Even if it were possible to boot Windows from an 8250 on a new system (it's not; see below), you can't use an EIDE drive in the newer Dells, which have no support for that type of drive (they're all SATA).

Even if you install a parallel ATA controller, the drive won't boot or run in a new system. All the drivers from the 8250 are different from those on the new system - the drive would simply blue screen and halt, possibly leaving you with a royally corrupted mess.

Plan on installing the drive in an external USB case, copying your data to the new system, and reloading all your applications onto the new system's drive. Yes, it's painful. There's no other way do to it - though there are some software packages that can move some applications from one machine to another, they're only as good as the list of software they support - and that list is usually limited to very common packages.

ejn is right here you cannot plug that drive in to your new dell.

Message Edited by Hydralisk00222 on 09-23-2007 12:31 PM

A tech friend of mine thought it could be hooked up via the optical drive (dvd) ata cable, be set as a master, and then disconnect the sata drive and the ide one could be booted from. Oh well.

New question then; not really a hard drive question: say I buy a new sata hardrive; I still have my xp install disc that came with my 8250. I know its only sp1 - does microsoft even have an sp2 package to upgrade to anymore? I thought they were only supporting xp-sp2 now. Also I wonder if this xp would install, or if I'd be locked up at activation - even with my old dell key.

Message Edited by mr_fm on 09-23-2007 09:38 PM

If you search these boards you'll find that trying to use an ATA drive on the controller used for the optical drive it often doesn't work.