[SOLVED] using old hard drive as slave

Hi, putting your old hard drive into a new computer by yourself will void any warranty on that machine. Could be a costly venture!! Get someone you know to burn off any stuff from your old drive onto cd's.

Couldn't be easier...
Once your new pc is ready disconnect old HD from old pc.
Change the jumper settings on the back to slave. There should be a small diagram on the case of the HD somewhere to show you which pins to cover for this.
Then put the HD into your new machine connecting it to the motherboard with an IDE cable.. obviously make sure you have enough IDE capacity to do this. Most mobo's will take up to 4 devices (HD, CD, DVD etc). Once it is connected you should then be able to see it in 'My Computer' as another lettered drive and you can drag files from it at will.
Let us know how you get on..

Hi, like I said, and read my lips.......They will know if you open up your computer and will rightly refuse to warranty your costly machine. Not worth it.

It might depend alot on the company...at least some of the companies here in the US design their cases to be easy to open, some tell how add internal upgrades in the manuals...

Hi, in Australia it is a little different, as long as components are 1) new and 2) installed by a certified technician, then everything is fine. My Compaq got a new M/board because the tech who was adding more RAM accidentally cracked the original, good thing it was not me doing that, is all.

hey, i'm now doing the same thing now. I followed dell's directions in manual but not sure what this jumper setting is on the secondary drive.?? I connected the power cable and the primary hard-drive cable as directed and connected the secondary hard-drive cable as directed, but cannot see where this is on "My Computer"? Should there have been a second power cable hooked up on the secondary drive? If not what should i do? Thanks

Your Primary Master drive connects to the end connector on the IDE cable and the Slave on the middle one. Both your drives need to have power supply if they are to function. You can get a "Splitter" cable from a PC shop if you do not a spare power supply socket inside your computer.

Additionally, you should set your Primary Slave setting in your BIOS to "Auto Detect" for the computer to be able to recognize the drive.

Each drive must have its own power supply. The jumpers on the drive at the end of an IDE cable, whether from the primary or secondary ide slot must be set to 'master'. The jumpers on the drive connected to the middle of an IDE cable must be set to 'slave' or 'cable select' (CS). The BIOS will usually automatically sort out and allocate drive letters to each drive on boot up. If not then you must go into CMOS and tell machine to 'auto detect' drives.

Actually, the position on the cable is not significant unless you're using Cable Select and the cable is configured that way. Even with a Cable Select cable, the master slave jumpering overrides it. Also, the master can be on the middle connector and the slave on the end, makes no difference. Just don't leave the end connector dangling, i.e. always have it connected to something.

yes the slave needs a power supply anyone that is free that fits it will work as mentioned above you can get a splitter if not. second inbetween the power supply connection{on the drive}and the ide cable is what looks like a place for another plug two to four pins x2 these are the jumpers as said before there should be a description of each set of pins one is master one slave and possible two others one of the sets has a little plastic thing connecting them usuing needled nose pliers pull the little connector out and slide it on to the pins you determine to be the slave pins then do as said above to the bios setting

My experience differs from that of Johnwill in that the position on the IDE cable for master or slave does matter very much.

Well I have to back Johnwill up on this. Position only matters if you are using cable select. I have run lots of systems with the master hard drive hooked to the middle connector. You usually want a drive hooked to the end of newer cables so that the cable doesn't act as an antenna and cause noise on the data lines.

ho,ho,ho, you guys are great! I actually managed to get it to work! I figured out what you meant by the jumper and moved it to SL and kept the mid cable hooked to the secondary drive and voila! I didn't have to mess with bios at all. I kept the end cable on the primary drive as this was as directed by dell in instructions. Can't thank everyone enough!

problem solved - thanks!