Transferring files between HDs with possibility of boot sector virus

Hello,

I could use some advice, if you can help me. First, here's my situation:

I have an old hard drive from an older computer. I have a large number of files on it (over 100 GB) which I need to transfer to a new computer system that's set up (with it's own hard drive). The old hard drive (and the installation of Windows XP on it) MAY have been infected with malware. I want to assume it has been, to be on the safe side. I'd rather not worry about scanning the old system or trying to clean it up at this point, the machine is unstable and prone to random restarts (the motherboard is clearly going bad, with leaking capacitors).


This is my plan:

Install the old hard drive into the new computer, load XP (from the new hard drive), and transfer the files to the new hard drive. I know enough to MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE I don't boot off the old hard drive while it's in the new system.

I like this method because the old XP install won't be running or active, as well as anything it might've been infected with. However, I have to worry about the possibility of things like boot sector viruses. A boot sector virus (or anything similar) can't infect the new system unless the computer actually attempts to boot off the disk, right?

From Windows, I can then transfer the files over (without running or opening anything), and scan them on the new, definitely clean system, to be on the safe side.

As long as the new computer doesn't attempt to boot off the old hard drive, and I don't open anything until it's all been scanned, the new computer shouldn't get infected with anything, right?


My only other option is to get the old computer running, set up file sharing over the home network and transfer the files over the network to the new computer (hoping the old one doesn't crash or restart while I'm doing this).

This makes me nervous because the old install of XP will be running, along with whatever it might be infected with. I worry that during the file sharing process it might attempt to infect the new computer system through whatever communication ports or channels might be opened between the two systems.

I greatly appreciate any advice you can give me,

-- Tech