[WBensburg]

Hello, all!

Just a little background: I've been doing computers since the mid-70's, and I just bought my 4th computer. Ever. So, that's how I do things (I read in another thread about how one of your staff builds himself a new computer every 6 months; think of me as the opposite).

OK, so I want to transfer over to my new custom-built smokin' machine all my files from my trusty, never-had-a-problem 20GB harddrive Dell. So I bought a SimpleDrive 500 GB external at Costco, downloaded the driver off the website (with surprisingly excellent step-by-step instructions!), hooked it up to the USB port (I'm assuming 1.1??), and, voila! it worked as a G: drive. So I tried to copy all the files from C: to G: in one operation, and that worked for a while, but it hangs. Then I tried copying them piecemeal, but it still tends to hang.

I figured I needed an external drive for my new machine anyway. Am I going about this the wrong way? Is there something wrong with SimpleDrive externals that I didn't know about (it sure was cheap!) Is it a Win98 problem? Is it a memory problem? Is there an easier way?

Thank you for your advice and great website.

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Your old Dell obviously uses a PATA (IDE) drive. Depending on how your new computer is setup, you may be able to slave the old drive into the new one and transfer your data that way... provided your new computer has at least an IDE connector on the motherboard. However, I need to know what Make/Model number your new computer is so I can look it up.

[makai]

Your old Dell obviously uses a PATA (IDE) drive. Depending on how your new computer is setup, you may be able to slave the old drive into the new one and transfer your data that way... provided your new computer has at least an IDE connector on the motherboard. However, I need to know what Make/Model number your new computer is so I can look it up.

[WBensburg]

Thanks, Makai!
The gentleman who built the machine didn't like the idea of putting an eleven-year-old drive in it, so he volunteered to get the data off the old one. Thanks again for the advice!

[123Runner]

Glad you got it taken care of.

However, there should be no problem putting an 11 year old drive into your new computer as a SLAVE so you can transfer the data.
Unless of course there were no ide connectors on the board.

The issue with an 11 year old drive would be using it as the main OS drive or as the ONLY backup drive.

[WBensburg]

Well, I got the new external drive back and it has half the files of my old machine on it. I don't know what's not on it (might be Win98 system files, etc.), but I found the data I needed right away, so there's no problem as yet. I still might hook it up to the new machine, as it (the new machine) does indeed have an IDE port.
Will it be a quasi-automatic thing? I mean, if I find the correct slot (the one that fits the ribbon) & a power supply, if I turn on the new machine will it automatically install the old drive and assign it a letter?
My new system has RAID1 (?) meaning there are two 500GB drives hooked up in tandem, and if one goes, the other kicks in and I get a message (quite a jump from my 20 GB drive I had (which only had 17 GB on it)). So I wouldn't be using the drive for anything other than shifting the stuff over.

My continued gratitude,
Bill