2 HDDs in 1 PC - is it possible???

[GC2decor8]

Hi all,

I have 2 PCs 1 which is fairly "modern" (AMD 1Ghz) and 1 which is fairly ancient (P2-333Mhz). I have my boy's games & some files stored on the P2 computer which I was going to attempt to try and port over to the other PC. Then I had this crazy idea of taking the HDD out of the old PC and putting it in the 1Ghz PC as a slave HDD.

Situation:
Old PC: P2-333 operating on Windows 98 protected by Windows Guardian.
Current PC: 1 Ghz operating on Windows Millenium Edition. Am looking to upgrade this PC soon to a better spec, but for the time being need to work with what I have.

I'm computer literate enough to realise that Windows 98 & Guardian need to be erased before I can use it on the Current PC system. How would I go about doing this using the HDD from the old PC in the new PC?? Are there any specific steps to take before taking out the HDD from the old PC and connecting it to the drive cables of the current PC?

Would appreciate any helpful ideas / suggestions / methods of how to do this. Would also save me a lot of time reinstalling several Dorling Kindersley CD-Roms Thanks in advance.

[thescruff]

Not an expert on this so take it for what it's worth.

I downloaded all my files and folders onto a portable hard drive, 500Gb, and simply plug it in a usb port.

I can use the computer as normal and save as on either, alternatively I can open the remote and work direct.

You could probably get an Integral (brand name) case from PC world for 35quid and plug your HD into that.

[scot-canuck]

ok,

not sure what windows guardian is (so will look it up later)

but, you prob cant just copy the installed software over, most software writes entries to windows registry and places files within the windows folder itself which the software then relies on.

take the hard drive out of the older machine (with the machine off), on the back edge there should be a little plastic 'wedge' called a jumper, (usually black) set it to slave using the diagram on the drive (usually on the top)

Again with the new machine off,find a spare internal slot and place the drive in, screw it into place (dont over tighten) install the data cable (the wider of the 2) and then the power cable, if there is not a orientation key on the data cable it should have a (usually pink) coloured line, that should be close to the power connector when the data cable is inserted. Power cable also is handed and can only go in one way.

make sure both are firmly inserted but don't force them.

now when you turn the computer on, when the bios screen comes up, you need to enter bios set-up, usually delete, F1 or F8 (computer manual will usually tell you)

make sure that the slave option for the hard drive IDE port is set to Auto.

Boot windows, let it recognise the new drive, (windows might ask you to restart the computer) and copy off the files you need. You probably will have to reinstall the programs though.

Hope that helps

[GC2decor8]

Thanks guys for the helpful advice.

Don't have a USB stick yet as the current PC I have doesn't recognise this. Tried it with a few files and didn't work. I've heard that Windows ME is very unstable and I am in tendancy to agree with this. (Cheers thescruff)

Was expecting to do a bit of open PC surgery so I guess I'll have to don the mask and forceps and say "We're going in chaps!!"

What I'm looking for as an end result is to run the slave drive as an extra drive for storage and for my boy to run his games without using the main drive. We're only talking a 6Gb drive. My main PC drive is 20Gb. Do I have to reformat the slave drive if I want to use it in conjunction with the main drive?? (Thanks Scot-canuck)

[roberdy]

GC2, this article confirms that you cannot create a dual boot system with Windows 98 & ME http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289283 and as the installation of the operating system is tied to the mb too you won't be able to just pull the HDD out of your old box and stick it in the new one. I would suggest then, that you should archive off all of the data you wish to keep from the old machine to cd, change the jumper pins as noted above to slave and stick it in your newer box. Check the BIOS settings as noted above also and then re-format the HDD and partition it as an extension of your newer machine. Then you can load all of the files you archived off it before you re-formatted it.

You are going to lose any programs you have installed on the old machine, no two ways about that mate, so you will have to re-install on the newer HDD, you might want to check if they are compatible with the Win ME OS before you start fiddling about, especially if you have any progs you really want to keep.

