External hard drive - master???

I recently got a new computer with XP Pro. I also bought the 2 external casings so that I could use my old HDs from two other old computers. The instructions for the casing say that the jumper has to be set on Master and I did that. The old HDs are using ME and 98. I want to be able to access the old HDs without going thru XP, KWIM??? For example, I installed WordPerfect on the new computer and it was also on the ME HD, but when I try to access WP on the old ME various fonts are missing and I really don't want to reload those if I don't have to, among other things. So, if I change the jumper in the external HD to "slave" or "auto" will that "hurt" anything? I don't want to go inside the new computer if I don't have to. The external casing is by Ultra. Thank you very much and I appreciate any help.

 

If you want to access the drives in the external enclosures, you'll have to boot into XP first, and you won't be able to run any of the programs on the external drives either (ok, well, maybe some will run if you're really lucky), but you should have no problem accessing the data (documents, pictures, music, etc), and these things should open just fine as long as you have the programs installed on the new PC that these docs were created with. If you're thinking you can try to boot to one of these external drives, you might be able to if your new PC supports booting from USB, but since the OSes on the externals are so old, they may not support USB so you're kind of stuck.

(I'm not sure if any of what I said makes any sense, or if it helps, or if I'm totally off base, so take what you can from it )

 

Thanks guys! I'll re-read and play with it after I get some sleep. Thanks again!