Install Old Boot Hard Drive in New Computer

I have a computer running Vista, with a single hard drive (multiple partitions, one with the operating system, the others for applications, data, etc.). I just bought a new computer, and am going to install Windows 7 on it.

I want to put the OLD drive in the new computer so I can just copy all my files and data over.

In the old days with the IDE drives… if memory serves… I’d have to mess with some jumpers so it’d know the OLD drive was no longer the master drive and to boot off the new Windows7 drive. Do I have to do anything fancy like that when I stick the old drive in the new computer so it knows not to boot off that drive, and to boot off the new Windows 7 drive? If so, what do I do?

install sata hard drive

Install Old SATA Boot Drive

IF your “old” HDD is a SATA unit, there are NO jumpers to adjust. (In fact, although some do have a jumper on them, you should NOT change it unless you know what you’re doing!) A SATA port only allows the connection of ONE unit to it, so there is no need to give its connected device some unique identity. Just plug the old HDD into any available SATA port, and connect power to it also. Just to be sure, when you reboot go into BIOS Setup and check that the HDD is showing up properly on the correct SATA port. Then check where the Boot Priority is set and make sure the old HDD is NOT one of the devices available as a boot device.

Now, IF your “old” HDD is an IDE unit that you must connect to an IDE port on the mobo, then you DO have to set its jumper correctly. ANY IDE port MUST have a Master device on it to be used, and MAY have a Slave device additionally. So if this old HDD is the ONLY drive on an IDE port, it MUST have its jumper set to Master (or to Master with no Slave present, if that is a different option). Then it should be plugged into the END connector on the ribbon cable for it. On the other hand, if this is an IDE HDD and you’re plugging it into an IDE port as the second device on the ribbon cable (on the middle connector), make sure its jumper is set to Slave. BUT in this latter case, IF the first device already on the cable has its jumper set to “CS” (for Cable Select), and not to Master, then the second drive on the cable also must be set to “CS”.

“Master” and “Slave” are settings of jumpers that are related solely to the drive’s function on one IDE port. There is no such thing as a “Master Drive” of the whole machine. You already have a Boot Drive in your machine, and you are just installing a second unit that will be used as a storage device, but NOT as a Boot Drive.

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Changing HDD Letter on Boot Drive

MY HDD is currently labled as H. Long story but it is the only HDD currently in the system. I have run into a problem trying to install Nvidia GPU drivers. I can unload them to H but when they try to install they want to install to C and it does not give me a chance to change the install to H. Is there a way to change my drive letter or a work around for the driver install. OS is currently Vista Business 32 bit.

hdd-letter

Have you tried changing the drive letter via diskpart’s assign command?

Command: assign; Syntax: assign[{letter=d|mount=path}] [noerr]

Assigns a drive letter or mount point to the volume with focus. If no drive letter or mount point is specified, then the next available drive letter is assigned. If the assigned drive letter or mount point is already in use, an error is generated.

By using the assign command, you can change the drive letter associated with a removable drive.

You cannot assign drive letters to system volumes, boot volumes, or volumes that contain the paging file. You cannot assign a drive letter to an OEM partition or any GPT partition other than a basic data partition.

letter= d

Specifies the drive letter that you intend to assign to the volume.

mount= path

Specifies the mount point path that you intend to assign to the volume.

noerr

For scripting only. When an error is encountered, specifies that DiskPart continues to process commands as if the error did not occur. Without the noerr parameter, an error causes DiskPart to exit with an error code.

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