How do install my old HD (XP) onto my newer computer (Vista)?

lucifer82 · 10-23-2009, 05:10 PM

Hello all, I'm new to the forum and I'm hoping someone can help me here. I have an old hard drive from a computer that died on me about 2-3 years ago. The operating system was Windows XP. The computer died and couldnt be repaired and the hard drive was tested and found to be working. I was under warranty, so the company I was with gave me my old hard drive back and provided me with an Acer T180 with Windows Vista Home Premium. I remember when I first got the computer, I opened it up and attempted to install the old hard drive. I must point out I only had the one cable to connect the hard drive to the motherboard and I wasn't tryin to install it along side the existing hard drive. It was such a long time ago now and my memory is awful, but I do remember there was an issue... something about not being able to run XP on the new computer. Basically, can someone just give me a few hints, because I don't mind scouring the net for the right information?

1. I've read a little about slave drives, master drives, primary drives. Do I have to make sure that the hard drive with XP installed is the slave drive?

2. At the moment I'm struggling to find my computer's manual. I've tried to identify my hard drive in Device Manager and I'm guessin that its 'SCSI Disk Device' because all the others listed are 'Generic USB Device. But when I've searched for the Acer 180T specifications online, at cnet.com the hard drive is listed as a '1.0 x 250.0 GB - Standard - Serial ATA-300'. Could it just be that my hard drive is different?

All this because for the first time ever, or the first time I've realised that my computer has been infected with a Trojan. I've had to install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, SUPERAntiSpyware as well as using AVG. For a day or so I kept getting warnings about infections, but I'm at the point where the computer is working, but there's a few glitches. At startup when I log into Windows, I get two error messages about a .dll that could not be found and I'm havin problems watchin Flash videos on the BBC on demand service.

So, my plan is to install the old hard drive (XP), wipe it clean, totally format it. Transfer all my files I have now onto it and then on the newer hard drive (the one I use currently) to reinstall Vista and start from scratch. Either that or buy an external storage drive.

I'd be sincerely grateful for any help.

Cheers,
Tony

Dogg · 10-24-2009, 08:36 AM

1) The old drive (if an IDE HDD) will get set to master or slave depending on what, if any, other IDE devices are in use. If there is a DVD drive on the IDE cable, set as Master, then the old HDD would get jumpered as Slave.

2) Your new computer is using a SATA HDD.

A few thoughts. When running your cleanup programs, run them in Safe Mode. I'd suggest booting into Safe Mode, then running MalwareBytes and CCleaner. You can then boot back into Vista normally. The two error messages about the .dll files, are likely because the registry still has the entries for the spyware/malware that was removed. You should be able to tell by the full file name. If so, you can simply run regedit, search for all entries with that full file name, and delete them. Any other issues can likely be resolved as well with a little work.

If you can't get your old HDD slaved properly, you could also simply buy an external case which supports IDE HDD's and make your own external drive.

10-23-2009, 05:10 PM	#1 (permalink)
lucifer82 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 1 OS: Vista Home Premium	How do install my old HD (XP) onto my newer computer (Vista)? Hello all, I'm new to the forum and I'm hoping someone can help me here. I have an old hard drive from a computer that died on me about 2-3 years ago. The operating system was Windows XP. The computer died and couldnt be repaired and the hard drive was tested and found to be working. I was under warranty, so the company I was with gave me my old hard drive back and provided me with an Acer T180 with Windows Vista Home Premium. I remember when I first got the computer, I opened it up and attempted to install the old hard drive. I must point out I only had the one cable to connect the hard drive to the motherboard and I wasn't tryin to install it along side the existing hard drive. It was such a long time ago now and my memory is awful, but I do remember there was an issue... something about not being able to run XP on the new computer. Basically, can someone just give me a few hints, because I don't mind scouring the net for the right information? 1. I've read a little about slave drives, master drives, primary drives. Do I have to make sure that the hard drive with XP installed is the slave drive? 2. At the moment I'm struggling to find my computer's manual. I've tried to identify my hard drive in Device Manager and I'm guessin that its 'SCSI Disk Device' because all the others listed are 'Generic USB Device. But when I've searched for the Acer 180T specifications online, at cnet.com the hard drive is listed as a '1.0 x 250.0 GB - Standard - Serial ATA-300'. Could it just be that my hard drive is different? All this because for the first time ever, or the first time I've realised that my computer has been infected with a Trojan. I've had to install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, SUPERAntiSpyware as well as using AVG. For a day or so I kept getting warnings about infections, but I'm at the point where the computer is working, but there's a few glitches. At startup when I log into Windows, I get two error messages about a .dll that could not be found and I'm havin problems watchin Flash videos on the BBC on demand service. So, my plan is to install the old hard drive (XP), wipe it clean, totally format it. Transfer all my files I have now onto it and then on the newer hard drive (the one I use currently) to reinstall Vista and start from scratch. Either that or buy an external storage drive. I'd be sincerely grateful for any help. Cheers, Tony

10-24-2009, 08:36 AM	#2 (permalink)
Dogg Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: St Louis, MO Posts: 2,085 OS: XP sp3	Re: How do install my old HD (XP) onto my newer computer (Vista)? 1) The old drive (if an IDE HDD) will get set to master or slave depending on what, if any, other IDE devices are in use. If there is a DVD drive on the IDE cable, set as Master, then the old HDD would get jumpered as Slave. 2) Your new computer is using a SATA HDD. A few thoughts. When running your cleanup programs, run them in Safe Mode. I'd suggest booting into Safe Mode, then running MalwareBytes and CCleaner. You can then boot back into Vista normally. The two error messages about the .dll files, are likely because the registry still has the entries for the spyware/malware that was removed. You should be able to tell by the full file name. If so, you can simply run regedit, search for all entries with that full file name, and delete them. Any other issues can likely be resolved as well with a little work. If you can't get your old HDD slaved properly, you could also simply buy an external case which supports IDE HDD's and make your own external drive. __________________ Google is your friend !