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dgnats_d9d616

7 Posts

4374

January 18th, 2008 21:00

Switching Hard Drives

I've seen similar posts about switching drives, but not specifically like this one.
 
I have a Demension 8400 running XP, with an ATA hard drive. I'm giving this computer to a relative.
I'm buying an XPS 420 which will be running Vista, but also SATA hard drive. I would love to take the drive out of my 8400, as it has a lot of personal info, and switch it with the new XPS 420, and give my relative, the brand new, 500 Gig hard drive.
 
Is this do-able?

osprey4

4 Operator

 • 

34.2K Posts

January 18th, 2008 23:00

Ok, I've re-read your post and it sounds like you want to swap hard drives between the two machines. That will not work. Buy a new drive for the 8400.


Message Edited by osprey4 on 01-18-2008 08:56 PM

dgnats_d9d616

7 Posts

January 19th, 2008 01:00

Yes, that's what I was hoping to do. I can see where there would be a problem taking the drive out of the 8400 and putting it into the new computer. But would there still be a problem taking the new drive out of the new computer and putting it into the 8400? Do the Dell people do anything to modify the hard drives in new machines before they send them out? Just trying to understand how things work for future reference. Thanks! HK

ejn63

9 Legend

 • 

87.5K Posts

January 19th, 2008 09:00

You can do that but will then need to format and reload Windows on the drive. It's not a hardware issue - Windows loads a system-specific set of drivers, and doesn't take well to having a drive moved from one set of hardware to a completely different one.

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