustygal]

thanks for your help. someone said something about a psu. what is that and is it somehing i need to install the hard drive? i guess i will try to install the drive. is there anything else i should know about installing a hard drive?

[dsenette]

a PSU is the power supply unit...if you can turn your PC on...you've got one...you'll need to plug the Hard drive into the PSU on the new computer so that it will have electricity

[dustygal]

can more than one hard drive be plugged in to the same psu?

[jaxisland]

Yes, you can have multiple Hard drives and multiple CD / DVD drives on the same Power Supply Unit.

[dustygal]

is there more than one plug. my hard drive has no wiring on the unit itself.

[jaxisland]

Yes the power supply will come with multiple plugs that will allow you to add hardware.

If you have a SATA drive than you will need to make sure you have a SATA cable that will go from the drive to your motherboard.

Edited by jaxisland, 28 August 2007 - 12:33 PM.

[dustygal]

thanks for your help. i have not opened my computer so i didn't know how it is in there. i hope i can do this.

[jaxisland]

I would suggest just taking the side off of the computer to take a look and see what you have, do you know how to tell the difference between IDE and SATA?

Dont want to insult, just dont know your level of experience.

Thanks