I have a win98 PC, and have now bought an XP PC to replace it. The old PC does not have usb, nor a network card.

Not interested in any of the programs from the old PC, but definitely want all data, e-mails, photos, etc.

The new PC has a sata disk, the old an IDE.
I wondered if I could disconnect the DVD on the new machine, connect the IDE diskdrive from the old PC, and just copy all the disk from IDE to the SATA. Put the new PC back together and browse through the files i want to keep at my leisure

Is this feasible.

Rannoch

OK, let me get this striaght, you wanna copy all files except programs? If this is true, why not transfer all your files to a thumbdrive or CD-RW? Oh, wait hold on. i get what you're saying. Yes, im pretty sure that would work. Unless the cable is not compatible with the SATA socket. In that case, you could just copy all the files yuo want to a thumbdrive or a CD-RW, if the amount is correct.(amount of memory used.)

No CD writer, no USB, no network cable on win98 PC.

The DVD on the new PC is IDE
I'm quite happy to copy all the contents of the old IDE disk (including programs) over, and then pick what I want to keep.

I'd heard there was a SATA and IDE compatability issue.

Rannoch

no usb so can not use thumb drive

Originally Posted by rannoch

I have a win98 PC, and have now bought an XP PC to replace it. The old PC does not have usb, nor a network card.

Not interested in any of the programs from the old PC, but definitely want all data, e-mails, photos, etc.

The new PC has a sata disk, the old an IDE.
I wondered if I could disconnect the DVD on the new machine, connect the IDE diskdrive from the old PC, and just copy all the disk from IDE to the SATA. Put the new PC back together and browse through the files i want to keep at my leisure

Is this feasible.

Rannoch

Yes. Your board will not only have SATA connectors but also both IDE Primary & Secondary. Just slave your old drive on the IDE cable. Verify your jumpers are set to slave.

The only issue here is that you may need to go into the BIOS and DISABLE the IDE boot. Otherwise the BIOS may want to boot the IDE instead of the SATA. After this you may also get a BIOS POST warning that no IDE drive is attached. If so just press F1 to ignore. You will then have access to all your files on the old drive. You can even leave it in the new case. There is no reason to unplug the DVD drive.

Thanks fior the advice.

It worked a treat.

The printer is a parallel connection and the old mouse (which is much better than the one supplied) is a PS2.

Can I get low cost usb adapters for both.

Regards,

Rannoch

Yes.

Here are some examples:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...s2+usb+adapter

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/usb-ps2-adapter.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...er&btnG=Search

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati....asp?CatId=471



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