Computer Question

Paul Douglass

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I have a new computer. My old one developed a Motherboard problem, least that is what information I could find on the internet for the type of problem I had. Anyway, I was wondering, what would happen if I plugged the hard drives from my old computer into the empty slots in my new computer. The old on has two 500 GB hard drives in it. Would I have access to the file on them? Would the new computer recognize the drives. My broke computer had windows 7, the new on has windows 8 (which by the way I am getting use to and it is not so bad).
 
Well, I assume that it can since you were running Windows 7, but will depend on the number off connections you have in the new computer (you mentioned it was small).

What symptoms was the old one having? Typically the motherboard isn't an issue, the power supply starts to go bad and power supply to the board causes issues that seem like a bad board. It may be worth seeing if you can find a similar power supply to see if the problem goes away.
 
If you just want to get data off of the drives, or use them for backup, or whatever, I'd probably recommend getting a usb dock for them.

The kind of dock you get would depend on if they have an IDE or SATA interface, but they make it easy to just plug a drive in, read or write to it, and remove it for safekeeping..
 
When I turn the power on the computer it comes up with this message on a black screen:

"Reboot and Select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"

Well, I assume that it can since you were running Windows 7, but will depend on the number off connections you have in the new computer (you mentioned it was small).

What symptoms was the old one having? Typically the motherboard isn't an issue, the power supply starts to go bad and power supply to the board causes issues that seem like a bad board. It may be worth seeing if you can find a similar power supply to see if the problem goes away.
 
Is this the kind of drive you are talking about?

http://www.amazon.com/SuperSpeed-eSATA-Docking-Station-Cooling/dp/B0055PL2YI

The old computer has 2 X 500 GB Sata 3 Hard Drives.


If you just want to get data off of the drives, or use them for backup, or whatever, I'd probably recommend getting a usb dock for them.

The kind of dock you get would depend on if they have an IDE or SATA interface, but they make it easy to just plug a drive in, read or write to it, and remove it for safekeeping..
 
I'm no computer expert, but if you do use the hard drives from the old computer as back up storage, you'll need to get the Operating system off the primary drive from the old computer so as not have conflict between the two OS's.
 
Is this the kind of drive you are talking about?

http://www.amazon.com/SuperSpeed-eSATA-Docking-Station-Cooling/dp/B0055PL2YI

The old computer has 2 X 500 GB Sata 3 Hard Drives.

PRetty much, but you need to make sure of the kind of drives you have, whether they are sata or ide. http://www.computer-hardware-explained.com/sata-vs-ide.html

I'm no computer expert, but if you do use the hard drives from the old computer as back up storage, you'll need to get the Operating system off the primary drive from the old computer so as not have conflict between the two OS's.

If you did mount them in the case, that could be an issue, and would have been, but If you have a newer PC with sata drives, I'm not so sure you'd have to be all that worried. The boot loader would/should let you pick.

If you get an external dock, it should be a little easier to manage.
 
Paul, maybe not fully on topic, but, I had a system crash with Vista home premium, and in trying to log in, I got that black screen. I was told to get rid of Vista and go to Win 7. So, I had an= "USB2 to SATA/IDE" cable setup and I had an XP laptop to work with. I also had a WD "My book" external HDD and proceeded to disconect the main power and I/O cables from the internal HDD and with the Vista computer off, and the USB cable hooked to the XP laptop proceeded to download all my files and data to the external HDD through the laptop. Got everything off, except the Vista system files and disconected the ext drive (for safety). Hooked the internal drive again and through windows "safe mode" was able to reformat the int drive. Cleaned it all up so there was no Vista left. Did a "clean install of Win 7 and got that up and running. Now I am reloading my files and data to the int HDD and installing my old programs. I'm no computer geek, but I am getting it. So you may be able to get one of those cable setup, in USB 3 form to tork for you. Mine, although older version, was a life saver. YMMV. Good luck.

You should be able to read your old drives through the cable setup too.
 
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If you did mount them in the case, that could be an issue, and would have been, but If you have a newer PC with sata drives, I'm not so sure you'd have to be all that worried. The boot loader would/should let you pick.

I plug in extra SATA drives all the time at work. I have a spare clunker machine with the sides open and I just plug a sata drive in and turn it on. Works fine. By default, our machine boots from Sata-0. So the 2nd disk plugged in sata-1 is fine. I can then copy files, or run chksk and the like. (Note that the bench machine has WinXP on it.)
If I mistakenly plug it it into sata-0, or if the power is not plugged into the sata-0 disk, then it WILL boot off the other disk.

But for prolonged use, I would still agree about deleting the Windows install off of the older drive.
 
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