[SkippyThorson]

I have a 17 month old Hitachi IDE Hard Drive that is I believe 250gb, and has Windows XP, as well as all the things I've had on it in my time using it. About 2 months ago, the Gateway computer died, and was beyond help, so I salvaged the hard drive, and left everything else as is.

I now have a HP computer with a SATA Seagate Hard Drive that is 320gb. Problem is for me, it has Vista, and I want XP again. Specifically from my old computer.

I wanted to know if there is any way I could set the Hitachi to Master and the Seagate to Slave. Or if that's not possible, just use the old Hitachi drive. Also, how would I go about doing either? (I don't want to downgrade Vista, because I may like it when everything is worked out.)

Also, if either of the above 2 are possible, how would I go about hooking up the CD-Rom drive as well? It uses the same type of cable as the Seagate Hard Drive, and Im not sure if it would be ok as is or if I need something else. Any help is appreciated!

 

[belfasteddie]

If you have a Sata drive and an Ide drive in the same box then Master and Slave don't really apply. Both drives can have an Operating system on them and it is possible to boot to each drive as per your wont(desire). Assuming you have both drives in the box and the Ide is set to master(you don't have to touch the Sata) when you boot , go into the Bios and select Hard drive priority. Select the drive you want to boot to and then back out and save. The drive you selected will boot and away you go!
With regard to to the Cd drive you have indicated it is a Sata, if that is the case just plug it in.
If it is not a Sata then set it as Master and plug it into the Secondary connection on the M/b. If you connect a Cd to an Ide H/D it will slow the H/D down.

 

[twajetmech]

I should mention that while you will be able to see the data on the old Hitachi drive, you will not be able to use the XP OS that is already installed. Since the Hitachi drive came from a Gateway computer it has an oem copy of XP installed. Oem copies are tied to the motherboard and will not operate on another machine (your files are safe however) To run XP you can purchase another oem copy of XP and install it as a dual boot (both Vista and XP, just put them on seperate partitions on the boot drive, and be sure to load XP first) thus you can have the best of both worlds. If both the Hitachi and the Seagate are sata drives, then all you need to do is plug them in, as Belfasteddie stated there is no master/slave for sata drives.

 

[SkippyThorson]

Thank you both very much for the help!

One more question though. If I were to use one of those converters to turn the IDE connectors on the Hitachi to SATA connectors, would "plug them in and go" still apply?
(As they would both then be SATA.)

Or would it instead be a matter of the SATA being left as is, and in addition, plugging in the IDE drive into a data cable straight to the motherboard?

I'm still getting used to the hardware side of things, so pardon my terminology.

 

[twajetmech]

You should be able to use an ide to sata bridge adaptor....which I belive will allow it to work as "plug and go" as you say. I can't say I've ever used one though, post back and let us know how it works.....http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812206002

 

[SkippyThorson]

Will see what I can do, thanks again!

 

[SkippyThorson]

Well, I'm sitting in front of my XP screen.

Problem is it's just that. I have to use that confirmation ID to activate XP again. The guy at Microsoft apparently didn't like my putting an old hard drive in a new computer without paying them the price for a whole new OS. Nonetheless, the HD is in there, runs, and boots. I can even see my old wallpaper.:1angel:

All I did was leave everything as is, and just plugged the data ribbon / cable into the motherboard, then master the Hitachi. Then In Bios, change the primary boot drive to the Hitachi, and viola!

Now if I can just get someone that speaks a language I can understand (no offense to anyone), I could explain that all I did was pop in an old hard drive, and there's no way it's some sort of illegal copy or something. Unless someone at my local "generic electronic retail chain" has it in for me.

 

[twajetmech]

No, the copy of XP is not illegal, however as I said earlier, the copy of XP that you have is legally tied to the motherboard from your Gateway computer. To use it in any other computer is against MS's EULA (end users license agreement) and thus illegal. If you can't reactiveate XP and MS will not five you a new confermation ID then in 30 days XP will most likely no longer work, your only alternative then will be to either pay MS or purchase a new oem copy of XP. Only the full retail copy of XP, or Vista can be transfered to another computer without breech of the EULA.