Different makes compatible?

I have a Dell dimension computer and I am buying a Gateway computer from a family member for 50.00. What I want to try and do is either network the Gateway to my Dell or have the gateway's harddrive be a slave to my dell drive. In essence all I want is to be able to back-up my system on the Gateway and use the Dell regularly. If I screw up the Dell I want to be able to take the back-up off the Gateway and fix the Dell with it. I hope that is making sense to someone.

On the same note, I recently purchased another Cd drive. It is read only and i paid 9 dollars for it. I have an RW drive now. the new drive is Dell also. If I want to put this drive in I assume that I just have to plug it in and away we go. Is there more to it than this? I am relatively certain I dont have to worry about drivers and such. Once I have it installed, how will I go about making it the primary read drive?

Thanks in advance!

 

Easiest way is to take the harddrive out the gateway and set it up as slave in your dell,create an image of the dell drive and copy it to the gateway drive, in the event of a harddrive failure you just need to switch drives over in bios to boot from the gateway drive

alternitively if you want to keep the gateway intact,you could network the two computers,if its a home comp you bought for $50 I doubt it will have a network card you'd need two pci network cards about $3 each and 2m crossover cable about $2

create an image of your drive and transfer it to the gateway, you cant format the gateway drive though as you would still need the operating files for it to boot

heres the software for creating backup images

http://majorgeeks.com/Acronis_True_Image_d2236.html

 

O.k., thank you. which way would you recommend? i am not concerned with ease of initial set-up so much as I am functionality and ease of transfer. I do not have a size on the Gateway hard drive yet, but if it is comparable to my Dell I would like to be able to switch to the Gateway when the Dell crashes, transfer an image of it to the corrupt Dell and continue using the Gateway. Vice versa if the Gateway becomes corrupt. Basically I am looking for a better way than reformatting my Dell all the time. Is there a way to use the processor from the Gateway to boost my processor? Probably not, at least in my thinking, but I have heard of weirder things.

 

Its up to you really,if you put the drive in your dell you'll have the extra space and I'll be easier to switch over incase of problems,if you leave it in the gateway you'll have two working comps

If you dont need two comps for anything just spend the $50 on a new harddrive ,you can link computers up to share workloads but I dont think you'll do it using windows its beyond my knowledge if you find out how though I have 2 older p2 systems I wanna link to make a supa folding machine

 

Thanks for the info Rikky, and happy birthday again. I will probably link them together somehow, I have to research combining processors.

 

No problem Thanks for the birthday wishes been great so far my

 

Isnt that called Pentium 4 with hyperthreading technology?

 

lol it'll end looking more like bodge job with threaded cable technology if I do it,I have seen university's connect 50 or so more comps together to create huge calculators but I think they had to create their own operating system,linux may hold some answers but I aint messed around with it much

 

The truth is out there Ricky, you just have to find it. SETTI uses a settup that you log on and when you're idle it uses your processor to make calculations, while searching for ET. There is a program out there that will do that for you, I read an article on it once about making a render farm. The program worked so well it didn't matter if it was a Mac, PC or Linux box.

As for the dell gateway guy, I love the fact that you anticipate a crash. Here is the cool way to do it, make an image of your drive pre nastieness and burn it to a cd. Sell the Gateway in your local paper for $120.00 and then go to NewEgg and buy your self a bigger drive to play with. As for the CD rom, anything you bought for like $2.00 is worth half as much, I'm not sure what you are looking to do with it, (probably make bootleg disks, and who am I to judge) The problem you will have is a $2.00 drive will have speed issues, as in not enough. Get some cash together, using the profits from your gateway sale, and buy a DVD burner I just got one for $47.00, you'll be able to back your dell up till your hearts content, and make other bootleg gear, and still read cd's faster to your other burner, or viseversa. So there you go.

It's good to be me.

 

I dont really anticipate a crash, I just play ALOT with my system and I have had to reformat 3 times since I got it(4-5 months now I think). I am tired of going through the reformat process and I just want to be able to flash everything back to normal when I do it again. The CD drive will be used for reading only. I have a rewrite that will be used for writing only. I actually dont burn Cd's, just a personal preference. Worst case scenario I tweak the Gateway a little bit and set it up for my son. Thanks for the advice though. I do know my next rig will be custom made with top notched everything, damn to the price.

Also, keep in mind that most of this stuff I want to do is more for the experience than for the benefit. Whatever gain I get is secondary to the knowledge.