master/slave - hard drive data resore help

[ukbob]

How do I go about setting a drive on my old PC to slave on the new PC? Can I unplug the DVD drive on the new PC, and plug in the HD from the old PC in using the dvd connector?

Does the PC have to be off when you do this?

And:
Where will I find the emails that were in my inbox?
I cant remember how to ground myself from static.
Is there anything else I need to know?

Thanks so much for your help everyone, I really appreciate it

[JonRB]

So many questions you have, young Jedi.

Write some answers I will. Wait you must though.

>> Edited by JonRB on Saturday 7th January 22:17

[Ballistic Banana]

Bob do a search I asked this a while back and there are some pics on the thread.
Basically though switch off and add the drive. on the back of the drive there should be 6 pins on of which will be bridged slave/master/??? just move teh bridge onto the slave pins.

BB

[JonRB]

You must do this with the PC switched OFF. You can damage things (including yourself) if you arse around inside the machine with it on.

The jumper settings for master-slave will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. If you are lucky they will be identified on a label the drive itself, otherwise you will have to google for the model number and find a User Guide.

[JonRB]

Ballistic Banana said:

there should be 6 pins on of which will be bridged slave/master/??? just move teh bridge onto the slave pins.

Only with some manufacturers. Others use open / closed on just one pin pair to denote master and slave.

You may be able to get away with setting both drives to CS (cable select) and let the BIOS sort it out for you.

[FunkyNige]

How do I go about setting a drive on my old PC to slave on the new PC?
There's a little peg on the back for master/slave, take the HD out and take a look, it's small, white and is probably plugged into 2 pins under 'MA'. If you put the plug thingy under 'SL' (or whatver slave is) it'll work as your second HD. There is an alternative way but if this is a temporary thing then you don't need worry about it

Can I unplug the DVD drive on the new PC, and plug in the HD from the old PC in using the dvd connector?
Sort of, it depends where the little peg thingy is on the HD. Alternatively

Does the PC have to be off when you do this?
YES!!!

And:
Where will I find the emails that were in my inbox?
Dunno.

I cant remember how to ground myself from static.
Officailly - buy a wristband that has metal inserts in which connects to an antistatic mat.
Unofficially - do it on a table and not on a polyester carpet.

Is there anything else I need to know?
You could buy a new IDE cable (assuming both your new and old HDs are IDE ones and not SATA), then plug your old HD into a different IDE slot which would save a lot of arsing around.

[ukbob]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I'll see what I can do.

As well as my emails on the c:drive, where might my address book be stored by default, in the directory structure?

[ukbob]

Update: I got the 2 drives out the old PC ok
Drive C was windows files, emails, addressbook
Drive D was all my personal files

They were both marked
CS
SLAVE
MASTER
(NOTHING?)
PM2

Both were set as CS.

I set them both to slave, connected them to the new PC via one of the 2 dvd drives which I unpluged, and when I went to reboot I got this message:

"NTLDR is missing, crtl alt del to reboot"
What does that mean? I rebooted and got the same message, but the PC started up when I disconnected the hard drives.

What should I try next Ive got 18 months of my life to recover, to say the frustration and stress levels are at an all time high right now would be the understatment of the, erm... the last 18 months Help?!?

[FunkyNige]

Righty-dokey then...

CS is 'Cable Select', it means the first device on the cable (so the device where the cable goes in, then out to the next device) is master, the second (where the cable stops) is slave.

So...

On your new PC if you unplug one of your DVD drives and plug in an old HD (try the non-Windows one first) and change the Cable Select/Master/Slave thing (this is called a jumper btw) to whatever the DVD drive is set to that you just took out (i.e if the DVD drive was set to CS, set the HD to CS, if the DVD was set to SL, set the HD to SL) then boot up it should boot up fine and dandy.

btw, in your new PC, is the HD connected to and IDE cable (the fat one that plugs into the DVD drive)?

[ukbob]

Thanks for the reply.

I managed to set my old master c drive to master on the new PC, and boot up using my old C drive.

Problem is, when I reach the windows password login screen, the keyboard and mouse doesnt work. Ive plugged/unplugged in 4 mice and 2 keyboards, but none of them work. Im there, but I cant get into windows

I can boot up using my new pc, but cant get my old slave drive recognized in windows explorer (with all my files, minus the addressbook/email which are on the old master drive)

Its driving me nuts. Ive been working on this since 10am this morning, either driving around buying backup devices and new computers etc, or sitting here trying. Help

[ukbob]

ps, in the new pc, it seems that:
1) the cable ends on master (I think)
2) the cable (another fat cable) begins on slave

My hard drive on the new pc has a totally different connection (thin red wire), ive not unplugged it yet and was able to reboot using my old c: by plugging it into the dvd drive on the endo of the ide cable, which was set to master.

[JonRB]

You set both to slave and then wondered why things didn't work? Would not the term "master-slave" have not hinted that one needed to be master and the other slave?

