I am considering buying a new computer, one that is made by HP and has the Vista operating system.

My current computer was made around 2000 and uses the Millenium Edition OS. This is the first and only computer I've ever owned.

I'm fairly sure that the secondary, internal, Western Digital hard drive I installed a few years after 2000 is an ATA one.

The HP sales people said that if my secondary hard drive on my old computer is ATA, it will not work on their new machines, which use SATA.

I have many files on this secondary drive that I would like to be placed on my new HP computer's drive.

Other than sitting here for hours on end copying file after file after file from the old ATA hard drive to temporary storage (say, on a CD for example) to be transferred on to a new SATA drive, is there some other method that is less painful and faster? Before I start, I should mention:
I am still learning about this particular subject. I personally have no direct experience with what you are trying to do, nor do I know if there are any more methods, or which ones I have suggested are the "best".
So, please bare with me, and correct me if I am wrong


Chances are, even if the new computer has SATA, it still has ye old ATA/IDE Cable somewhere inside of it.
Thus, you should be ABLE to (providing you have the IDE cable) use your old drive as a secondary.

If the new computer does not have an IDE cable, or will not support it for some strange reason, then you will probably want to use the Windows Vista/XP Settings and Documents Transfer Wizard (Vista: Windows EASY Transfer)

This will require the use of EITHER:
A) A special cable
B) A Ethernet cable

(Ethernet would be easiest. A short Ethernet cable can be bought for cheap)

You dont have to use the wizard though. You can do a direct transfer of *almost* all of the files from one drive, to another. (Files in use are an exception)

To avoid PROBLEMS and clutter, I would only copy your documents (eg: Music, photos, videos, documents, presentations, contacts, saved email, etc)

You could also use a USB to IDE device, which would make your old drive appear as removable mass storage device. try using norton ghost...

or write ur files in the CD/DVD at laest u have a back up..and try to transfer the files To those who posted IDEAS, thank you!

An online friend of mine told me to get a USB Flash Drive, so I've placed an order for a 2GB Flash Drive.

I'm surprised nobody at this forum suggested it!
(EDIT. Well after re-reading the posts above, I see someone wrote, "You could also use a USB to IDE device," but I wasn't clear on what that meant.)

She said transferring files via a Flash Drive is faster and easier than doing so by burning CD copies of everything.

The following article is a little dated, since Flash Drives now are capable of holding much more data than when this guy wrote this, but if you want to know more, read the following.

How to Use a USB Flash Drive:
http://www.wellesley.edu/Computing/Flashdrive/

Sometimes we fail to remember the most simple things

What a USB to IDE is, well, it kind of makes your current hard drive into a flash drive (in a sense) I dont know exactly how well they work, but they would probably be around the same overall speed of a flash drive, and operate the same. I have heard of other people using it.
Making your older drive into a secondary (sometimes referred to as a "slave" drive) would be the fastest, but not a great solution for new computer users. Quote from: Zylstra on November 25, 2007, 12:45:28 PM

What a USB to IDE is, well, it kind of makes your current hard drive into a flash drive (in a sense) ...

Quote from: Zylstra on November 25, 2007, 12:45:28 PM

What a USB to IDE is, well, it kind of makes your current hard drive into a flash drive (in a sense) ...

USB 2.0 to IDE Cable is what you're talking about, right?