bcvolk

Hi, hope someone can help. I recently purchased a new computer. HP Pavilion/AMD 64 Athlon X 2/ 3800+ processor/ 1 gig ram/ DVD/CD Writer/ Windows XP Media Center/ 250 GB Hard Drive.
The problem is, my old computers motherboard and power supply failed and I've got my old HD and all of my mp3s (48 gbs) on it. I opened up the case and noticed the new computer HD isn't connected with the typical 'ribbon' connection, but by a much smaller (1/3 the size) connector. I found an open 'ribbon slot' on the motherboard of the new computer and tried installing my old HD using that. I then re-booted my computer and I think it started up reading the older HD as the main drive. It started the same as my old computer did, only before completely booting, it prompted me to register the OS (XP) and put in the registration number/key. Should I or can I just use the registration number/key that came with my old computer? Am I going about it wrong? Is there a different way to transfer all of my music? Is there an easier way? I don't want to spend a lot of money either. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.

speedster123

Remove the ribbon cable from your cd drive and put it on the old hard drive, put the jumper pin on the old hard drive to the slave position, put the power connection to the drive, then the system will boot with your sata drive normally. You can just let the old drive hang out of harms way.
Under windows explorer you should be able to copy/paste your data.

linderman

Speedster is 100% correct


But; I think if you just change the jumper on your old drive from the current "master" or cable select position it is currently set to / change it to the slave position then it wont try to boot any more.

You must understand you new HP system boot drive is a SATA drive, but motherboard bios's give preference to IDE boot drives, its kind of like a calf loves moma, when you scare the calf it wants momma. Well when your new computer has that IDE drive connected as master it thinks momma is home.

simply change the jumper pin and reboot. If by some weird chance it still tries to boot , then reboot the computer / enter the bios/ reset the boot order to boot from the cd-rom drive as first boot and the sata drive as second boot device and nothing else should be listed / then exit and save changes (even though there really wont be any changes)

or you can do the easier thing and substitute the cd-rom drive as speedster has stated; but this will only be a temp solution until you copy all your music to the new system drive.

The first option I listed, you could leave the old drive mounted in the system and use it as a back-up copy for your music. You should keep a back-up drive for all computers. Its very foolish these day to have a computer with only one drive installed, drives are very affordable and we all need back-up. Drives are very affordable but no where nearly as reliable as the good ole days!

bcvolk

I tried to use the ribbon from the rom drive, but the same thing happened. I first tried it set as 'Slave' and then as 'Cable Select'. It went straight to the old HD both times. I've got two rom drives, does it matter which one I removed the ribbon from? I'll try to change the bios now and see if that does the trick.

linderman

changing the bios will do the trick once the drive is connected.


Make sure you enter the bios first without the drive connected/ then access the bios; record on paper the boot order settings

then shutdown the computer / connect the old drive again / reboot the computer & enter the bios / input the boot order exactly as it was before you added the drive / then save and exit the bios

even though you arent really gonna change any settings you will trick the bios into thinking you did change something that reflect the presence of the new ide drive in the mix.

post back with your progress.

bcvolk

When I entered the bios, it told me to select where to boot from first and didn't give me a choice of order. It listed the following options:

HDD Group
-3rd Master
CD-Rom Group
-2nd Master: CD/DVD-W
-2nd Slave: DVD Rom

I prompted me to select and then press enter. After selecting one (which one) and entering, should I reboot-then shut down-then hook up old HDD using the ribbon from the other Rom-start again-the reboot? I'm not sure if I am doing anything to the start up in bios. It didn't give me a boot order other than what I typed above.

linderman

I believe you will find the 3rd master is your SATA boot drive


so if you want to boot from that, the 3rd master should be ahead of the HDD group in those settings



the order of those devices is changable. if the machine wont boot just change them around until they do

thats all it is, trial and error

linderman

this may help your understanding


http://linux.about.com/cs/linux101/g/bootsequence.htm

bcvolk

Outstanding! Thank you very much. I was able to use the ribbon and attach it to the motherboard. Then upon start up, I went to the bios and selected the new '3rd Master' hard drive to boot first. Transferred all my music and other select file and I'm good to go. I guess my next question would be, I want to keep the HDD in there but how do I get the computer to boot up the same without having to access the bios every time? I tried starting it normally and it went back to booting from the IDE drive instead of the SATA HDD. And does it matter that the old HDD is slower? Will this effect my computer or make it run hotter or harm it in any way? Thanks again and I'll await your response.

linderman

you should leave the old drive in there for future redundant back-up tasks!

the old drive will have no negative effects on the system whatsoever.

when you enter the bios and change the boot order so you can boot from your regular sata drive dotn forget to "save and exit"

are you saving your bios settings after you adjust them????


it shouldnt need to be messed with each time!

worse case you mayyyyy have to clear the CMOS but before you do that, you should go thru each bios screen and take a digital picture (camera)of what the settings are at each bios screen, or write down each and every one, but that tedious


dont hesitate to ask more questions

bcvolk

Thanks again, I really appreciate all your help. I thought I had saved the boot order when I went through and selected the SATA drive. I'll look on the bios boot screen a little closer to make sure I'm saving it, maybe I'm missing something. I thought it just said to select where to boot from and then hit 'Enter' but I must have missed it. Is there a standard way of saving it? 'Control 'S'' or 'F7' or anything like that? I'll get back to you if I have any more questions. Can't thank you enough! You saved the day.

Brian

linderman

after you have altered your settings as you have discovered the proper configurations for your "new" settings / after you have made the changes the way you want / generally you press the "ESC" (escape) key on the keyboard / then slipe accros the tabs at the top of the bios screen until you see "exit" in there should be options like

save changes and exit

discard changes and exit

choose "save changes and exit"

that "should" do it


another option is to copy all contents of your old drive to the new HP drive / then use Win XP Disk Management to "reformat" the old drive; that will wipe out all the old contents of the drive and make it "fresh" then it wont try to boot from that any more because there wont be any more OS on the drive; then you can just return to using the old drive for redundant file / music storage


dont hesitate to ask more questions