What am I browsing the forums with? New CPU

Diamond Cut II

Diamond Cut II

Joined
Sep 1, 2002
Messages
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My dad got me a new cpu for my birthday(next month). A Dell Dimension 2350. It's a P4 with 2.2GHz. Has a 56K modem, CD-RW drive, 30 gig hard drive, 256MB DDR SDRAM, Window XP, etc. Don't mean to sound like I'm bragging, just wanted to share my joy with you all. My old one was really slow and a pain in the a$$. Now all I have to do is transfer all my files from that one to this one and I'm all set. Only problem is, I don't know how to do so:o . Any help? Thanks, guys!


-DC2
 
Take the hard drive out of your old computer, put it into the new one, and copy over all the data you want to keep. Then, just put the old drive nback into the old computer. Of course, make certain to do a VIRUS SCAN of the old drive before doing this- you don't want to transfer any bugs to your new computer. And I've seen that happen any number of times. :barf:

Try this:
Remove the drive from the old computer [don't forget the virus scan, and make sure the computer is shut down and the power cord is unplugged].

PLEASE NOTE: Make sure the Dell is shutdown & the power cord is disconnected before doing any of this- a nasty shock would be unpleasant. Lay the computer on its side, also- this may seem obvious to you, but people do all manner of strange things when working on their computers. You can leave the computer like this while you work on it.

Open up the 2350. Just loosen the thumbscrew on the back, push down on the handle below the screw, and slide the cover back & off. The owners manual will show you how it opens.

Disconnect the power & data cables from the cd-rom drive on the 2350, and connect them to the old hard drive. Don't remove the cd-rom drive itself, just lay the hard drive on top of it. The 2350 doesn't have the capacity for 2 hard drives, so that's why you need to use the cd-rom cable.

Reconnect the power cord, and power up the Dell. When you go into "My Computer", the old hard drive should come up as "Local Disk (D: )" more likely than not, with the main hard drive being the C: drive.

Now, on the desktop, create a folder called "Old computer data".

Open up the D: drive, or whatever letter it is, and select the data you want to transfer over. Copy [don't move] the data into the folder on the desktop, which is where you'll be able to locate it when all is said and done.

After copying any wanted data onto the new computer, shut it down, remove the old hard drive, and reconnect the cd-rom. Reboot, and you can now access any of your data in the "Old computer data" folder.

I say "Copy [don't move] the data" for this reason- If you move the data from one drive to the next, and something goes wrong, that data could be ruined or lost. By copying it, if something should happen, you can still use the original data file again- only the copied data would be lost.

I hope I made this somewhat easy to follow- if it sounds at all complicated, it's really quite simple in practice.

Please let us know how it goes.

Frank
 
Thanks, Frank! Seems easy enough. My dad did just that when I got the old computer. I didn't really want to take both comps apart and do that but I'll give it a shot if it's the only way. Thanks again, Frank, for your time and info.


-DC2
 
Depending on how much data you have, and how big the files are, you could just use floppy disks to transfer them from one pc to the other. Maybe you have a cd burner on the old computer? Or, you could pick up some data transfer hardware/software [i.e.- usb or parallel cable and requisite software, probably about $30-50].

In general, if it can be done, slaving the old hard drive is about the easiest method.

Frank
 
What about the Master/Slave settings? It sure seems like you should set the old hard drive to slave status so that you don't have a boot conflict when the bus scans both drives and finds a bootable windows folder.

For myself, if I had a monitor and keyboard for both boxes, I'd probably set up a local network and enable file sharing. Then you can establish a peer to peer network and copy all the files from the old drive to the new one. Uou could also use an ethernet network if there was one available in the dorm. This is a much safer approach than swapping drives between various machines. There is a much greater chance for data corruption when migrating hard drives to a different motherboard/disk controller IMHO.

These are just my geek opinions.

jmx
 
Originally posted by jmxcpter
What about the Master/Slave settings? It sure seems like you should set the old hard drive to slave status so that you don't have a boot conflict when the bus scans both drives and finds a bootable windows folder. jmx
Click to expand...

Since the old hard drive is connected in the cd-rom position [secondary ide controller], it doesn't need to be jumpered in the slave position. It will automatically come up as just a data storage drive, and not the bootable drive, which is set to be the primary ide controller.

I also just remembered about using a crossover cable. This would be a parallel or usb cable that can directly connect two computers together, without the use of a hub or other networking hardware.

