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files and settings transfer from hard drive to new pc

V

Virgin

Flightless Bird
Is there any way of tranferring the files and settings from a hard drive of
which the motherboard has fried to a new pc without having to have to tranfer
files individually? The new pc's bios would obviously not be the same as the
old pc, so I can't just pop the old HDD into the new one. Both systems are
running XP Home. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
B

Bob I

Flightless Bird
Yep, see link first hit
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source...X4MbrIia4KAAAAqgQFT9CfZqI&fp=4ac610bdd4248ff3
Virgin wrote:
> Is there any way of tranferring the files and settings from a hard drive of
> which the motherboard has fried to a new pc without having to have to tranfer
> files individually? The new pc's bios would obviously not be the same as the
> old pc, so I can't just pop the old HDD into the new one. Both systems are
> running XP Home. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
C

Chuck

Flightless Bird
With a bunch of caveats, yes, it is possible by copying
directories,subdirectories, etc. Actually it's possible to "clone" the whole
HD as one form of backup as insurance.
At least large hard drives are cheap these days. I can remember when a 40Meg
HD was $400. (And, 7Meg per disk Minicomputer HD's were over 10 grand. )

A major complication has to do with registry entries for applications.
There are ways to do this via a repair sequence, using various utilities.,
including Linux based uitilities.
The last time I got into this, I ended up using a HD USB to PATA interface
to connect the old hard drive to the new system.
Considerations,etc.
Obviously the new system's registry and probably the "HAL" are going to be
different. It is difficult to do a registry manual edit merge without
screwing something up.
OEM versions require a bit more care when they are "Branded".
Backup everything before you start. It also gets more complicated if the new
computer has a SATA drive.
Make sure that you have an installable copy of any drivers, etc for the new
system, in case you screw it up, and need to use a generic windows CD to
recover.

"Virgin" <Virgin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:68D38A61-F808-4062-A0E0-B1031D34B649@microsoft.com...
> Is there any way of tranferring the files and settings from a hard drive
> of
> which the motherboard has fried to a new pc without having to have to
> tranfer
> files individually? The new pc's bios would obviously not be the same as
> the
> old pc, so I can't just pop the old HDD into the new one. Both systems are
> running XP Home. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
D

Doum

Flightless Bird
=?Utf-8?B?VmlyZ2lu?= <Virgin@discussions.microsoft.com> écrivait
news:68D38A61-F808-4062-A0E0-B1031D34B649@microsoft.com:

> Is there any way of tranferring the files and settings from a hard
> drive of which the motherboard has fried to a new pc without having to
> have to tranfer files individually? The new pc's bios would obviously
> not be the same as the old pc, so I can't just pop the old HDD into
> the new one. Both systems are running XP Home. Any help would be
> appreciated. Thanks


The way I understand your question, XP is already installed on the new PC?

If so, you sure can pop up the old drive in the new PC as long as you have
a compatible interface (IDE or SATA). If not, you can get an external USB
case compatible with the old HD and connect it through USB. Either way the
new PC will recognize it, Windows will assign a new drive letter to it and
you will be able to access and copy your files as long as the old drive is
not fried too.

Be aware that if it's an IDE HD you will have to set a jumper to make it
SLAVE, it's usually shown how to do that on the sticker on the HD. When you
use two IDE HD on the same controller, one must be MASTER and the other
must be SLAVE.

HTH
 
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