I have 3 PCs. One is old with many viruses. One is old and only 4 GB. One is new'ish and has about 100 GB but a fried Motherboard. I know nothing about computers but managed to take the CD drive out of the fried one and put it into the one with 4 GB. I need to take the 100 GB hard disk and put it into the one with 4 and make it work. I need to know what goes where and what else I'd need to take out of the newer computer in order for things to run smoothly. I'd love some help. If someone could email me @ that would be greatly appreciated. The only thing I ask is that its kept in laymen's terms so I can understand. LOL. Please somebody help!! :-? :-? :-? :-? :-? :-? :-? :-?

THANKS!! Posting your e-mail is a great way to get tons of spam, so I deleted it. Feel free to post again if that is what you want, though.

Posting as much of the specifications on the parts you have would be HELPFUL What operating system are you planning to run? Obviously you're not scare to pick up a screwdriver, so that's a good thing.

first lets make it simple, im assigning ur comps numbers...

1-old one with viruses
2- old 4GB one
3-newer one




id take the motherboard from comp2 (assuming that its newer that comp1) and place it into comp3. if u have some extra RAM slots in comp3, id take the biggest sticks of RAM from comps 1+2 and place them into comp3.

from what ur saying, it sounds like comp3's only problem is the motherboard, then y not just leave all the other hardware alone (assuming its newer than comps 1+2), and just exchange the motherboard?We need more info before we go swapping motherboards about. They may use different type of RAM, different processors and potential.Haha, well, I'm gong to be running windows 2000, except that I'm not sure what the new comp has, I think it has XP which would be nice. So if I could get comp 3 to work then I'd be HAPPY. I'm not sure what a RAM stick looks like or where I'd put it. I am so technically challenged but I'm a great learner and not afraid to try things. Also, I have really good common sense...if I take something out of one comp I'm going to put it in the same place in the other comp. lol


So in otherwords, I'm not sure what my computers have other than the GBs on the hard disk. I don't need it to be anything special I just want it to work for a simple accounting program, pictures and some stupid games, lol.
If it runs, you can load Belarc Advisor (www.belarc.com) and see what the components are.

If not, you can take out each component and read what is on it. This could be our summer PROJECT! Two of them run, the newest doesn't. I also dont have internet at home, only at work.
Thanks though, lol
...just remember not to touch the pin array on the motherboard or processor I talked to someone I know and they told me to unplug the cd writer and plug in my second hard drive. Which I did and it worked. I can look through and use the bigger disk drive...My problem now is, how do I get the cd writer working??? What do I plug it into. I've tried everything and can't get it to work... You probably have 2 IDE channels with two positions possible - Master (MA) and Slave (SL) for each device. Make sure each device is jumpered correctly for what you are trying to do, like

IDE Channel 1
Primary hard drive - Master
Primary optical drive - Slave

Secondary IDE Channel
Second hard drive - Master
Second optical drive (if present) - Slave

The jumpers are on the back of the drives where the data cable plugs in. Ask if you don't understand this. Okay, so the IDE channel is the bunch of cables coming out of the box...(lol, I am so sorry, haha)...and it has a white plug followed by a white plug followed by a smaller white plug. Right now I've got my primary hard drive (the one originally in the comp) plugged into its own IDE channel, plugged to the first white plug. I was told that in order to make my secondary hard drive work I should unplug everything from the disk drive and plug it into the new hard drive. That worked. I have the new hard drive plugged into the first white plug of the secondary IDE channel...Now that I've come this far I've realized that the IDE channel might not be the white plug but the black plug with the big flat cable...hmmm...if it is you still know kinda where i'm going with this...the primary hard drive is plugged into its own flat cable and i've taken everything out of the disk drive to put it into the new hard drive. When I plug the disk drive into the last plugs of the secondary hard drive it doesnt recognize either one of them, my drive "D" disappears as well as the disk drive not showing up. Haha...I shouldn't have started this, but I find it fun to play with things like this and make them work...I just don't know if it's going to happen.I R ConnFuzzeled

IDE Cable are th Wide Flat ones There Ment to be made up of 40 skinny Wires,

There Are 2 Types Of IDE cable , 1: It has Two Plugs One to the mother Board, and one to the HDD.
2: It Has 3 Plugs one to the mother board and two that can each go in to a HDD

on the back of the Hdd you should se something like this
[::::::::::::::::::::][:][:][:] [ooo] IDE is in Green, Jumpers in Red ,power in blue

now you can set weather you HDD is master or Slave whit the pins called Jumpers (in red)
most HDDs are set a little Differnt, but on a maxtor you set master by haveing a jumper NEXT to the IDE
[::::::::::::::::::::][{:}][:][:] [ooo]

and slave wit no jumper
Haha...I R VURRYYYYY CONNFUZZELED!!!

HAHAHA

That makes complete sense now...soooo how do I get the disk drive to work with the secondary hard drive? I have 2 IDE cables. One goes from the motherboard to the hard drive and the other used to go from the motherboard to the disk drive, I took it out of the disk drive and plugged it into the secondary hard drive. When I plug the open plug (which is actually the 2nd/middle plug on the IDE cable) into the disk drive I can't find the disk drive or the secondary hard drive. If I keep the disk drive unplugged, I can use the hard drive... :-? :-? :-?Let's start over. What is the make/model of the computer and/or motherboard you are wanting to connect to the hard drives?If you post What model and Brand name your Hdd's are , we can look up the correct settings.

Brand name :
Model Num :
Please