installing an already-used hard disk

hey guys...

i've got an old computer which is officially clinically dead. however, its hardisk is rather valuble to me, and i'd like to install it on my new computer.

BUT... my new computer is already fully functional: i.e. i got XP and everything on it, and the old hard drive also does.

is there a way of installing the already-used hardrive without distrupting and screweing up everything?

and tips would be greatly apreciated.

cheers

If you have an open bay for an additional drive, basically install it in the open bay on the same IDE cable as your primary drive. Set the jumper settings to slave. Close the cabinet and reboot. It should be recognized by default as your D: drive and you should have no conflicts with your current OS. Basically your old drive becomes a stroage drive which yu can completely access from Windows Explorer. I've had a computer running like this for about 6 years.

One thing...

If your new computer far outdates the old one, then having a slower drive on the same primary IDE/ATA cable as your more recent very fast drive can actually SLOW down your fast drive to the maximum speed of your slower drive...

If there is a big speed difference (as there is between the old 17.4Gig drive I have in this box compared to the two more recent 40 & 80Gig drives I have in here), it might be better putting the slower drive on your secondary IDE cable along with your CD-Rom/DVD/Burner/whatever if you have room.

That's how I have this setup...

Primary ATA is my 80Gig, split up into two Partitions (a 20Gig to boot from with software installed, and a 60Gig for work & downloads), the 40Gig is for games. On my secondary IDE I have a DVD-Rom drive, and the 17.4Gig which is used for photo storage. I take a LOT of photos

My 17.4 isn't SERIOUSLY slower than the 40 & 80Gig drives, but I do a lot of heavy disk access work, so you do notice the speed differences. If I had the 80 or 40Gig drive on the same cable as my 17.4, then it would slow them down to the speed of the 17.4.

thanks a million.