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New Computer, old harddrive?

1061 Views 14 Replies 8 Participants Last post by smoothtlk, May 12, 2007

Ben L C

Discussion Starter · May 11, 2007

I searched and did not see anything on this topic. I have a pc that is constantly in need of rebooting. I needed a new monitor so I picked up a Dell with an AMD X2 3600+ processor for around $200.

The question I have is, can I take out my 3 sata 400g harddrives with all of my movies on them and hot swap them into my new computer? Could I also take out my raptor 73 g harddrive with my os on it and use all of my old drives on the new computer? i think doubtfull, but you never know unless you ask. Is there a process to do this? I am clueless.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

1 - 15 of 15 Posts

wormraper

· #2 · May 11, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben L C /forum/post/0

I searched and did not see anything on this topic. I have a pc that is constantly in need of rebooting. I needed a new monitor so I picked up a Dell with an AMD X2 3600+ processor for around $200.

The question I have is, can I take out my 3 sata 400g harddrives with all of my movies on them and hot swap them into my new computer? Could I also take out my raptor 73 g harddrive with my os on it and use all of my old drives on the new computer? i think doubtfull, but you never know unless you ask. Is there a process to do this? I am clueless.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

Sure, you can take out your Sata drives and put them in the new machine. Just plug them in and they will be wonderful data drives as long as they are in good condition.

You can use your raptor as your Boot drive as well. However you will have to reinstall the OS. The new Dell will have about a 2-3% chance of even booting your old OS. Just put it in as the master drvie and then wipe your Raptor and reinstall. GTG.

Ben L C

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 11, 2007

If the Dell will not recognize it, how will I get anything to work on the raptor, to get the os loaded in the new pc? Will the rom drives work to load the OS? Sorry for the dumb questions, but I like to know what I am getting into before diving head first.

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Ozy666

· #4 · May 11, 2007

You might be able to do a "repair" installation and keep your OS and installed applications, but if you want to make sure you don't have problems down the road, a clean install would be best.

Ozy

wormraper

· #5 · May 12, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben L C /forum/post/0

If the Dell will not recognize it, how will I get anything to work on the raptor, to get the os loaded in the new pc? Will the rom drives work to load the OS? Sorry for the dumb questions, but I like to know what I am getting into before diving head first.

As long as it's got Sata connections your Raptor should be recognized just fine. Then you can install with a fresh copy of XP from your cd/dvd rom drive.

Ben L C

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 12, 2007

OK. Lets see how it goes. If I find time, tomorrow is the day. Daughter is gone so the system will not be missed.

Hopefully it will be fixed by the time she gets home.

Thanks a lot for the help. I am sure I will be back....

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blue_z

· #7 · May 12, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben L C /forum/post/0

I searched and did not see anything on this topic.

This issue does come up once in a while, but usually over at a motherboard manufacturer's site. The post is usually something like "help, my new xxx motherboard doesn't boot!" Eventually they reveal that they are trying to skip a few steps by swapping the OS boot drive from another computer.

qlu_one

· #8 · May 12, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by blue_z /forum/post/0

This issue does come up once in a while, but usually over at a motherboard manufacturer's site. The post is usually something like "help, my new xxx motherboard doesn't boot!" Eventually they reveal that they are trying to skip a few steps by swapping the OS boot drive from another computer.

I always been able to boot in safe mode. Then, with internet active, downloaded couple of appropriate drivers and that's all.

scorch123

· #9 · May 12, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben L C /forum/post/0

I searched and did not see anything on this topic. I have a pc that is constantly in need of rebooting. I needed a new monitor so I picked up a Dell with an AMD X2 3600+ processor for around $200.

The question I have is, can I take out my 3 sata 400g harddrives with all of my movies on them and hot swap them into my new computer? Could I also take out my raptor 73 g harddrive with my os on it and use all of my old drives on the new computer? i think doubtfull, but you never know unless you ask. Is there a process to do this? I am clueless.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

Ben

Make sure your Dell system's power supply will handle all four additional hard drives. If you are paranoid about your valuable data, back them up! It's better to be safe than sorry.

- Steve O.

Ben L C

Discussion Starter · #10 · May 12, 2007

THat is a good point Steve. I have a 600w power supply that I just put in my old htpc. I will be placing that in the Dell to make sure. My new 8500GT video card should be here on Monday. Time to get to work.

I think that my old htpc was using some sort of raid. Do I need to get another raid utlility for this pc too? Will it auto configure it when I put the configured storage harddrives in?. I bought it used and have never played around with setting up a raid configuration.

thanks......

mym6

· #11 · May 12, 2007

I hope I'm not too late...

I would figure out why the old system needed to get rebooted. Chances are it wasn't the hardware but the OS that was screwed up (not that new hardware isn't nice

). In this case you should do a clean install. XP is pretty forgiving on motherboard swaps compared other versions of Windows as long as you're using plain PATA or you can force the SATA to run as emulated PATA. As long as Windows can access the boot drive, the system will probably boot and start detecting hardware.

If the 3 SATA drives were strung together by a dedicated RAID card/onboard before, it's very unlikely they'll simply work in your next computer unless the RAID controller is exactly the same and you configure it for the same RAID type. If your old HTPC was using an add in card you'll be just fine. Transfer the old RAID card into the Dell and hook up the drives in the same order they were before, that's important for some RAID cards. However, if the RAID was being done by Windows itself, you *might* be ok. I would back up the array to be safe if you can.

Bottom line is, back up your data if you can. Reinstall the OS for best performance.

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Ben L C

Discussion Starter · #12 · May 12, 2007

I have not done anything yet. The old PC does have a Silicon Image SATA Raid controller on PCI 5. I spent some time trying to get the old pc working, but I never got anywhere.

The problem is that I don't have the original SiI3112 floppy disc and the HTPC does not have a functional floppy drive. neither does the new Dell that I just purchased. I have a usb floppy but that will not work.

Is there a way to take the sata drives and use windows to configure the raid drives? This would be using MCE 2005.

mym6

· #13 · May 12, 2007

Why doesn't the USB floppy work?

You should be able to install SATA raid controller in the machine and enter into it's config area and verify that it is recognizing the drives and building the array correctly. From there, install Windows on the other drive. Once you're up and running, get on the net and go to http://www.siliconimage.com/support/downloadcenter.aspx You should be able to find the drivers for your RAID card there. Install the drivers and you're RAID array will appear in your new system.

As long as the card has it's own boot time config option you'll be fine.

Ben L C

Discussion Starter · #14 · May 12, 2007

I am, not sure, but i do know that I am sick of this machine. I think that the thing had issues before I bought it. Hindsight.

In regards to the current status of the storage drives. Is there a way for me to place them in the new computer and then change their status from whatever they are at now, to something different.

Should I reconfigure them in a raid setup again? What is the best way to accomplish this. The biggest problem is is that I don't understand the benefits of raid and if it is necessary, or maybe it is the only way to get it done.

Thanks again,

smoothtlk

· #15 · May 12, 2007

You can setup a new PC and then copy the files from old to new. Then, you can move the old drives to the new setup and format them. RAID is a means to give you some protection if (when) a hard drive fails that you don't loose the data as the data is distributed across all of the RAID drives. There are different types of RAID that have different charecteristics.

I don't think you can move drives from one RAID hardware to a different set without loosing the data. Even if you maintain the same type Raid (Raid1, 5, etc).

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