HD to HD file transfer question

Factual Questions
1

I have a 2GB hard drive, of the internal sort, that contains files I’d like to keep. The computer in which this drive originally resided is FUBAR, but I managed to salvage the drive itself. The question now is how to go about transferring the files from this drive onto my current HD. I can think of two ways to do this, one of which I am uncertain as to whether or not it will work, and the other of which I am fairly sure would work but would be a colossal pain in the gluteal region.

Method 1 - open box, connect old HD to IDE cable in secondary position, boot, access drive, transfer files. This is the one that I’m unsure as to its possibility. For one thing, my box doesn’t have anywhere in particular to place a second HD, so I’d either have to jury-rig it (bad idea) or else hold it in place while operating the computer one-handed (really bad idea). For another thing, the old HD has Windows 98 installed, whereas my current setup works under XP Home. And for yet a third thing, I’ve never really messed around with secondary hard drives before (beyond partitions and external drives, that is), so I couldn’t be 100% certain as to what I was doing.

Method 2 - open box, remove current HD, swap in old HD, close box, boot up Windows 98, email files to self, re-swap HDs, download files. I’m pretty sure this would work, but it would be a pain in the ass; my box is set up such that removing the hard drive is fifty times harder than it rightfully ought to be. Furthermore, the pessimist in me can just see something unforeseen going wrong trying to boot from the old HD on my current system. I don’t know what exactly, but that’s where the “unforeseen” part comes in.

So, any advice? Is there a third, hopefully better option I’ve not come up with? I’m thinking maybe a USB device that allows me to access an internal HD externally, or something of that sort. Does such a thing exist, or am I stuck with doing one of the things I’ve described here? Whatever the case, I’d really like to retrieve these files. Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated.

By the way, you wouldn’t believe how hard it was for me to post this thread. My inner computer geek – the one that mastered DOS at age six and taught himself AP Computer Science without a teacher or textbook – is extremely displeased that he can’t come up with the solution himself.

2

Method 2 almost certainly won’t work - or at least it’ll be a huge problem. Windows will only run in safe mode, because all the drivers will be incorrect for the hardware. You’ll then need to uninstall them all, install the correct ones, and hope it doesn’t screw up along the way.

Method 1 should be fine. XP should recognise the drive without any problem. I’ve done this before, with the drive loose in the case. Obviously it’s not recommended, but it shouldn’t do any harm in the few minutes it takes to salvage files.

3

Another, more expensive, option is to get an external Firewire enclosure, mount the old disk in it, and then connect the external disk to the new computer. (This assumes the new computer has a Firewire port.) After the files are copied, you can reformat the disk and use it for other purposes – backing up critical files, storing music or photos, etc.

4

Method 2 is suboptimal for reasons GorillaMan has described, as well as being a huge PITA.

There are such things as external USB ATA drive enclosures that allow you to attach such a drive externally. I don’t think the drive has to be specially formatted, but such a device is unlikely to be as useful in the long term as the purchase price would require.

I’d go with Method 1. The drive should be detected in the BIOS on boot - you’ll see it go by. WinXP is perfectly capable of mounting a FAT32/16 drive (which is what a Win98 HD would be formatted as). As for where to put it, just shove a cardboard box or something in/next to the PC someplace and put the drive on it. I’d feel find having it dangling after making sure the starting torque wasn’t going to make it hit anything, but that’s just me. Of course, I once shorted out my 486 in a shower of sparks trying to add an MFM style HD to it (I know it wasn’t gonna work now), so whatever makes you happy.

5

As others have mentioned, there’s no need to “permanently” mount the drive inside your computer. Although many people will say that it doesn’t matter what angle the hard drive will be resting, I still prefer either straight up or straight down. One thing you DO NOT want to do it allow the underside of the drive (the part with the capacitors and chips and whatnot) on anything metal when it’s powered on. Place a paper plate, cardboard, mouse pad - anything that’s not overly prone to static - underneath your drive when you power it on.

Secondly, make sure you have the drive jumpered correctly. As you might know, most computers have two IDE disk controllers (a primary and a secondary) and allow for two devices (a master and a slave) to be connected to each channel, for a maximum of 4 devices. Your Win98 drive is almost certainly connected as a master drive, as if your current WinXP drive. To get around this, you can connect the old drive to the new computer as the only device on the secondary channel. If this is not possible for whatever reason, you could also connect it as a primary slave (or secondary slave) by changing the configuration of the jumpers on the end of the drive (near the ribbon cable and power connectors). If your drive doesn’t have a diagram on itself, check out the manufacturer’s site - AFAIK, most manufacturers have not changed their configurations since hard drives hit 1GB or so.

The reason I bring up jumpering is that some manufacturers - Western Digital, for one - have jumper settings for MASTER, MASTER IF NO SLAVE IS PRESENT and SLAVE while other manufacturers have only MASTER and SLAVE.

So if the old drive is a WD, you’ll need to change the jumpers and connect the drive to the secondary IDE channel. If you have a Seagate or Maxtor, you can simply connect the drive without mussing with the jumpers.

Lastly - although I might not have expressly mentioned it - all of the above directions assume that the Secondary IDE channel is empty. If you have a CD-ROM or DVD drive on that channel, pull the IDE (ribbon) cable from it and connect THAT to the old drive.

6

Yes, definitely mount the old drive as the second drive in your new computer. As the previous poster has pointed out, you don’t necessarily need a slot in your new computer for the second drive. It just has to be located so that an IDE cable and a power connection can be attached to the old drive. And follow the other excellent pointers above. I sense that you are nervous about this procedure because you probably never did it before. Let me assure you that it is really easy. Also, if you take the usual precautions when you’re inside your computer, there’s really no way to mess up. Most likely WinXP will detect the second drive right away and off you go in moving files (just the data, not the programs) from the old drive to the new drive.

7

Just stick a box or a stack of books next to the new PC to support the old HD unit next to it while transferring. If the cable and power wire are long enough you can sit it on the floor or on top of the new machine.

8

I’ve used this method countless times, or just let the damn thing dangle from the power connection, works a treat, after all, it only takes a few minutes.

As long as, as mentioned above, there is no physical contact between the hard drive circuitry and and conductive material and the jumper advice is followed.