[cawleym1]

Hi All. Very new to this, so please have forgiveness in your soul.


Had a terminal cpu crash on my old dell. I was using XP. Removed the seagate 7200.7. Purchased a new Compaq Presario running pre loaded Vista home Premium (God Help Me).


I want to use the old hard drive as an external hard drive. I have purchased (waiting for delivery) an adapter kit with usb cable. I need to retrieve files from this old Hard Drive. Does anyone foresee a problem with accessing the data held on the old hard drive. I have had so many upsets with Vista that I've come to expect problems.


Cheers in advance.

[Carbon]

No, it'll show up just like a regular hard drive. It may be really slow because of the USB (I would have just plugged it in like it was originally) but you should have no problems.

[cawleym1]

Many thanks.
The hard drive is a Sata version and there are no jumpers fitted to it. I won't be able to set it to master. any problems?

Thanks Again

[Carbon]

SATA have no jumpers, that's why they're so convenient - no messing around with master/slave/cable select mumbo jumpers, just plug in and use. Shouldn't be a problem.

[cawleym1]

I a;so took it to a computer shop and they could not get it to work on my compaq as a slave?

[Carbon]

Originally Posted by cawleym1 I a;so took it to a computer shop and they could not get it to work on my compaq as a slave?

If it's SATA they're BSing you, like I said there is no master/slave thing in SATA, that's IDE/PATA only.

[cawleym1]

Many thanks my friend.
Cheers

[philthomas]

Originally Posted by cawleym1 I a;so took it to a computer shop and they could not get it to work on my compaq as a slave?

Did they actually try to hook it up ? .... if not, they were either fobbing you off, or dont know what they'e doing ........... as Carbon says SATA drives have no Master or Slave settings.

[cawleym1]

Actualy, I asked them to fit the old hard drive and set it up as a dual boot system. new hard drive with Vista and old with XP. they said that they could not do it. So i asked them to get rid of the vista and load XP in the New disc that came with the Compaq. they said there was something about the Compaq that prevented them from doing it. They put in a totaly new hard drive and it would still not take the XP. They thought it was something to do with the compaq harware? What do I know.

Thanks for your input

[philthomas]

Sounds like they didn't want the job .... probably a bit too much like hard work for them, or they didn't know how ........ was it PC World by any chance ?

[cawleym1]

No. Megabites. I think they did really try, they kept calling me as they had it on the bench. Not sure why it would not happen. The Vista came pre loaded. I was thinking that the Compaq hardware could be dedicated to Vista? they could't even load it on a partition on the new HD.
Anyway I got my Autocad running by setting it as Administator and it works. I now like the old disc to act as an external. Knowing my luck something won't work.

[philthomas]

I cannot see why they were unable to install XP on a seperate partition or indeed a new HDD, there are no machines that would be clever enough to know what was being installed on them. They are all made from empty, dumb components.
It's possoble that they had issues finding XP drivers for some of the hardware, but this would not prevent XP being installed. it would simply mean that some components might not fuction properly.

Anyway , as Carbon said you shouldn't have any problems putting it in an external enclosure, providing you have ordered a SATA version and of course the drive hasn't been messed with,or droppped, by the Megabites goons

[cawleym1]

Yes I have ordered a SATA adapter. I went to the Compaq site. and they gave instructions on how to do it. It did seem complecated, but that's just me.

Many thanks for your input.