I have bought a new PC and was wondering what is the easiest and most economical way of transfering some of the files to the new hard drive. I have only one monitor. Can I use a USB cable or is there a better way? The new system is XP, the old is Win 98.

Re: How do I transfer data from one hard drive to another?

Do you feel confident opening up the PCs?

If you do the easiest way to transfer files from one hard disk to another is to put them in the same PC. Hard drive cables usually have two connectors. If you plus a second drive onto the same cable the jumper on it has to be changed from master to slave. PCs usually have two drive cables. You can use the second one, even if that requires unplugging it from the CD/DVD drive. You will also, in either case, have to plug a power connector into the drive. You don't have to fit the drive inside the PC. Just close enough for the cables to reach, and with something insulating underneath it.

Anything else will require connecting the PCs together in some sort of network.

Re: How do I transfer data from one hard drive to another?

Hi,

Don't forget that if your new XP HDD is formatted in NTFS then you will have some problems because the Win98 HDD is most likely formatted in FAT32.

Normally these two file systems will not work together, but there are some programs out there that will help you out. There is a program called NTFS for Win98 which allows Win 98 computers to access a NTFS partition, but I don't know if it works the other way.

Matt.

Re: How do I transfer data from one hard drive to another?

WinXP home edition is FAT32 anyway and not NTFS