| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 10:30:01 AM | I took my old hard drive out of my old blown computer and now have to get all my
programs and photos and itunes and stuff off of it to my new computer.
I ordered a case for it from Amazon and it will arrive here tomorrow.
How do I get stuff from that drive to the C drive on my new Windows 7 computer?
I know that I will connect it via the USB ports and it will show up as an external drive.
Do I drag and drop the files and programs from the old drive to a place on my
new computer C drive?
Thanks for any help as I have not done this before. | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 11:02:54 AM | You can do it a few different ways,
DriveImageXML (free)
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
Clonezilla (free)
http://www.clonezilla.org/
Acronis True Image (paid software but might be easiest)
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
I'm sure there are more apps to help you clone your drive but those are just a few...
Or reinstall OS and Apps/Drivers then copy files (documents, pictures, etc.) same as you would with an external drive | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 2:10:58 PM | ^^^^^First of all ... in order to restore using any of the mentioned drive imaging software, doesn't the restore image file(s) have to have been created by the software in the first place?? When creating image files, these software package create files with specific extensions ... in the case of DriveImage, those extensions would be .xml and .dat. It doesn't sound like the OP's old hard drive have any image files ... just the usual data, program and OS files. Furthermore, the OP has Windows 7 installed on her new computer. Chances are ... the old hard drive has another version of Windows ... quite possibly an older one. Even if imaging from the old drive were possible, wouldn't that overwrite Windows 7??
OP ... if you just want to transfer over your data such as photos and music, then drag and drop those to your new computer once the old hard drive shows up as external drive. As for the installed programs ... you can't do the same thing because when those programs were first installed to the old drive, they modified the registry of the Windows OS to which it was installed. Copying over the install folders of the programs onto your Windows 7 computer will not actually install them to the OS. It's best just to re-install them again for Windows 7. | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 2:31:23 PM | Take the old drive and connect it to the new pc. I hope you are ok with opening up the side of your computer. I assume the old drive is IDE depending on how old it is. Just plug it into one of the ide controllers.
Make sure when you boot up the computer, if you don't see the old drive then go into disk management and import it from there. Do NOT convert to dynamic disk .
Then you can just copy and paste the files to the new PC.
If you have any detailed questions please ask me or anyone here will be more than happy to help you. | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 2:43:38 PM | ^^^ That all depends. A lot of new pc's may not come with 40 pin PATA connections at all. Here is a prime example of that.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01635688&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&product=3872428&lang=en#N1478
I think the easiest solution without having to open up your case is to get an external USB case and put the hard drive in there. You shouldn't have problem with the computer not seeing it via usb since it's a plug and play device.
What type of pc do you have and what's the model of it? | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 5:06:22 PM |
^^^^^First of all ... in order to restore using any of the mentioned drive imaging software, doesn't the restore image file(s) have to have been created by the software in the first place?? When creating image files, these software package create files with specific extensions ... in the case of DriveImage, those extensions would be .xml and .dat. It doesn't sound like the OP's old hard drive have any image files ... just the usual data, program and OS files. Furthermore, the OP has Windows 7 installed on her new computer. Chances are ... the old hard drive has another version of Windows ... quite possibly an older one. Even if imaging from the old drive were possible, wouldn't that overwrite Windows 7??
OP ... if you just want to transfer over your data such as photos and music, then drag and drop those to your new computer once the old hard drive shows up as external drive. As for the installed programs ... you can't do the same thing because when those programs were first installed to the old drive, they modified the registry of the Windows OS to which it was installed. Copying over the install folders of the programs onto your Windows 7 computer will not actually install them to the OS. It's best just to re-install them again for Windows 7.
First of all, Yes.
2 of the three software options listed are a 'Live CD' (Acronis and Clonezilla) and the 3rd (DriveImageXML) is a UBCD Plug-In and can also be installed as an application.
You boot to the CD Drive with both source & destination drives attached and the transfer can begin.
Yes, it will overwrite the existing OS on the destination drive unless you specify a partition for the data.
I also mentioned the option of 'copy & paste' along with the other methods but thanks for adding on, maybe I was unclear about the part where I said to treat it like an external hard drive.
And like SteelCity said, the Universal SATA/PATA/IDE-to-USB Adapters work great for this kind of task if the existing connectors don't match. | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 6:04:10 PM | I have a new hp Pavilion Elite with windows 7.
8 gigs of ram and 1 terabyte of memory.
The old hard drive is windows XP.
Once I have the old hard drive in the case and hooked up via the USB ports,
how do I get my programs from the old drive to the new one,
do I drag them from the old drive into a file on the new C drive?
