Is this idea a smart thing to do

**Robertclive** · March 08, 2011, 05:33 PM

I want microsoft word, but I'm not paying jack for it. I happen to have it on my old pc's hard drive, but it's in the garage and has been there since late August. Is it safe to take that hard drive out and put it on my current computer. It also has XP installed in it, so will that cause problems.

**Top-Tier-Tech** · March 08, 2011, 05:55 PM

The drive won't let you do anything as the first thing it will do if have a heart attack when it realizes the motherboard is different. Even if you could get into the OS you'd have to run the program from within XP separate of your Win7 install. Just download and install OpenOffice.

**PoleCat** · March 08, 2011, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by ChaobSiroc

The drive won't let you do anything as the first thing it will do if have a heart attack when it realizes the motherboard is different. Even if you could get into the OS you'd have to run the program from within XP separate of your Win7 install. Just download and install OpenOffice.

Um, are you sure? I'm pretty sure he's talking about adding an old HDD to a different rig with it's own drive. If so it wouldn't need to be the boot disk as it already has one - just add the disk and then browse the folders after firing up the system.

Alexander of Jordan - go ahead and try adding that old drive. Just make sure it isn't the boot drive. You should be able to browse the drive and find what you're looking for.

But in all reality you should follow Ishan's advice - Open Office is every bit as good and can read old Word docs. Good luck!

**Top-Tier-Tech** · March 08, 2011, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by PoleCat

Um, are you sure? I'm pretty sure he's talking about adding an old HDD to a different rig with it's own drive. If so it wouldn't need to be the boot disk as it already has one - just add the disk and then browse the folders after firing up the system.

The second drive isn't a data drive, with an OS on it I believe you need to boot into the drive to gain access to it's contents. I may be wrong about this however.

**PoleCat** · March 08, 2011, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by ChaobSiroc

The second drive isn't a data drive, with an OS on it I believe you need to boot into the drive to gain access to it's contents. I may be wrong about this however.

I see what you're saying. No, even though the second drive is/was a boot drive it doesn't actually figure into the boot sequence on the new/current rig. It's essentially a slave drive. The full file structure will be readable and there will be a redundant XP Windows\System32 folder that is not loaded during boot. He should be fully able to to pull any file off of that old drive. I've done it many times when old POS systems have died but the HDD was salvageable.

Now if he somehow changed the boot sequence to prioritize the old drive then that would be a different story and could lead to some very interesting effects.

Now this all assumes that there hasn't been a major fundamental change between Win7 and XP in the file structure. I'll admit I still haven't installed Win7 yet even though I've been staring at it for months now. I just don't have the time or inclination. Who knows - maybe that old trick won't work anymore....

**Bolkonsky** · March 09, 2011, 06:16 AM

Originally Posted by ChaobSiroc

The second drive isn't a data drive, with an OS on it I believe you need to boot into the drive to gain access to it's contents. I may be wrong about this however.

Not if he installs it as a slave drive. Just change the jumpers to what it says, and voila. I've gotten information off of old PCs that way a million times.

**Ishan** · March 08, 2011, 06:56 PM

Yes exactly you are better off with Open office.

**Ishan** · March 09, 2011, 07:13 AM

True if he is using a PATA drive that way he can add it like a normal drive.
If using SATA then simply plug into the SATA_1 port it will be assigned a slave driver.

**Bolkonsky** · March 09, 2011, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by Ishan

True if he is using a PATA drive that way he can add it like a normal drive.
If using SATA then simply plug into the SATA_1 port it will be assigned a slave driver.

D'oh. I forgot about SATA, I've been doing tons of work on my server which doesn't have it.

**Ishan** · March 09, 2011, 07:29 AM

Lol yeah i had hard time forgetting the new drive thing & i have played with PATA drives more as during the old days the 80GB etc were common which got filled up easily but now SATA drives comes with huge amounts of space 1TB etc so.....