Accessing a Harddrive

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Steve Gunn

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Hey guys...

I found this old hardrive of mine.
And so I was going to jacking it in my computer.
But the problem is, is that, I was wondering..If I could access the files and programs that were on that hardrive, while using the Windows that is on my current hardrive.
Like, use the internal hardrive like a external hardrive.


Thanks....
Give me as much feedback as possible.
Ciao.
 
What interface does it use?

If it's an ATA drive and you're going to be sharing a cable, you'll need to slave the old HDD to the one currently in your system.

If it's a SATA drive just plug it in on the next available SATA port on your motherboard.

You'll need to plug it into the PSU of course.

Everything is plugged in the same exact way, you just won't be booting off that device.
 
Yep, which I assumed.

ATA is the official name of the interface. IDE is a marketing term originated by some of the drive manufacturers to describe the drive/controller combination used in drives with the ATA interface. Integrated Drive Electronics refers to the fact that the interface electronics or controller is built in to the drive and is not a separate board, as with earlier drive interfaces. Although the correct name for the particular IDE interface we most commonly use today is ATA, many persist in using the IDE designation. If you're being picky, you could say that the IDE refers generically to any drive interface in which the controller is built into the drive whereas ATA refers to the specific implementation of IDE that is used in most PCs.

Call it what you will.
 
Zenosincks said:
If it's an ATA drive and you're going to be sharing a cable, you'll need to slave the old HDD to the one currently in your system.

What do you mean by that?
 
I mean if your current HDD is an ATA drive there should be another ATA connector on the cable which it is using. You want to attach your old drive to this connector and set your current drive as Master and the old one as Slave.
 
don't forget
if xp was OS on the old drive
you will need to take ownership before you can access
I don't know how vista behaves
 
Assuming your current drive is of the ATA interface and you are indeed going to share a cable, look at the back of the drives and you ought to see a small removable jumper. Your current drive is likely set to Master already (probably abbreviated to MS or something similar). If it isn't, set it so it is. The old drive should be set up as the Slave (probably abbreviated to SL or something similar).

After you've configured the jumpers, physically install the drives, plug the Master drive in at the end of the ATA cable, the Slave drive in at second connector, plug the ATA cable into the motherboard and then run a Molex connector from the PSU to each of the drives.

You don't have to do this if your current drive conforms to the SATA interface.
 
Assuming your current drive is of the ATA interface and you are indeed going to share a cable, look at the back of the drives and you ought to see a small removable jumper.

It will look like a small piece of plastic/metal on some pins. You can't miss it.
 

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Eh, well if you haven't got a shunt for that drive as far as I know you'll either need to buy one or head to an electronics store and beg :). Something like a PC repair shop would probably have tons just laying around. They'd probably give you one for free.

You could try completing the circuit by other means but someone else will have to help you with that (help you here that is, I don't know what you could put on there).
 
It's only set to Slave if you complete the proper circuit, so, technically yes. Unless you want to do it with some other piece of metal but I'm not going to start recommending anything I'm not sure of. I don't know what you could use as a safe alternative.
 
Steve Gunn
between the 2 large connectors are small rows of pins
if you look at the labels on the drives it will show how to set jumpers
some drives don't need jumpers for slave set
I would not worry about that right now
since the 1st drive is your master it was set cable select or as master (jumper) just install the 2nd drive in the middle ribbon connector
see if on boot it shows up in disk manager

if you don't understand any of this get someone to do it for you
 
It has nothing to do with connecting anything to that "jack". It's not a "jack". The shunt on those pins either complete or break a circuit to run the HDD in a certain mode (such as a Master/Slave).

I'm not making this stuff up :rolleyes:.
 
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