# Hard drive



## redline (Mar 5, 2006)

Changed the hard drive to one with more capacity.
There is information on the old hard drive that I need access to.
Can I just unplug the new hard drive and then connect the old hard drive to gain the information on the old hard drive?
Will this cause any problems?
I plan to reconnect the new hard drive after I have the information that I need as well as diconnect the old hard drive.

thanks


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## perpetualjon (Jan 30, 2009)

Actually the easiest thing you can do is pick up one of these guys from Newegg.com. I have been doing PC service for about 10 years now and can't think of many tools more useful that this one. Pretty cheap too considering you won't need to pop open your case to hook it up and read from it.

That aside, what you are thinking of doing (hooking up your old hard drive, pulling data off of it, and then putting the new hard drive back in) will work without too much problem. I take it you're going to get the data off via a USB drive or something?

Good luck!


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

I usually hook the old hard drive up as a slave & copy the data from the old drive to the new drive - much faster

Unless you have a specific program that will "image" (copy all data & programs) from the old drive to the new drive you will need to re-install the OS & all programs

I usually re-install anyways as it gets rid of any problems & garbage ion the old drive. I usually go with tower cases & keep the old drive in the PC


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## redline (Mar 5, 2006)

perpetualjon said:


> That aside, what you are thinking of doing (hooking up your old hard drive, pulling data off of it, and then putting the new hard drive back in) will work without too much problem. I take it you're going to get the data off via a USB drive or something?
> 
> Good luck!



The plan was to disconnect the new hard drive.
Connect the old hard drive.
Retrieve some emails and documents from the old hard drive and save to a disk.
disconnect the old drive (for the time being)
Reconnect the new drive.

The tower is open so it is not a hassle at this time to swap the connections from the new to the old hard drive.

thanks


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## redline (Mar 5, 2006)

Scuba_Dave said:


> I usually hook the old hard drive up as a slave & copy the data from the old drive to the new drive - much faster


I will most likely do this in the future as I did not want to lose some of the information on the old drive. Once I know that the information is no longer needed than I can connect them both up.


thanks


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## perpetualjon (Jan 30, 2009)

redline said:


> The plan was to disconnect the new hard drive.
> Connect the old hard drive.
> Retrieve some emails and documents from the old hard drive and save to a disk.
> disconnect the old drive (for the time being)
> ...


Ok, well in that case, it's no problem doing what you are talking about there.


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

Why not have both drives connected at the same time?
I've always run the new drive & old drive at the same time
Whichever drive is jumpered as the Master will be the boot drive
In some cases the cable will set Master/slave

Or do you only have one cable?


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## perpetualjon (Jan 30, 2009)

Scuba_Dave said:


> Why not have both drives connected at the same time?
> I've always run the new drive & old drive at the same time
> Whichever drive is jumpered as the Master will be the boot drive
> In some cases the cable will set Master/slave
> ...


My guess is that the old hard drive still has all the apps running on it so it's a lot easier to extract data from them rather than fishing for them later as a slave drive. Then again, if it's just email data, most of that can be easily grabbed after the old drive is slaved in but I don't know what redline is trying to save...


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

True, I usually install the apps on the new drive
And I keep all my data in one place

You can unplug & replug drives all day
Its the power up/power down that usually kills them long term
I used to have a SCSI setup where I could change the drive info in setup & boot to IDE or SCSI - I loaded each with a different OS


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## redline (Mar 5, 2006)

The upgrade of the newer hard drive was to try and fix a problem.
The computer would not function so it was suggested by a friend (over the phone) that the hard drive be replaced.
Put in a new hard drive and the computer still would not function.
Found out that the ram just needed to be removed and reinserted into its location. Not sure how it happened but it corrected the problem.
Used the new hard drive to make sure that the computer was working properly.
I was unable to retrieve any information that may have value from the old hard drive as the computer was not working prior but it is now. It is my fault as I did not back up the items prior. Never had a problem with the system before.
I just need to reinstall the old hard drive and save some emails and documents before I start fresh.

thanks


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## perpetualjon (Jan 30, 2009)

Well at least you've learned the valuable lesson of backup without too much trouble!! I'm afraid I've seen terrible situations in my 10 years doing desktop support where people have lost YEARS of data like family photos, school work, years of document development, etc. Think of it this way: if you don't have 2 copies of something, it doesn't exist. Also, I'd suggest looking into a product like Carbonite. It's only $50/yr and basically performs an online backup of your essential data. This way, if your house burns down or you get robbed, your data is still safe. I strongly recommend products like this to all my clients.


