[coguy321]

Would it work and be OK to take the internal hard drive out of our old Windows XP computer and internally plug it into a new Windows 7 computer?

I'm guessing it should be OK as long as the boot drive on the new computer is not set to the old hard drive, Right?

I want to do this so I can copy files from the old hard drive to the new hard drive.

Any help would be appreciated.

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I just found this old info on another fourm:

Make sure that the new computer has up to date antivirus software.

If the old drive is SATA, just pull it and install it in the new computer using a SATA power connector from the PSU and a SATA data cable.

If it is an IDE drive, use the data cable from the old computer and plug it into the IDE port on the motherboard. Connect a 4 pin drive cable.

All of the cables are keyed and they will only go in one way.

Make sure to go into the BIOS on POST and select the Hard Drive in your new computer to boot from. If not it could try to boot the old HD first (depending on your SATA order).

Make sure that the computer can see both drives. Do a virus scan. Then transfer the data files. Do not transfer any program files or .DLL files. You could be transfering a virus.



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So I hope there is no risk in damaging the old hard drive, anybody have objections to the above?


I don't understand why poeple buy a IDE/SATA Cable for $20 if they can just do the above. I guess it's easy to most people to just use a USB IDE/SATA Cable instead of opening it up, plugging it in, and using BIOS.

Edited by coguy321, 04 October 2013 - 08:42 PM.

[coguy321]

I just found this old info on another fourm:

Make sure that the new computer has up to date antivirus software.

If the old drive is SATA, just pull it and install it in the new computer using a SATA power connector from the PSU and a SATA data cable.

If it is an IDE drive, use the data cable from the old computer and plug it into the IDE port on the motherboard. Connect a 4 pin drive cable.

All of the cables are keyed and they will only go in one way.

Make sure to go into the BIOS on POST and select the Hard Drive in your new computer to boot from. If not it could try to boot the old HD first (depending on your SATA order).

Make sure that the computer can see both drives. Do a virus scan. Then transfer the data files. Do not transfer any program files or .DLL files. You could be transfering a virus.



----

So I hope there is no risk in damaging the old hard drive, anybody have objections to the above?


I don't understand why poeple buy a IDE/SATA Cable for $20 if they can just do the above. I guess it's easy to most people to just use a USB IDE/SATA Cable instead of opening it up, plugging it in, and using BIOS.

Edited by coguy321, 04 October 2013 - 08:42 PM.

[Kemasa]

Yes, you can attach the drive like that.

Another option is to get an external case, transfer the files, then use the drive as a backup device (assuming it is a reasonable size).

You could also use a usb connected drive to transfer the files to it, then move it to the new computer and copy the files back.