Retrieving Data by Temporarily Using an Older Hard Drive?

(edit: apologies--I thought for sure I was posting this in the Hardware forum)

Hi All,

I'm building a new rig from scratch and at some point will want to hook it up to a hard drive I have in one of my older computers that has about 4GB of documents I'll want to copy onto my new hard drive. The older computer no longer works, so I won't have the option (as far as I know, though maybe someone can tell me differently) of simply transferring the data from my older computer to my new one.

One thing that's just occurred to me--would it make sense to set up my new rig temporarily using my old HD, save the 4GB of documents to my keychain flash drive, remove the old HD, and complete the build by installing my new HD?

Perhaps there's a better way of retrieving data from a old hard drive (complete with OS) that was connected to an old computer that no longer works?

Thanks for any help.

 

You can plug your old hard drive into your new PC and then drag and drop the files you want. You could also buy an external HD enclosure to do the same and reuse the old HD for backup.

 

I'll just add that the above quoted plan won't work because the hardware will be too different and Windows won't start up using the old HD.

The easiest way is Just_Playin's idea of going ahead and setting up your new machine with a new HD and installing Windows. Then add your old HD as a secondary drive to transfer files.

 

If both the old and new PCs are running XP, Vista or Win 7, you can also use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293118

This will transfer the files in "My Documents" plus your Internet Explorer favories and desktop settings to the new PC.

Files and Settings Transfer Wizard will not copy/transfer any of the following - these must be done manually if you're not using Sach2's method of using the old drive as a secondary one in your new PC:

• Quicken, Quickbooks, tax software files or other financial data.
• Music, pictures, scans and documents stored in locations other than My Documents (iTunes, eMule, etc.).
• e-mail address books and message files other than Microsoft Outlook.
• Favorites lists in browsers other than Internet Explorer (such as Moxilla).

Although it goes without saying, do not delete anything off the old drive until you are 100% positive it has been properly copied onto the new drive.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks everyone. That's a big help.

By the way--in the link, microsoft omits any mention of that need to link the two computers. The article makes it sound as though if you follow directions the data will magically find its way from the old to the new computer.

 

If you only have a few gigs of data the easiest way is using a USB thumb drive or external hard drive - if the Files & Settings Transfer Wizrad isn't already in your copy of Windows you can download it free from Microsoft.

* Download the program. Copy it to the external device.

* When you click start, it will ask if this is the old PC (backup) or new PC (restore). If you download it from the "new" PC, simply insert the USB drive into the "old" PC and run the program (or vice versa).

So long as you remember the warnings above on what it won't automatically copy you'll be fine.

 

Let's not make this more difficult than it needs to be: post #2 and #3 answer the question perfectly. Even if the original hard drive is Win95 and FAT16/32, it can be hooked up as a 2nd drive to the new PC and all files can be copied via dragon-drop or cuttinpaste. If the original drive is Linux-based, then another step or two is required.... otherwise, case closed.