Setting up a old hard drive

[Matt2685]

Friend has a crappy old old computer with a less then a gig hard drive, i found a old one from a friend that is a 10gig.. figured the computer wouldnt like anything bigger then that. so can i plug it into my existing extra IDE cables and copy stuff from my hard drive i have now onto that? is it just plug and play, do i have to setup seperate drive for it or does it do it automaticlly? id really like to just clear the new hard drive and re format it, but i dont have any OS avaiable on disk... could i copy my OS while the computer is on with both hard drives pluged in? does any of this make sense

 

[ohnnyj]

To do a clone of your drive to another you will need a program such as Norton Ghost.

 

[Matt2685]

what if i only want certain things on the other hard drive, like just certain programs and the OS?

 

[SlitheryDee]

First of all you'd have to set the HD jumper(s) so that the system recognizes it as a slave. These settings are usually displayed on the drive itself. You can use xcopy, which is a function that's built into windows, to create a copy of your HD onto the older HD. Be warned, unless your friend's computer is exactly like your's (MB chipset especially) you may not even be able to get it to boot even though you do it correctly. This is because there are drivers that are specific to your MB chipset and possibly other hardware in your computer that may inhibit your friend's computer from functioning correctly. A clean OS install from a CD is recommended in this situation.

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
First of all you'd have to set the HD jumper(s) so that the system recognizes it as a slave. These settings are usually displayed on the drive itself. You can use xcopy, which is a function that's built into windows, to create a copy of your HD onto the older HD. Be warned, unless your friend's computer is exactly like your's (MB chipset especially) you may not even be able to get it to boot even though you do it correctly. This is because there are drivers that are specific to your MB chipset and possibly other hardware in your computer that may inhibit your friend's computer from functioning correctly. A clean OS install from a CD is recommended in this situation.

Yes, a straight copy may like this may end up in a BSOD.

 

[Fern]

could i copy my OS while the computer is on with both hard drives pluged in? does any of this make sense

No. It won't be able to copy system files because there are in use.

Otherwise, I'm sorry but I can't quite understand what you're trying to accomplish here