Moving HDD's from one PC to another

[emdotdee]

Hey,
I've got a PC question that I'm asking here for my girlfriend because I'm not signed up to any PC forums so don't shout!

She's got a PC thats borked but I'm pretty sure it's a power supply problem so unless I'm mistaken the HDD will still work.
Anyway, she's got a new PC with Vista and all that rubbish and I'm wondering how easy it is to take the HDD out of the old computer and put it in the new one.

Is it as simple as opening up the old PC and unplugging the HDD and just sticking inside the new one or is there lots of messing around involved?
I'm thinking of just trying it anyway but wanted some advice first if that's ok.
thanks
bye d byee

 

[tracetritt]

As a tech I say that it is really easy. Just make sure to format the drive when it gets in the new machine. Enjoy

 

[bam1234567]

Yup there will we a clear/white 4-pin one and a different one that are different with each computer, but it is as easy as mix and match but REMEMBER if the non clear/white plugs are different on the two computers dont try redneck it, just go out and buy the appropriate IDE or SATA cable. IDE is really long and thin, SATA is really short and even thinner.

EDIT: Yeah, like tracetritt said, its really easy.

 

[emdotdee]

Thanks for the advice,

is it that important that the hard drive is formatted once installed, there are files on there that we want to keep. Moving the hard drive over would be waste of time if we can't get the files off it.

 

[bam1234567]

Well, sometimes I don't format drives and they work fine and other times they don't work at all. If you really want the files off without a chance of anything happening, buy an external enclosure for you Hard drive and copy them onto your computer via USB.

 

[Quint]

If you are just trying to preserve the files, the easiest thing to do is buy an external HD enclosure. Make sure you get the appropriate interface - PATA vs. SATA - pull the drive out of the old PC, pop it in the enclosure, connect via USB to the new PC and that's it.

You beat me to it.

 

[emdotdee]

Hey again,
I got the old hard drive out easy and went to put it in the dell and found that the cables where different so looks like we'll have to get hold of a HDD enclosure.
Thanks again for all the help.