[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by Detector

Yes, No and Maybe!!!!

There is a couple of possibilities that can make it easy or tough.

IMPORTANT!!! ALWAYS DISCHARGE YOURSELF BEFORE YOU REACH INSIDE A PC. To do this just make sure and touch a metal part(I use the power supply) of the computer to discharge any static electricity. Oh, and make sure the PC(s) are turned of and unplugged.

Your mission, should you decide to except, is to first open the new PC and look it over good. What you want to look for is a place to mount the old hard drive, if you have 1 or 2 IDE cables, 1 or 2 IDE slots(IDE0 IDE1) and if the IDE cable(s) have 1 or 2 IDE plugs(places where the hard drive plug into the cable).

I'm not trying to scare you from trying it in fact Its good feeling to do this type of stuff on your own, but I want you to know the possible problems BEFORE you decide to give it a shot.

Looking for a place to mount the drive isn't tough just look where the other one is at and generally there is a place below it.Mounted the drive...that was the ez part.

IDE cables: This is the cable(s) that hook your hard drive and CD-Rom(s) to the motherboard. They are really flat and wide(2" or more) and have ribs where the wires run. First find the hard drive that already in your new PC and follow this ribbon/cable back to the motherboard. Along the way look for a second plug on the cable where another hard drive might plug in.There was a ribbon cable going from the hard drive to the motherboard. This cable had another cable sprouting away from it for another HD. I hooked it to the hard drive along with a smaller cable next to it.

When you follow the IDE cable back to the motherboard where it plugs in is an IDE plug. Look next to it and see if there is another either empty or it may have the CD-Rom plug into it.

Decision time. Are there one or two IDE cables? Does the IDE cable have more than one place to plug a drive in? Are there two IDE plugs on the motherboard, and do they both have something plugged into them?

If you have two IDE ports on the motherboard AND there's one empty you could probably just plug your old drive(cable and all) into this empty IDE port and start it up. It should assign a drive letter of D: to your old hard drive and reassign your CD-ROM to E:.

Any other configurations on your PC and I would suggest having someone else do it. I'd be happy to put it in for you at no charge if you want to bring it(just the PC box and your old drive. Don't need the keyboard, mouse, monitor or cables) by sometime. Just let me know.

There was a 3rd and smaller cable that I didn't see anyplace to plug it in so I had a larger cable and a smaller cable plugged into the back of my hard drive. When I started the computer it didn't boot up so I just unhooked it....now what?