I have a lot of software programs I want to transfer to the new computer,
such as roboform with all my passwords, photoshop, dreamweaver,
and various smaller miscellaneous programs.
Also iTunes is on there and I have a few hundred songs. How do I transfer
this all from the old hard drive, by doing drag and drop? | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 7:22:42 PM | You need to reinstall the applications, copying them over will not work.
If you need the license keys, try magicjellybeanfinder or SIW but those might only work on a running system, not an external drive.
I'm not on Windows now but I think your songs should be in one of these two locations:
C:\Program Files\iTunes\Library\.......
-or-
C:\Users\_YourNameHere_\Music\...
C:\Documents and Settings\_YourNameHere_\Music\...
edit:
Actually the drive letter will be different, maybe D:\ or E:\...the one with Windows XP on it
and
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html# | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/5/2009 7:45:04 PM | What model is the elite version like for example E9250y etc...
Like don said if they are software apps you have to reinsitall them, but if they are pictures and videos it's pretty easy to transfer all of that stuff onto your new pc. all you have to do is open up the drive under My Computer and select the old drive. Then go into to your user folder in that drive that windows was on and go to sub folders where ever you kept all your files and videos and transfer grab them and transfer them onto your new pc.
Keep in mind if they are old xp programs they may not work in Windows 7. So depending upon how old your programs are in your old xp hard drive you may need an updated version of that software that's compatible with Windows 7. | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/6/2009 12:39:54 PM | My computer recognizes the NexStar 3i (the new external box) , but it does not assign a drive letter to it.
Had the help desk at hp install new USB drivers but still cannot see the files on that drive or have my new machine assign a drive letter to it in My Computer.
Its is an e9800y I think Pavilion. | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/6/2009 1:39:28 PM | The external drive is recognized on my new machine but it does not assign a drive letter to it. Without a drive letter I cannot see the files on the drive.
hp tech support took control remotely of my new computer but couldn't solve the problem and said it must be some problem with the hard drive box but still I dont think
that is the problem since my computer DOES recognize the external drive, just does not assign a letter to it. I cannot see it in MY COMPUTER but it does show up
in other places as being connected. | |
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/6/2009 2:31:56 PM | Sometimes restarting can help (full shutdown and restart)
-or-
Maybe you have a corrupt drive and Windows doesn't recognize it, are you able to right-click the icon for the external drive? If so, you can tell it to 'check for errors' (it's one of the options when you right-click the drive icon)
Does it show up when you do the following:
1. click [Start] or [WinLogo] (bottom left of desktop)
2. Run or just type in the search box
3. type 'diskmgmt.msc
4. and you will get a disk management tool that should show both disks and let you Right-Click it and assign it a drive letter (don't use drive letter 'M', it can cause issues...or used to anyway)
And say Ok or confirm the change with Windows
Then try it
================================
If the above doesn't work, you can try this:
================================
If your drive is good this should let you fix it or get your files off of it:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
It's a Windows tool that will create a 'Bootable USB Flash Drive' also called a 'Live USB'.
This tool downloads an operating system and installs it onto a usb flash drive that you can boot from and fix your drive -or- view/manipulate/copy/.... data from one hard drive to another.
You can create an Parted Magic Live USB and boot from it, you should be able to fix it when you boot from the Live USB you create.
About Parted Magic
http://partedmagic.com/
The Parted Magic OS employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs (e.g. Partimage, TestDisk, Truecrypt, Clonezilla, G4L, SuperGrubDisk, ddrescue, etc...) and an excellent set of documentation to benefit the user. An extensive collection of file system tools are also included, as Parted Magic supports the following: ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs.
Parted Magic requires at least a i586 processor and 256MB of RAM to operate or 128MB in "Live" mode.
Features
* Format internal and external hard drives.
* Move, copy, create, delete, expand & shrink hard drive partitions.
* Clone your hard drive, to create a full backup.
* Test hard drives for impending failure.
* Test memory for bad sectors.
* Benchmark your computer for a performace rating.
* Securely erase your entire hard drive, wiping it clean from all data.
* Gives access to non-booting systems allowing you to rescue important data.
* Runs from the CD, no install required.
If you're interested, I can explain more.
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| Hard drive from old computer--how to transfer all to new computer..
Posted: 11/6/2009 9:03:44 PM | For as much as you spent for that pc you'd think HP would have at least thrown in a Blu-Ray drive and a decent graphics card..........
But there is no 40 pin PATA connections just what I expected on your motherboard. I'd go ahead and try the following above what don said and see if that works. | |
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