Old computer went down, Again

[JerryNumbers]

My old computer went down again, power supply is once again gone out, I believe this is the 3rd one, this last one was installed on the 11-1-2001, that means it was only 23 days old when it gave up the ghost.

I had already bought a computer with Windows Professional & I have it up & running, but I know nothing about it, its familiar, yet it will take some learning.

As for On Line Baptist, I knew my password by heart so I made it here OK, but it an my old yahoo email password are the only ones I know by heart, the rest are hiding on my old computer.

I’m hoping with the virtual XP download that I can install most of the software along with my printer wil run on Windows Professional. I’m not wanting to buy all new at the moment.

Does anyone know how to retrieve information from & old computer?

Most of my information, probably 90%, is on an extra hard drive so it will be easy to get, & the rest is on the main hard drive? I know I can buy my 4th power supply, start it up & transfer it, but is there another way?

[Invicta]

My old computer went down again, power supply is once again gone out, I believe this is the 3rd one, this last one was installed on the 11-1-2001, that means it was only 23 days old when it gave up the ghost.

I had already bought a computer with Windows Professional & I have it up & running, but I know nothing about it, its familiar, yet it will take some learning.

As for On Line Baptist, I knew my password by heart so I made it here OK, but it an my old yahoo email password are the only ones I know by heart, the rest are hiding on my old computer.

I’m hoping with the virtual XP download that I can install most of the software along with my printer wil run on Windows Professional. I’m not wanting to buy all new at the moment.

Does anyone know how to retrieve information from & old computer?

Most of my information, probably 90%, is on an extra hard drive so it will be easy to get, & the rest is on the main hard drive? I know I can buy my 4th power supply, start it up & transfer it, but is there another way?

Jerry, ypou could try adding the old drive to your new PC as an extra drive, if it is compatable. Alternatively you could try to obtain and external drive case and insert the old drive in that and treat it as an external drive.

[JerryNumbers]

Thanks for the reply.

This computer does not have an extra slot. I was looking on Tiger Direct & saw the docking station as well as the cabinets for a internal hard drive. I knew about the dock, but I had never heard of the cabinets for them.

But even with a docking station, I don’t suppose I could open my hard drive with Windows XP on it in order to transfer info, would I? The last time it went out I tried taking the hard drive out of it & put it in my old Compaq, & Windows would not let me open it. I even called Microsoft support asking them was there a way I could just open it where I could get some info off of it, they told me no! I know a computer expert probably could but I don’t feel I need the info bad enough to pay several dollars to get it. Plus I don’t care for no one seeing my passwords which is the main thing I want.

[brosmith]

If the hard drive(s) is/are not corrupted then a simple solution is to buy the cheapest usb enclosure you can find and make external drives out of them. Just make sure the enclosure works with the interface of the drive(s) (ide or sata depending on the drive). If there is data corruption then you may have a difficult time retrieving all of your data.

Edited November 27, 2011 by brosmith

[JerryNumbers]

Even if I took my main hard drive out of my old computer, hooked it to this new one by USB, I still would not be able to open windows thus getting being able to get files that are on it, is that correct?

[brosmith]

Even if I took my main hard drive out of my old computer, hooked it to this new one by USB, I still would not be able to open windows thus getting being able to get files that are on it, is that correct?

No, it is not correct. If a USB drive has a bootable operating system on it then you could set the BIOS of the new computer to boot from the USB drive. Otherwise, you would use the USB drive as an ordinary hard drive and transfer whatever files you need to transfer to a different hard drive. Edited November 27, 2011 by brosmith

[JerryNumbers]

Thank you, I know I am not a computer Geek, that booting stuff is greek to me!

I've order another power supply, when I get it installed I'm hoping it will run long enough on my old computer to get the information I need transferred to another hard drive, if I can do that, I will be happy.

I've also got a hard drive dock coming, I'll may try that booting to see what happens, maybe I might learn something.