Physically transferring Hardrive from one computer to another

[Yellowdogfish]

My old computer died. It will not turn on, I am quite certain it is a hardware problem. It is nearly three years old and probably not worth repairing. There is a great deal of information on my old computer's hardrive that I would like on my new computer. Can I simply remove the hardrive from my old computer and put it into my new computer as a slave drive? Here is some pertinent inofrmation;

Old Computer Harddrive has McAffeeVirus protection and operates on Windows XP. NewComputer has Norton Antivirus and operates on Windows Vista 64 bit.

Any thoughts? thanks

 

[Mirob]

You can, if your new computer has another IDE or SATA connection. Some new computers may not even use the older PATA IDE. Still you could get a USB or SATA converter to use the old drive.

 

[SNGX1275]

Yes, there won't be a problem. Make sure the jumpers are set correctly for how you want to do it.

It is unlikely you will have success if you try to boot with that drive though, so just hook it up as a slave, or get an external enclosure for it.

 

[Cinders]

I've done what you are attempting with some success so just give it a shot. The situation wasn't exactly the same, but the attempt won't, or shouldn't, hurt your old hard drive. If you had to supply an administrative password in the BIOS to start the old computer then the old drive would be locked until you cleared that password.

 

[Yellowdogfish]

Thank you all very much!