[hotstuff5964]

ok so like the title says, my old xp computer was going out on me, finally gave out on wednesday. so i bought a new computer running vista. my old computer has two hard drives, the 180gb it came with, and the 500gb that I added a few months back. i dont really care about any of the stuff on the 180, but i want to get all my videos, pictures and music off the 500gb. the problem is, my old computer wont boot up. (by the way, my old 500gb hd has IDE connections, my new one has SATA connections)

i know vista has this file transfer program, seems easy enough, just have to get me one of those easy transfer cables, but i dont think it would work since the old computer wont boot up.... right?

the old pc wont boot up windows at all, i can go to the recover console option, as i have done in the past, except this time it tells me ALL my files will be deleted. in the past when i had to recover it, it never touched my files.

so i dont know what to do... if I got an IDE to SATA adapter and put it in the new computer would it work?


by the way, XP was on the old 180gb hd that i dont care about, so i dont think anything is wrong with the 500gb hd.

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Welcome to geeks to go.

There are a couple things that you can do.
First, if the new computer has ide connectors on the board (you will have to open the case), then you can just attach the 500gb as a slave. It would be an additional backup drive.
You wouldn't even need to move your files off of it. You could do the same for the 180gb.
You can use an ide to sata converter as you stated.
You could get a hard drive enclosure, install the drive in the enclosure and connect it thru USB as a backup drive. And you could do the same for the 180gb (provided the main drive is mechanically ok).

[123Runner]

Welcome to geeks to go.

There are a couple things that you can do.
First, if the new computer has ide connectors on the board (you will have to open the case), then you can just attach the 500gb as a slave. It would be an additional backup drive.
You wouldn't even need to move your files off of it. You could do the same for the 180gb.
You can use an ide to sata converter as you stated.
You could get a hard drive enclosure, install the drive in the enclosure and connect it thru USB as a backup drive. And you could do the same for the 180gb (provided the main drive is mechanically ok).

[hotstuff5964]

hmm, thanks for the response.

so basically, as long as i get the 500gb drive connected to my new pc, it will recognize it and allow me to use it like normal?

sweet, for some reason i thought since it was a different OS it wouldn't be so easy. im liking the idea of the hard drive enclosure. dont have to disconnect and open the pc, plus it becomes portable..... ive never even heard of a hard drive enclosure, thats pretty slick.


thanks a lot man

[123Runner]

You can buy local or via internet. I use Tigerdirect and Newegg.

Tigerdirect has THESE. I am partial to # 8 on the list.
They are easy to use.

Vista should have no problem reading it.
If I recall a drive formatted as Fat can not read NTFS, but NTFS can read FAT.