Transfering data from an old machine to Windows XP?

The motherboard on my Windows ME machine is going bad (BIOS does not recognize the CD ROM and DVD drives, I replaced the IDE cable, made sure the connections were seated, but nothing).

After looking at replacement motherboards on eBay (ASUS P4T) and browsing on the pitfalls, I am considering buying a new system.

Considering the CD-ROM drive is inoperable on the old machine, what is the best way to transfer files from one to the other? If I move the old hard drive (a relatively new 160 GB) to the new machine as a slave, will XP recognize and read the old hard drive (I suspect it's NTFS)? Or, do I revert to a null modem cable? Or can I use an ethernet cable (I don't have a router or switch)?

Thanks for any help.

-Jim

 

Just put the old HD in the new system as a slave, it'll work.

Ethernet cable would work, but you'd need a crossover cable since you don't have a router or switch.

Also, I'm not sure if ME came with it, but XP has a 'transfer files and settings' wizard that makes it rather easy. Failing that route, just throw the HD in the new machine then use it as supplementary storage.

 

Thanks to both of you for the tips.

Luckily, I did not encrypt the drive when I set it up last year.

I understand that some of the old apps won't run on XP and those that do will need to be reinstalled from scratch. It was really the data that I need from the drive.

Although, the guidance from home is to try the motherboard replacement route first and see if it survives the transplant...should prove to be interesting.

-Jim

 

I'd only replace the motherboard if you have the original ME install CD. Once you boot up and Windows sees all that new/changed hardware it might ask you for the disc...but it'll probably work without it.

Did ME even support NTFS & encryption or was it FAT32 only?

 

FAT32 only ...

I'd buy a new machine (Dell's are going for about $599 with a LCD monitor), and then move the old drive in to the new box as a 2nd HD, whether slave on the first controller (or since Dells have been using Serial ATA lately) master on the second IDE controller.

 

Or just get an external usb2 enclosure and use it as an external drive.

 

I just transferred a HD from ME to XP, no problem. Steal the IDE cable from your old machine and make the HD the primary IDE in the new box and move the CD/DVD/whatever on the new box to the secondary IDE.

 

You don't want to put the old hd as the 'primary' (meaning, master on the primary channel)...and you really don't need to move the dvd to the secondary channel, the old drive will work fine on the secondary channel. Just make sure the seconday channel is enabled and set to 'auto' in the bios.