Alternately you could go blow £400 on a spanking new Vista machine (or get a retro-grade to XP if you can) and take the old machines to the Antique Roadshow

[scot-canuck]

I would say rather than archiving to cd (which I figure your old machine likely has no writer drive from its likely age),move the drive as I said and just copy across from 6GB to the 20GB then reformat the 6Gb. (It basically ensures that you have a clean slate to work from and means any bad sectors on the disk get noticed by the format and ignored so they dont cause any problems.) Though for the hassle I would just copy the stuff off the 6 and buy another hard drive (for example a 500Gb drive set me back less than £40 but I realise money is tight and not everyone can afford to splurge on new kit)

Win Me is rather unstable to say the least, frankly 98 is better and thats saying something. Both are totally unsupported by microsoft so if you had another machine I would say dont connect anything based on Me or 98 to the net. But since you have no other option then I would say be careful what you browse and where due to the risks involved due to no security updates from msoft and the risk from what are called drive by downloads.

Vista isnt as bad as everyone makes out, in some cases it is a dog, but with good hardware its useable. People said the same thing about XP when it came out "too slow" "doesnt look like 98" "too hard to learn"

If it wasnt for your son playing games then an easy alternative would be something like ubuntu linux, little bit of a learning curve, but if you dont have a lot of pc knowledge the curve is as steep with windows. Plus it runs relatively quickly on older machines and it is well supported. If you get another machine in the future and still want to be able to use your old 1Ghz machine then have a browse towards http://www.ubuntu.com and check it out (they do what is termed a "live CD" so you can have a go without making any changes to your pc, not as fast as a hard disk based install but usuable and gives you a taste of what a full blown install would be like.

£400 for a PC.....heck building one can cost less, and prob work better. Plus its also a good learning experience, (trust me it gets easier with practise and its a lot easier than it was 10 years ago)

[thescruff]

Or he could just buy a remote hard drive with stacks of memory and play the games straight from the portable. I don't mean a stick GC2.

In my opinion 6 GB is no good for gaming anyway.

With remote he can back up (drag and drop) everything on the old drive straight on to the remote, plug it into the new computer and away you go.

Cost £60 ish

[scot-canuck]

Problem can be.....getting drivers for windows Me and 98, 2000 and XP tend to support stuff like that out of the box....98 and Me need special drivers a lot of the time which manufacturers mostly dont bother including anymore as most people are on XP or vista, the ones that do either make junk or charge more. There are some exceptions though but getting few and far between.

Before anyone says it yes the mac has the same abilities as XP in recognising hardware but most games dont work on Mac, Macs are more expensive also plus you have to buy apples overpriced hardware rather than the operating system on its own.

[scot-canuck]

Other issue is the 6GB drive might slow your 1Ghz system down (system operates disk access at the speed of the slowest drive, and the 6GB drive will have way slower access times than even the 20GB likely)


In terms of a PC replacement, I'll have a look around and see what some of the better deals are for future reference and get a comparative price for a computer built from bits.

depends whether you want to take from box and use, or have some 'fun' putting it together from scratch.....horses for courses.

[Foggy]

Christ ,you lot confusing me never mind GC2 ,way too much info

as been said by scot-canuck ,just follow his instructions and move the drive to the new pc ,copy over what you need then reformat the 6gig drive then re load your kids games back on ..jobs a good un

Scot ..Windows Guardian
Part of First Aid by Cybermedia who were subsequently bought by McAfee (Network Associates). Protects your Windows system from application failure and crashes
so it says haha

[scot-canuck]

I've seen progs like that before foggy, usually they tend to be the worst to get rid of.

but yeah its a good way to start learning about whats inside the case, and it shows computers aren't as complex inside as they might first appear.

[Foggy]

yep thats how to learn ,take it to bits and put it back together (and hope you dont have bits left over ) started off years ago with a 8086 or 88

[scot-canuck]

thats going back a bit

Earliest stuff I used was BBC B, Amstrad CPC 464, Amiga A600 - when not everything was a PC.

First machine I built was a Celeron 400 (bane of my existence that processor was), 64MB RAM, 16MB Gfx, and a massive 13GB HDD noisy thing that it was.

[Foggy]

haha yep ,these were at work ,b&w monitor

first one i bought was a 286 ,40meg yes meg hard drive
running windows 3.1 i think oh and dos 5 ,thank god in them days for xtree as hadnt a clue trying to use dos properly

[scot-canuck]

LOL i think we may have lost GC2 and also I think we are showing our age and geekiness

I still would love another amiga or the amiga OS ported to x86 architecture

shame the people who own the amiga name are sticking it on whatever, no matter how crap it is