Need Some Help Here

[GZFant]

I recently put together a new rig because my OS on my old HD became corrupt. Basically

I have a new system with XP SP2 and I am trying to recover/add my old hard drive to my computer but it already has an OS on it. I think the OS is corrupt and I think I can still use it as just a HD but I was wondering how I might put this HD in and get it as another HD and have all my Data saved on it.

Do i just need to plug it in, go into bios and put it as a slave drive???

EDIT: Both Hard Drives have an OS on them. The IDE is corrupt and the SATA is new

 

[ts3433]

See if you can plug it in and then rescue your data using Knoppix or possibly a program that will operate under Windows that can do that for you. You'll have to have another volume to back it up on so you can format it, though.

 

[GZFant]

also realize that i barely know anything about computers so a little more explanation will definitely help

Thanks

 

[Rami7007]

on the back of HDD and CD drives their are six small pins... There is this small thingy that takes up two of those pins... if it is in one position it is master, another slave, and i think the last is called child, correct me if i am wrong... look at the manuel for your HDD and itll say which space is which....

Just put your new HDD as master, and new one as slave...

 

[GZFant]

Oh I forgot. My old hard drive that I am trying to salvage is IDE
My new HD is Sata.

Rami, there are 3 plugs to the IDE cable. The motherboard plug then 2 HD plugs. When I plug the main HD plug in it reads the HD as Master IDE drive and I cannot change to slave. When i plug the second in, it does not read the HD at all......

So i just tried plugging everything in and booting up and of course, it wants to boot from my IDE drive which has the corrupt OS on it. How do I make it a slave and how do i tell it to boot from the SATA. In my boot up options in BIOS where i pick what boots up 1st, 2nd, 3rd, I only have the option of Hard Disk and when I go into that I do not have the option to pick from which HD....

Please help........someone

 

[ts3433]

Make it a slave by putting the jumper (the little thing on the pins mentioned above) on slave, or putting it on cable select and putting the drive in the slave position.

 

[GZFant]

OK, i changed the pin in the back and it worked. Now it pops up as another HD but everytime I try and do something it just says the HD has not been formatted, would you like to format???

I am just trying to pull the data off of it....if i format i will obviously lose all the data unless there is another way??

 

[ts3433]

Is the HD detected at all in Windows or Knoppix? See if the manufacturer's drive diagnostic software might help determine whether data can still be pulled from it.

 

[GZFant]

I don't know what KNoppix is but yes, windows does detect it. Once I try to go into it it just asks if I need to format it....

I have tried to download numberous recovery programs but they require you to buy them....

I wish there was an easier way........

 

[ts3433]

Knoppix is a free Linux distribution you can run off a CD. It can aid in doing things like this.