I’m not terribly well-versed in hardware matters, so I’m hoping someone here can help me out with a question. Internet searches have proven fruitless thus far.
I just bought a new computer, and would like to transfer a mess of important files from my old hard drive to the new one. I know how to set the old drive to “slave” and hook it up to the existing cable in my new machine, but the configuration of the slave and power source connectors on that cable makes it impossible to fit my old drive in there. So what I’d like to know is:
Is there some attachment that would allow me to extend the slave connector thingie from the existing cable? If I had just a little more room to play I could get it hooked up.
Is there any other way to transfer files from one hard drive to another? Some sort of handy USB device? Wishful thinking, I’m guessing.
Assuming your old computer and your new computer are both healthy and operational at the same time, it might be easiest to just hook them both up to your home network and transfer files across the network. I’m just guessing that you have a home network, since a lot of people do nowadays.
Right – I forgot to mention the minor detail that my old computer’s motherboard is fried, which both rendered it unbootable and necessitated the purchase of this new computer I’m staring at. So all I have to work with is this new machine and the old hard drive, now freed from its moorings and sitting on my desk.
There’s no requirement for the hard drive to be screwed into the mounting for it to work. Hang the fucker off the cables, I do it all the time. Just don’t touch metal to metal.
You can get external hard drive enclosures that connect via USB. Basically, the internals have the same hard drive connections you’d find in a computer, and then converts it to USB or FireWire.
It may or may not be something you wish to spend the amount of money on, and its certainly possible that you may have a cheaper way available (such as unplugging any optical drives and putting the hard drive on that channel).
Assuming you don’t need your DVD/CD-ROM for the file transfer, you should be able to disconnect your 2nd IDE controller from the CD-ROM and connect it to the old hard drive. The old hard drive wouldn’t have to be physically installed in the new machine. Take the cover off the new machine and just run the cable from the motherboard to the old hard drive sitting on your desk. Configure the old hard drive as “master” in this set-up.
There’s probably a higher risk of unwanted data loss due to static charges in this configuration, but I think it would work at least 90% of the time. Some of the folks with much greater tech knowledge may betray my overconfidence.
Thanks a ton, guys. This gives me some ideas to work with.
I’m with you guys too – I transferred files from my previous two drives without worrying about mounting. Problem here is that the space in the case is so tight and the cable so short that there’s simply no way to attach the damn thing. It’s actually pissing me off a bit, since the guy who sold it to me assured me that putting in a slave drive would be no problem.
I’m with you guys too – I transferred files from my previous two drives without worrying about mounting. Problem here is that the space in the case is so tight and the cable so short that there’s simply no way to attach the damn thing. It’s actually pissing me off a bit, since the guy who sold it to me assured me that putting in a slave drive would be no problem.[/quote]
I’m unclear on this, is it the drive power cable that is too short, or the drive data (IDE) cable that is too short?
If the power cable is too short, you can power the drive off your old computer while it’s hooked to the data (IDE) cable from the new computer. This can be dangerous to your drive but should be safe for a short term use.
If the data (IDE) cable is too short, just replace it with a longer one from your old computer.