Frank
 
I agree with the above, just move the HD over. One quick question on your new computer :) How did you accomplish getting
256MB DDR SDRAM
Click to expand...
That would mean you have 256MB of Double Data Rate Ram while at the same time having Single Data Rate ram :D
 
Originally posted by Rifter
That would mean you have 256MB of Double Data Rate Ram while at the same time having Single Data Rate ram :D
Click to expand...
DDR SDRAM is the full name of DDR ram...

Data transfer can be accomplished by USB, if you're not confident about taking out the hard drive. Or if both computers have network cards, you could use a crossover ethernet cable.
 
Well all the old files I needed are on this computer. I took both of them apart and wa-la! Thanks for your time, guys. Now I am officialy cruisin':D .


-DC2
 
Originally posted by Diamond Cut II
Well all the old files I needed are on this computer. I took both of them apart and wa-la! Thanks for your time, guys. Now I am officialy cruisin':D .


-DC2
Click to expand...

Congratulations- enjoy your new toy. :D

Just remember- BACKUP ALL your important stuff regularly. One virus, corrupt program or mechanical failure could cause you to lose everything. Burn it to a cd now and then, and be safe.

Frank
 
Originally posted by FrankieCrabs
Congratulations- enjoy your new toy. :D

Just remember- BACKUP ALL your important stuff regularly. One virus, corrupt program or mechanical failure could cause you to lose everything. Burn it to a cd now and then, and be safe.

Frank
Click to expand...


Thanks! And noted.
 
Me too! I just finished building my computer for my high school A+ certification class a couple days ago. Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon 2100 1.73GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard
512MB DDR RAM
80 GB hard drive
Windows XP Pro


Hey Diamond, did you have XP on your old computer? I didn't, and BOY did it make a huge difference!! I like it a lot. The look is nicer, it crashes less, it makes networking easy, and the help features are actually helpful. Congrats on your computer!
 
Originally posted by Snow
Me too! I just finished building my computer for my high school A+ certification class a couple days ago. Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon 2100 1.73GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard
512MB DDR RAM
80 GB hard drive
Windows XP Pro


Hey Diamond, did you have XP on your old computer? I didn't, and BOY did it make a huge difference!! I like it a lot. The look is nicer, it crashes less, it makes networking easy, and the help features are actually helpful. Congrats on your computer!
Click to expand...


I had Windows 98 on my old one. It wouldn't crash too much but everytime I opened a window it would always say I performed an illegal operation. I'd have to shut it down and be careful about what I opened. I used it mostly for internet, chat, or file download, one by one and nothing else. I'd have to agree Windows XP is better than what I had before, WAY better. Especialy if you have alot of windows open from pop-ups it bunches them into a little group that you can close altogether. I have a Microsoft optical thumb mouse(?) that has 5 buttons on it: left-click, right-click, scroll, 2 buttons for going back and forth through webpages(my favorite). Right now I'm browsing the internet and listening to Launchcast(kind of like the radio but only my favorite artists; something I couldn't do before). Congrats on your new comp, too. And enjoy! I know I will:) .


-DC2
 
Oh dude those thumb mice...:eek: I want one, but for gaming I'm afraid it would be too weird. I'm considering buying one just for surfing...

On another note, have you seen those Radeon All-In-Wonder video cards? My friend has one, and it lets you watch tv in one window while surfing the web in another!! And you can download TV Guide, then select programs that it will automatically record. It even has a feature where you can watch a transparent tv and do something else in the background!!
 
Originally posted by Snow
Oh dude those thumb mice...:eek: I want one, but for gaming I'm afraid it would be too weird. I'm considering buying one just for surfing...

On another note, have you seen those Radeon All-In-Wonder video cards? My friend has one, and it lets you watch tv in one window while surfing the web in another!! And you can download TV Guide, then select programs that it will automatically record. It even has a feature where you can watch a transparent tv and do something else in the background!!
Click to expand...


At first the trackball mouse feels weird. Until you get the hang of it. It's great for gaming 'cause you never run out of space. When you have a regular mouse you constantly have to move it on the mousepad, causing you to lose your precision shots on the latest version of Counter Strike;) . I prefer the thumb mouse over the regular for that reason. I'd recommend the Microsoft TrackBall Optical because you have less parts to clean, a back and forth button for surfing the web, two extra buttons for your games, and it just looks cool:cool: . As for the video card, I've never heard of it but I sure as hell want one. I hate having to turn around every once in a while to watch a favorite show and browse my favorite forums at the same time:D .
 
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