Winxp ide hd to win7 sata hd

Just put all the files you want onto a USB drive. Then copy from USB drive to new computer. Easy!

Sorry I wasn't clear enough. The old comp mobo fried soi can't access the ide hd as you expect. All I have is the hd.

I didn't think it would be able to access it like a usb drive or something. Interesting. So the os wouldn't interfere?

Hope that does work. I certainly need those files...haha.

Yup.

Set up as slave drives they'll mount just like a data drive. The only possible wrinkle it is an IDE drive, so if your mobo doesn't want to play nice you might need to do a little fiddling around with it.

That's why I kind of smile and nod at folks who assure me their data is protected thanks to their OS password.

Their data isn't protected if I go into their case, remove their harddrive(s) and plug them into my own mobo as slaves.   Watch me cavort in your data!

(now if their directories are encrypted, that's a different story. ^_^)

Alright. Well ty very much. Once I get things going i'sl give it a try and see if it works. I'll be back for more help if it doesn't...hahaha.

Thanks again.

You can also buy an ide to usb cable like this one:
http://www.buy.com/prod/usb-2-0-to-sata-ide-2-5-3-5-har... if installing seems too daunting. Seems like a waste though if it's for a one-time use(by the way I don't own this product, it's just an example. If you want I can link one that I have personal experience with and works).

If your installing the IDE drive (giant ribbon looking like thing inside) read this short thing prior to installing http://freepctech.com/pc/001/installing_ide_devices.sht...
will explain how the master/slave system works. Your hard drive will have a jumper in the back that will need to be changed from master to slave in order for it to be accessible. Once you set the jumper into the correct place and installed the drive, it should really be as easy as powering on the computer and opening the hard drive in windows explorer to browse and copy the files.

It pretty much is a one time thing. I pretty much need the files off of it and then I'm done with it. Like I said earlier, I don't really understand the how or why of 2 hds and since my new one is 1TB, I'm pretty sure that's plenty of space for a few games.

Thanks for the help.

Best answer selected by Machiavelli09.