ADDING OLD HD TO NEW USED COMPUTER

[waytoodumbtodothis]

Hello,
I have an older model Dell recently purchased. It has two storage devices (with XP pro) I also have two older hard drives with a years of files and favorites ect on and desperately need the EASIEST, fastest way to ADD each one of them at a time to get what I need from them and be able to SWITCH easily WITHOUT REINSTALLING an O/s or anything complicated - Live is small town with NO computer saaavy folks - Please help

 

[ss202sl]

Are these sata drives? Just open the case, plug them in, and when your computer comes on, you should be able to just copy the files off. repeat for the second drive.

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi there, & Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

Could you tell us the Dell Model #, and if possible, what components are attached to it (such as a DVD or CD, 1 or 2 hard drives, how much memory, CPU). Also are the older drives you have Parallel ATA drives (larger 40 pin connector) or Serial ATA (SATA) drives (7 pin data connecor)?
Also, give us the approximate size of the HDD present in the Dell, and the size of the older data drives.
Some of the older Dells (like the 8200) had space for just two HDDs, and two CD or DVD burners.

Then we can look up the specs, and someone will be able to get you going.