try putting it in the freezer for a couple of days should be good for about 20-25 minutes to get data off of

Do you have windows installed on the new hard drive? Refer to the guide I sent you to make sure thats done. THIS NEEDS TO BE DONE FIRST BEFORE TRYING TO GET DATA OFF THE DRIVE IN YOUR CASE.

Next once you get the new hard drive up and running with the operating system (windows xp) you can plug the other hard drive in in Port 1 where as the new hard drive will be in Port 0

at that point you simply copy and paste the data you want over to the NEW hard drive from the old. odds are it wont lock up nearly as bad..or at least we can hope.

Sorry, I forgot to refer back to the forum, I'm presently on Michael'* pc, but at the moment we only have one hard drive in, (new one) and it'* formating at the moment. I'll check back here in about 15 minutes since I need to find some meds.

yeah but if it'* set as slave it shouldnt lock up at all...

And the freezer idea works but leave it in for 24 hours and you will be great

ok once you get the new OS on there, attempt to load the drivers (if you have problems, let me know)....then we are ready to plug in the old hard drive to copy the data from to the new drive.

Right about now, It should look similar to this:

Ok, Mick was nice enough to get the pc back up and running. Now I have a question for Hans, I can't connect to the internet on the pc that I changed the hard drive, I believe it says I need the driver for the ethenet controller. As it stands now and not related to the internet, it also says I have problems with mulitmedia Audio controller, PCI input device and video controller (vga compatable). I think I need drivers for those also. I have installed all the resource cd'* and they don't seem to be on them.


Thanks

Then, if that doesn't work, try the oven at about 250*. Again, only use the freezer/oven method once the HD has completely died.

I've already managed to swope hard drives, I'm not reinstalling software. At present, I have internet, I'm now trying to figure out how to install the drivers for the video card. I don't have the disc for that, so I'm online trying to find it through dell.

you should have a "sound blaster" CD that came with the system.

that is for audio, the video drivers and all other drivers are on the blue CD:





Any luck getting the data back from the old drive?

Thanks for the reply Hans, yes I did manage to get approximatly 75% of what I wanted. The rest is history. I tired using those discs mentioned above but they don't seem to be on them. I found a 256 Meg video card driver on the tech site so I'll try dowloading it I just hope it'* the right one. I only have about 9 more programs to install. I think I'm going to take a break since my eye'* have gone .............................blood shot.

Before I go, I have a yellow question mark beside "PCI Input device" location PCI Slot 2 (PCI bus 4, device 1, function 1). It says I don't have the drivers installed for that one also and I can't find them on the discs. I can download but I don't even know what the heck it is.
The same thing with "Multimedia Audio Controller" PCI Slot 2 (PCI bus 4, device 1, function 0).