How do I cannabalize a computer?

I'm not a hardware person -- so am I even capable of doing this?

I have two old computers. They both work just fine, but I just bought a new one and don't need both old ones.

I'd like to cannabalize one -- taking its RAM and moving it over (the old one has 384 KB) and one has two drives -- I'd like to move at least one drive over to add to the storage space as well as move one of the CD-ROMS as it is Read / Write where the PC I plan to keep is read only.

Am I stupid for even thinking about doing this? Should I try to hire someone (cheap) to do it for me? I can't see this being worth more than $30 to me to have done because the PCs are at least 5 years old.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

I wouldn't say it's difficult. As long as you're careful, it isn't likely to end in disaster. One thing you could do on the computer you intend to upgrade, is make a note of exactly what it's like now, so that if things don't go according to plan, you can put it back to its original state. Observe how things come apart so you can reassemble properly later.

I could do it in less than an hour, without being scared of breaking something. I'm not a computer genius, but have the confidence to do things like that because I've done it before with old computers that cost next to nothing. This gave me the confidence to do more, so eventually I upgraded a very good and expensive computer, which also still works.

On the hard drives, make sure the operating system one is set to Master, and the other to Slave. You should then be able to access the slave once the computer has booted into windows. CD & DVD drives are easy enough to swap round too.

Experience is more valuable than the money it would cost to get someone else to do it for you, and if it all goes well, you get a well deserved sense of achievement.

 

Terrific post! Better than I expected!

I've been around long enough to know (like Sherlock Holmes) that by removing anything from the equation one by one yields the answer.

But, duh, I never thought of documenting the current state.

Brilliant. Really.

And it gives me the courage to try it because unless I short something out the worst thing that happens is that I am right back where I started.

Thanks!

 

As long as you think about it first, which you seem to have done, I reckon you should be alright. It's usually when people go in like a bull in a china shop that things can go wrong.

And if something doesn't immediately work, there's usually a good reason and a solution. Sometimes a bit or trial and error works too. I tried to put an extra hard drive into an old AMD 500 computer once. It had data on it which I wanted to access, but when connected to the ribbon cables, the computer wouldn't boot. I initially thought the secondary drive was faulty, but when I tried it in the computer it had come out of, it was ok. I'd set the jumper to Slave, but because this hadn't worked, I tried it on cable select, and it seemed ok like that. If you get a hard drive that hasn't got a label to tell you the jumper settings, (occasionally they don't) just find the manufacturer's website and see if there's a diagram on there somewhere. I had to do that once because I got bored trying to guess. ):

Oh and another tip, if a drive (CD, DVD, floppy, IDE etc) doesn't work, don't forget to try a different cable. I've had them pack up on me, just by disturbing them, and cured the problem by using a different cable.