Adding a HDD that has Data and an OS on it to another PC

[Triggz]

hi there,

So I am cleaning up the basement and came across a couple busted down PCs.

I could only get one of them to power up but could not get into windows. So I decided that I would grab a different HDD and swap it out to get Windows up and running and also keep my data on the HDD I wish to keep.

Now that Windows is done installing, How do I go about adding my second HDD. I only have 2 available slots on the motherboard. 1 for HDD and 1 for CD-ROM. The cable going to the HDD looks like I can add another HDD to it however if I do this, how does it know which one to boot from? I don't want it trying to boot the corrupt windows.

Or should I just take out the cd-rom and use that cable for the time being.

Thanks.

[3 of 7]

Easiest would be to use the cable from the cd rom..
Other than that the way the ide cable works is the HD on the end farthest from the motherboard is the master and the one in the middle is the slave. the drives have little jumpers on them that tell the computer where they are (Master/Slave).... There is also a position on the jumpers that's "cable select"
******edit*****
Your computer "should" boot from the existing drive, if it doesn't you'll have to enter your bios and set it there...
The instructions for that will differ depending on your motherboard...

[Triggz]

So windows didn't actually make it through the full install. Here was the error I had when I went downstairs to check on it. I haven't tried to reboot it or anything yet. If I reboot won't it try and boot right away from CD again? Should I go into BIOS and try to get it to boot from the HDD and see if Windows is there LOL?

[3 of 7]

I'd start over.

[Triggz]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

I'd start over.

ok thanks i will try that... maybe even a different HDD. I have a couple layin around. maybe even wipe them clean before I start (DBAN).

[frontier204]

I don't recall if DBAN has error checking, but if I were you I'd "wipe" the drives using something that has error checking. For my last HDD I used the destructive badblocks or dd from Linux.

[Triggz]

Decided to try the other HDD and re-install windows again. Formatted the old partition and started fresh. Everything went well however when I tried to attach the old HDD I could not access it. Going through error checking found a ton of errors. So I downloaded a Recovery program and installed it. I was able to recover all my old pictures (what I was after) and burn them to a single DVD without any issues And now I have a dusty P3 with a clean copy of XP for the garage sale.