Windows XP to Windows 7 Hard drive Transfer

[rojoman77]

Hello,

I just purchased a refurbished HP-Compaq CQ2713W with Windows 7, 4GB RAM, 500 GB hardrive, AMD Radeon TM HD 6310, SuperMulti DVD Burner and Windows Home Premium 64-bit. I have my old hard drive from my HP Computer (it's a Hitachi Deskstar 250 GB, model #HDT722525DLA380 SATA model), and have no idea how to transfer my PDF, JPEG, and WORD files to my new Windows 7 computer! I need my files! Any suggestions? I'm losing my mind. BTW, the old computer was an HP a1630n computer.

 

[phil22]

What you can do is buy a 3.5-inch SATA-to-USB External Hard Drive Enclosure and install the Hitachi drive into it.
Then plug the enclosure into a mains socket using the supplied a/c adapter, then connect the enclosure to your new PC with the supplied USB cable.

You don't need to install any drivers or other software. Windows 7 will automatically assign a drive letter to the external drive and you'll be able to open windows for the drive's folders, copy files etc. just like any other drive.

One thing you will have to deal with though is accessing your user folders on the external drive.
Since you are trying to access those folders from a different user account, you will get "Access Denied" error.
To rectify that, see this:

The quick way: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

The long way: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/quick-tip-take-ownership-of-files-and-folders-in-windows/3688