how do you replace harddrives?

[JoeFaheyx]

hi, how do you buy a new hard drive and put it in? how would you go about transfering data? THANKS

 

[junglevip]

Which version of Windows are you using? It's a lot easier in some versions than others....

 

[JoeFaheyx]

windows me

 

[junglevip]

OK... Is this to replace the existing hard drive, or to add another one?

This page tells you how to physically remove or install a hard drive...
http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-hard-drive.htm

 

[JoeFaheyx]

to install a new one

 

[JoeFaheyx]

how do i transfer the info, if i followed those steps, i would have a new empty hard drive, right? how would i keep my info on my old harddrive and use it on a new one?

 

[junglevip]

That doesn't answer the question... New replacement drive? Or new additional drive?

If you want to put an additional drive in, you will need a spare IDE connector in your computer. Just follow the instruction on that page I linked to above.

 

[JoeFaheyx]

new rplacement drive, but with same old data on it

 

[junglevip]

If you install the new hard drive as well as the old hard drive, then just copy across the information in Windows Explorer. After that, you can remove the old hard drive completely, and just leave the new one.

 

[JoeFaheyx]

no, ok, listen carefully, i want to replace the old hard drive with a faster one.....how do i completely replace the old one while keeping the data on the computer...so there will only be 1 hard drive

 

[junglevip]

The best order to do it would be as follows:

(1) take out the old hard disk completely

(2) install the new hard disk and install Windows, etc, onto it.

(3) once you've completely set up the new hard disk, put back the old hard disk as well. Make sure you have the jumper settings right though!

(4) copy the files across.

 

[junglevip]

(and then you can take out the old one again)

The only way to copy data from one drive to the other is to have both drives installed at the same time. Unless of course you can backup the data onto something like CD-R or DVD-R first, then copy it from there.

 

[JoeFaheyx]

how do you set up 2 separate hard drives for transfering....also, do you have to do this???

 

[junglevip]

Installing a second drive can be a bit tricky, but it really is the quickest way to copy data from another hard drive.

This tutorial for Windows 98 will work fine in Windows Me...
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tutorials/tutorial.php/id/73

Without knowing a lot more about your system, it's hard to recommend any other solutions. For example do you have access to a LAN, or a CD writer, or Zip drive? And how much data do you need to copy? Is it just documents, or do you want to copy an "image" of the entire drive?

 

[Polishwonder74]

I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence here or anything, but lemmie just try & bridge the communication gap here. Joe, your motherboard most likely has 2 IDE channels capable of 2 IDE devices each (in case you didn't know).

So a more detailed step-by-step like what Junglevip was saying would be:

1.) Remove the old hard drive
2.) Install the new, faster hard drive with the jumper set to master
3.) Install Windows on that drive
4.) Once that is up and running, plug the old hard drive into the same ribbon as the new hard drive
5.) Make sure the old hard drive is set to SLAVE
6.) Windows will recognize the 2 hard drives, the new one will be C:\ and the old one will probably be E:\ (depending on how many CD-ROMs you have)
7.) Drag and drop your files over onto the new one.
8.) Now it's your choice wheter or not to remove the old one or erase it and use it as extra space


This is the fastest way to get the job done. Your alternatives would be to burn all your files onto a CD first, then take the old out, put the new in, install windows and copy old files from CD to the new HD, or else start by copying your files across a network to another computer before you swap hard drives.

Any way you cut it, you're going to have to install windows onto the new hard drive. I think the only way around it would be to ghost your old drive or something. I think Partition Magic might be able to do it too, but I'm not sure. But Junglevip's method is the easiest and fastest (believe me).

Hope that helps!

:beer:

 

[Polishwonder74]

P.S. It's ok to just set a drive to SLAVE and read from it, even if Windows is installed on it. The purpose of setting master/slave is to let the motherboard which drive to BOOT from. It'll always boot from the MASTER.

 

[amdskip]

This is just me saying my $.02

Get rid of Windows ME like a bad habit. Chances are a copy will not work correctly let alone windows ME working correctly. It is the worst operating system out there. Anything is better than it.

 

[Polishwonder74]

Yeah, Imma go ahead and second that. HARD. If you're reinstalling windows, now would be a good time to go for XP. I've never in my life seen Windows Me do ANYTHING right. My heart would sink when I used to do ResNet housecalls on campus and I'd walk into a room and find Me on some hottie's computer. At least I got to spend more time talking to chicks while I fought with their OS, but it could sure frustrate the hell outta me.

Me has got to be the most half-baked, redicuous idea that ever made it to production. Uh, except for maybe the thighmaster.

 

[drak1968]

LOL @ thighmaster.....ME ..UGHH...I think MS needed to up their bug code quota when they thought that one up.

 

[Basilisk]

Everyone is right in trashing ME -- a true horror of a release, which I replaced with 98se. Today, I'd recommend going to XP, which is pretty stable -- and VERY stable by M$ standards.


I'd do the following, but there are many paths, Weedhopper....

- Install Norton Ghost under ME. (Other such programs would do, but that's all I use.)
- Install your new HD as an accessible drive under ME, whether replacing your CD or making it a master or slave HD on some channel.
- FDISK partitions on the new disk (presuming ME can handle the partition sizes you want).
- I'd re-boot to diagnostic mode, then run Ghost to copy the old disk partitions to the new disk.
- Then I'd power-down and replace the old drive with the new one -- possibly leaving the new one as a drive for backups. That is, I'd make the new drive the Master on the primary channel. (Note: with many M/B you can just specify which HD you will boot from, and that will suffice... if you wish.)
- On rebooting, the new drive should be the boot drive.

Then, I'd upgrade to WinXP -- or anything which would get rid of ME for once and forever! YUCK!

Making an upgrade to XP as the first step would probably allow the setting of larger partitions, but it would require you to learn the disk-manager s/w instead of FDISK.

Note: doing a clean install of XP beats doing an upgrade -- less Dreck carried forwards -- but it requires more insight as to which files you must copy for email and other programs. "Copy the files across" seems like a raucous understatement of the requirements in a world of programs which put save/data files in divergent directories, varying across companies and releases....

 

[jbritt1234]

Originally posted by: junglevip
If you install the new hard drive as well as the old hard drive, then just copy across the information in Windows Explorer. After that, you can remove the old hard drive completely, and just leave the new one.

OMG, What??? Are you serious? You can't move an OS like that and have it actually run!

If you are happy with your setup and don't want to buy XP (Which I HIGHLY reccomend ditching ME) use Norton Ghost to Image the Old drive over to your new drive. It will make an exact copy and expand the partition to take advantage of the larger drive.