Also, I did mention earlier that you could set both to CS and it would probably all work and you noticed that on the old machine both were set to CS (and working thus) but decided to change it anyway.

Users, eh?

ukbob said:

"NTLDR is missing, crtl alt del to reboot" What does that mean? I rebooted and got the same message, but the PC started up when I disconnected the hard drives.

This means that the system could not find a disc that is bootable. It is a little complicated to tell which drive the BIOS is trying to boot from and you may need to go into your BIOS settings to check the order. It could be that you need to swap round which drive is master and which is slave. If you have two HDDs then you generally set the bootable one as master, and if you have a HDD and a CD or DVD drive then you generally set the HDD to master.

If your new HDD has totally different connectors then you very likely have SATA on one and IDE on the other and you're basically stuffed. They're incompatible and the only way to get them to co-exist is either to have a motherboard with both standards or else buy an add-on card that gives you the one you don't have (eg. if your new system is SATA only then you buy one of these or if your machine is IDE only then you buy one of these)

>> Edited by JonRB on Sunday 8th January 09:50

[ukbob]

JonRB said:

You set both to slave and then wondered why things didn't work? Would not the term "master-slave" have not hinted that one needed to be master and the other slave? Also, I did mention earlier that you could set both to CS and it would probably all work and you noticed that on the old machine both were set to CS (and working thus) but decided to change it anyway. Users, eh? ukbob said: "NTLDR is missing, crtl alt del to reboot" What does that mean? I rebooted and got the same message, but the PC started up when I disconnected the hard drives. This means that the system could not find a disc that is bootable. It is a little complicated to tell which drive the BIOS is trying to boot from and you may need to go into your BIOS settings to check the order. It could be that you need to swap round which drive is master and which is slave. If you have two HDDs then you generally set the bootable one as master, and if you have a HDD and a CD or DVD drive then you generally set the HDD to master. If your new HDD has totally different connectors then you very likely have SATA on one and IDE on the other and you're basically stuffed. They're incompatible and the only way to get them to co-exist is either to have a motherboard with both standards or else buy an add-on card that gives you the one you don't have (eg. if your new system is SATA only then you buy one of these or if your machine is IDE only then you buy one of these) >> Edited by JonRB on Sunday 8th January 09:50

Cheers - I did try cs but it didnt work. I eventually got my old c: to boot on the new machine, by setting it as master.

How do I get into the bios?
Also, how do i force safe mode start?
And how do I get my mouse/keyboard to work when booting from the old drive?

the connectors: One is long with about 39 pins, its on a ribbon cable. Is that IDE? My new pc has 2 ide drives (both dvd drives)
The HD on the new pc has a much "less wide" ribbon cable, which is about a quarter as wide, is red, and has a much smaller connector. Im assuming this is sata (I have not touched it)

[ukbob]

if i buy a caddy which takes external drives, and set it up on my new pc, it should be much easier right? I can just insert one of my old drives into the caddy, and it will appear in windows explorer, even if the drive is a c: drive?

I dont mind spending the money if im going to end up with more kit and another way of backing up my data for next time.

I do have a caddy but i could never get it to work on my old pc, the drivers were naff. Im wondering if I can try again by buying a new caddy. (I dont even have the drivers for the old caddy, so was debating buying a new one anyway)

[ukbob]

i have an engineer coming over in a bit if he doesnt know, does anyone know where we will find the following files on the c: of the old pc:

outlook express address book
emails

[406tm]

ukbob said:

i have an engineer coming over in a bit if he doesnt know, does anyone know where we will find the following files on the c: of the old pc: outlook express address book emails

Bob

Do a search for *.pst files. you shouls then find what you are looking for - you may be better of using Outlook 2003 instead of express.

Dave

PS How is the Golf going?

[OUTLAW-1]

hit delet key to get in bious on pc while its booting


safe mode boot meny is f5 or f8 i think

[OUTLAW-1]

hit delet key to get in bious on pc while its booting


safe mode boot meny is f5 or f8 i think

[JonRB]

ukbob said:

the connectors: One is long with about 39 pins, its on a ribbon cable. Is that IDE?

Yes, although it's actually 40 pins.

ukbob said:

The HD on the new pc has a much "less wide" ribbon cable, which is about a quarter as wide, is red, and has a much smaller connector. Im assuming this is sata (I have not touched it)

It probably is, although I haven't upgraded any of my machines to SATA drives, so haven't had any experience of SATA yet.

Does it look anthing like the picture on this Wikipedia page? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sata

[GreenV8S]

Step away from the machine, stick the bits in the boot of your car, pop round your local PC repair shop and pay the guy a tenner to put the old drive in the new PC. For somebody who knows what he's doing it will be a five minute job. If you don't know what you're doing you could easily spend days and days messing around with this sort of thing and still end up screwing it up. Which is fine if you're doing this for the fun of it, or because you want to learn how PCs work. But if you're doing this for your business and don't know what you're doing, then get a professional to do it for you.