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January 26th, 2005 15:00
Hard Drive Failing and Replacement Questions
For the last year, it appears that the pins on the hard drive are not keeping good contact with the ribbon connection from the motherboard. This problem has happened every few months and after reinsterting the ribbon into the hard drive, the computer will boot up fine for another period of time. I've replaced the ribbon thinking that was the problem, but it has not stopped the situation so it is obvious that it is the hard drive pins considering that it will boot into Windows when you press on the connection area.
Thinking that one day this method will not work, it is time to get another hard drive and in the process upgrade to XP. And like everyone else, I have a lot of data on this drive and while I have backed it up many times and I also have the software for reinstallation, I was thinking about trying to slave it as a second drive. I've not used a second drive before, so what do I need to do in order to just use the programs off of it or the files? Will the windows ME files interfer? Are there any settings that I need to set? I have a place in my Dimension 4100 for it to sit and the ribbon has a connection for slave so storage is not a problem.
just wanting a little info before I make this change. Thanks for any help you might have,
Harrycat
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Harrycat
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January 26th, 2005 16:00
So what you are saying is that it would be more efficient to just get a new hard drive, copy all files to it from the old one and then upgrade to XP. I was trying to eliminate a few old programs that my son felt was so necessary a couple of years ago that I don't want anymore. He is gone to college now and has his own Dell so there is no need for mine to still be hanging on his but being the parent, I hated to remove them in case he messed up his drive. So my thinking was that if we needed them, they might still be available, providing that the pins cooperate that day. While they would not run on this machine with the new registry and such, I could still copy them as files to his? Yes or no? I could also use the old drive to store mp3 files, jpegs, doc files and such?
Thanks,
Harrycat
shesagordie
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January 26th, 2005 16:00
harrycat.
As you are thinking of buying a new HD and upgrading to XP, then install the new HD as the "master" and install the your new XP operating system on it. When you have XP working to your satisfaction, then install the old HD on the middle connector as the "slave" and transfer all the files you wish to save to the new one, after this has been completed, you can partition and format it, by using XP disk management, to use as storage.
Remember that Dell uses cable select jumper settings and check the BIOS, to see if the second HD is set to "Auto" [Enabled] after it's been installed.
Bev.
ejn63
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January 26th, 2005 16:00