New Hard Drive

Pataman

Lads help needed. The old hard drive is too small so I got a samsung 250gb. I removed the old drive, pulled cable out and power, wired in new drive and installed xp. My intention was when up and running to put my original as slave drive and copy over the important info and then remove it.
However when it boots up xp wont recognise any of my drivers. It wont recognise my screen, network card, sound card etc. I have tried the usual updatin drivers, I have picked them from the list, but it still wont work. Any help,
Please

Capt'n Midnight

Have you tried the manufacturers web site ?

how about a few hints, like what PC / Cards ?

Pataman

Its a dell dimension, and therefore onboard graphics, sound etc. I have done this several times on non dell machines and have never had any probs.

John R

If the xp installation on the old hard drive was still good you could try copying the entire hard drive over to the new one with a program like ghost or partitionmagic, you can re-size the drive to take advantage of the bigger size of the new disk.

I hate having to re-install from scratch, it takes me ages to get the system set up the way I want it so I have done this several times and it has worked perfectly.

kmb

Doesnt xp have a file transfer wizard?Maybe this would work?
regards,
kieran

Using the Files and Settings Transfer WizardThe Files and Settings Transfer Wizard helps you move your data files and personal settings from your old computer to your new one, without having to go through much of the same configuration you did with your old computer. For example, you can take your personal display properties, folder and taskbar options, and Internet browser and e-mail settings from your old computer and place them on the new one. The wizard will also move specific files or entire folders, such as My Documents, My Pictures, and Favorites. Passwords are not moved with program settings when you use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. This is a feature of the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard that helps to keep your passwords confidential.

We recommend that you install a virus detection program on the new computer before transferring files over from the old computer. This can help protect your new computer from viruses that may be contained in the files transferred over from your old computer.

Open the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

Notes

To open the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.
For more information, click Related Topics.
Related Topics

ai ing

To update the drivers you need to download the right ones first. The easiest way is to go on to the Dell site and get the downloads for your Dimension model

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/index.aspx?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Pataman

Thanks for the advise. With regards to the transfer wizard I dont think it works between 2 drives on the same computer. As for getting the up to date drivers I cant access the internet as it wont recognise my network card. I suspect there are some files I need on the support disks that came with the computer, but I have searched the disks and cant find it.
If all else fails I will put the drive into another computer, do a transfer wizard and then swap it back.

snaps

couldn't you keep the old drive as the master and install the new drive as a slave? Then you would have even more hard disk space. Thats what I done.

kmb

I think it does the 2 hdds on the same computer.I reckon i may have done it previously....But make sure you pick the correct hdds on conversion!!!!!

regards kieran

deckie27

Dude your problem is that Dell have twists in the cables so u need to select cables select on the hdds not master and slave.


Dec

Pataman

deckie27 wrote:

Dude your problem is that Dell have twists in the cables so u need to select cables select on the hdds not master and slave.


Dec

I have tried it as cable select. It still doesnt work properly.
I can copy the complete hard drive contents to the new drive except for the system32 directory.

deckie27

Thats cool u don't need the system32 directory.
Its od files from the last install.
If u wanted u could use Ghost to transfere old drive onto new on with all old programs working.

dec