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## brokenknee (Dec 13, 2008)

perpetualjon said:


> Actually the easiest thing you can do is pick up one of these guys from Newegg.com. I have been doing PC service for about 10 years now and can't think of many tools more useful that this one. Pretty cheap too considering you won't need to pop open your case to hook it up and read from it.
> 
> That aside, what you are thinking of doing (hooking up your old hard drive, pulling data off of it, and then putting the new hard drive back in) will work without too much problem. I take it you're going to get the data off via a USB drive or something?
> 
> Good luck!


I only read the first two pages of the reviews, to me it seamed like a lot of negative feedback, mainly with the power supply.

I know you said this is a useful tool, but wondering have you had any problems with yours and is it user friendly (for those not very computer literate)?


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## perpetualjon (Jan 30, 2009)

Sure I've had problems. The device is cheap and doesn't always work the first (or 10th) try. But it will eventually read the drive and work just like an external USB drive. I've managed to recover some pretty seriously damaged drives with one of these little guys (saved the client about $700). And for that price, I wouldn't expect too much but for what you're doing. Then again, if this will just be a one time thing, just slave the drive into the box and get your data that way and treat yourself to a nice dinner at Denny's!!


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## matelot (Mar 6, 2009)

*Trouble with my drive*

I have a HP Pavilion with a 32 bit operating system, use Vista Home Premuim with a 250gb drive. Have had continuous problems with: IE browswer stopping, programs corrupted, programs that will not uninstall, installations that keep trying to find 'Destination ...', a driver (for my HP C7250 All in One that refused to scan) that ALWAYS starts on powering up and then tells me that it cannot find xxxxx!
Having spent more than 30 hours 'Chat' with HP techs and approx. 10 hours with Windows Live One Care people without real improvement, I have decided that I will buy a 1tb external drive and move the stuff I want/need then do a system recover.
My hesitation is because I do not know if the stuff I transfer will simply be data and not program; can I transfer my email, yahoo messenger and skype without problem. LASTLY, will I be transferring any of the current problems?
I believe that a 'system recovery' will include my OS as well as all the 'bundled software' that HP included. Am I correct?
Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I also have a backup on an external hard drive (OneCare) but understand that it would a: not return the backed up material to the original paths/directories (becasue they would not be there after a recovery); b: they may include corrupted files; c: I would need to re-install LiveOnecare in orsder to 'Restore' the backed up material.


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## rgsgww (Jul 5, 2008)

matelot said:


> I have a HP Pavilion with a 32 bit operating system, use Vista Home Premuim with a 250gb drive. Have had continuous problems with: IE browswer stopping, programs corrupted, programs that will not uninstall, installations that keep trying to find 'Destination ...', a driver (for my HP C7250 All in One that refused to scan) that ALWAYS starts on powering up and then tells me that it cannot find xxxxx!
> Having spent more than 30 hours 'Chat' with HP techs and approx. 10 hours with Windows Live One Care people without real improvement, I have decided that I will buy a 1tb external drive and move the stuff I want/need then do a system recover.
> My hesitation is because I do not know if the stuff I transfer will simply be data and not program; can I transfer my email, yahoo messenger and skype without problem. LASTLY, will I be transferring any of the current problems?
> I believe that a 'system recovery' will include my OS as well as all the 'bundled software' that HP included. Am I correct?
> ...




A system recovery will not exactly copy everything. I would just reformat. Unless you cloned the HDD, but that is worthless in your situation.

First off, make sure you have no viruses, these are possible symptoms you described. I would just manually copy your data to an hdd. Then I would reformat and reinstall vista. After that, install the latest drivers from the net, the antivirus, windows updates, after that, install the other programs and migrate the old data into the new. Do not copy your regestry! Its likely that it is damaged.

Please start a new thread for your problem.


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