[quietbreeze]

I am wondering if it is possible to take out my hard drive from my dead computer and hook it to another computer just to get the info off of it? Also would they have to be the same operating systems...ie: can 1 be ME operating system and the other XP? I suspect that they both have to be the same Operating system, but not sure. Now if this is possible to do, how do I do this? Thank you for any help.

[Elvandil]

Yes, you can. An, no, they don't generally need to be the same OS, but remember that 98 and ME cannot access the NTFS drives used by XP, 2000, or Vista without special drivers. There is a free version of NTFS4DOS that you can use in ME or 98 that will read from the drives for copying data, but will not write anything to them. That can also be booted from floppy if you wanted to copy from one drive to another within the same machine.

If the machine will boot to CD, you can boot up a CD and burn the data from the drive or transfer it to a USB drive, without taking it out, if the drive is spinning and works.

You can do that with the UBCD4Win or Knoppix.

Give us all the details and we will get your data, if the drive is not ruined.

[quietbreeze]

The original computer is very dead. I'm not really sure what the problem is but there is no getting it turned on. It made a beeping sound and then died. Now there is nothing, no power at all. It was ME originally and I upgraded it to XP. The machine I want to use to get the info is ME. What I really just want to get some pictures off that drive, if possible. I am not sure really what you need from me to proceed. Sorry, I am not real knowledgeable, I am learning by doing..lol. Thanks for your help

[hrlow2]

Sounds more like a dead power supply. Replacement could revive the machine.
No guarantees,but very possible

[Elvandil]

Find and download NTFS4DOS. Once you have the drive connected to the other machine, you can boot with the NTFS4DOS floppy and copy data from one drive to the other.

If you prefer, you can probably do this from a command prompt within ME after it is booted.

First, you need to put the drive in the other machine and be sure that BIOS recognizes it correctly. Then, boot up ME. If that boots, and sees the other drive, even though it won't be able to read it, you can then go on with the next steps.

[quietbreeze]

Thank you Elvandil, I will try that and let you know how it goes. Thanks so much!!!

[daniel_b2380]

don't forget,
- me originally,
so these will probably be ide drives,
need to set the pins,
- master / slave / cable select,