Help installing a second HDD

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
A

Amy_Rocha

Reputable
Mar 12, 2015
8
0
4,510
First of all: Hello.

I bought a new PC, in which every part is new, and Ive been using it for some months now.
Thing is:
I need some files that were left on my old PC,
and it would took way too long to transfer it using usb drives, so I was planning on getting my old HDD in my new PC to transfer the archives directly to my new HDD and then have the old one back to where it belongs.
(Both have OS on it, is this a problem? [+ theyre not the same])

How does this work to keep using my new one but getting acess to the old files?
Will it work if I just install it and boot the PC?
Do I need a program to make a second HDD work?
How do I install it as the 'second'?
Could I end up making one of the HDDs stop working?

PS. Im not doing any of this today, so I cant give you a progression on it, so, sorry.


Thanks for your attention ;)

 
Solution
ChaoticWolf
You pretty much grab the HDD from the old computer, connect it into your current pc by mounting it onto the stands of your rom drives and hard drives, connect one of the power cables from the psu to the hdd, get another sata cable and connect it to the motherboard and the hdd, start up the pc, it will most likely boot up like normal unless you did something wrong, go to my computer/computer/this pc and you should see the drive. click on the drive and see if you can browse the files from there. if not, do some research on how to access another pc's hdd on another pc
Sort by date Sort by votes
T

thx1138v2

Splendid
Jun 18, 2011
2,172
97
22,040
Whether or not you can do it depends on how old your old HDD is. If it is an SATA drive you probably won't have much trouble. If it's an IDE drive your new motherboard probably won't have a port connector for it.

The motherboard should have the drive ports labeled, such as SATA1, SATA2, SATA3, etc.

Power everything down and disconnect the power cable to the box. Open the case and locate the SATA port connectors. Make sure you connect the new drive to a higher numbered port. For instance if the current new HDD is connected to SATA1 connect the old one to SATA2, SATA3, etc.

Make sure you have both the data cable between the motherboard and the old HDD and a power cable between the PSU and the old HDD connected.

Reconnect the power cable to the case and try to boot it. You should be able to see your old hard drive.

Depending on what motherboard you have and whether or not it has a UEFI BIOS the machine should boot from the lowest numbered port it finds that has a bootable device attached, which would be the newer HDD.

If this is a bit much to understand take it to a shop and they'll connect it up for you probably for a minimum charge.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ChaoticWolf

ChaoticWolf

Honorable
Feb 2, 2016
639
1
11,365
You pretty much grab the HDD from the old computer, connect it into your current pc by mounting it onto the stands of your rom drives and hard drives, connect one of the power cables from the psu to the hdd, get another sata cable and connect it to the motherboard and the hdd, start up the pc, it will most likely boot up like normal unless you did something wrong, go to my computer/computer/this pc and you should see the drive. click on the drive and see if you can browse the files from there. if not, do some research on how to access another pc's hdd on another pc
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom