im planning on upgrading my parent's computer to an up to date one.
However...they want all their original files...pictures...programs...etc... still there.
They have an old IBM Aptiva w/ a AMDK7 500 mhz processor. I beleive they have a 20 gb hard drive prob at 5400 rpm or maybe even slower since their computer is from 1998-1999. Their OS is WINDOWS 98(prob SE version)
FAT-32 probably (another guess)

-Is it possible to just transfer hard drive to the newer computer without messing with any of the files??
-Or will i have to backup everything on cds?? which is to inconvenient

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!

I assume you are going to fit an new hard drive. The easiest and safest way is to remove of disconnect the old hard drive altogether. Install the new hard drive, partion and format and reinstall the OS. Once the computer is up and running with the new hard drive, re-connect the old hard drive as a slave and all the data will be there. You can the delete the old Windows installation on that drive to give you some space.

The file system will be FAT32 on both the old drive and the new drive. Thats all Win98 can handle along with FAT16 which is backward compatible.

You will need to reinstall your programmes though so you will need the installation files and driver files.

If you are reinstaling the old hard drive in a new computer and not a new one then just connect the hard drive. You will need to re-install the OS over the top of the existing Windows installation so it can re-register the new hardware.

There are other ways of doing it, but this is probably the safest and less prone to error if you have data files that are important. 20 Gbs of data could take a lot of CDs and there is the possibilty of making an mistake and losing your data. These forums testify to that.

Stuart

Your parents aren't going to care whether it is more efficient to use a newer hard drive as drive C. They also aren't going to care if they still use Win 98/98SE rather than (the sloth) Win XP.

The simplist way to go is use their C drive from the old computer as C on the new one. No fuss, no muss. A 20 gig drive from 1999 isn't that much slower than today's drives anyway. Oh sure - cache sizes on the drives, sometimes rpm, and UDMA ratings have gone up, but UDMA ratings are only burst speeds and they are not used all the time - if the old drive is UDMA-33 or better, there isn't that much difference. Your parents aren't going to do anything to test those better features anyway.

Windows 98 will have to accomodate to the new mboard the first times you boot, and you will have to load the drivers for the new mboard, but other than that, no files will be changed.

Eventually you may want to change over to XP because of waning support for Win 98/98SE, and Stuart's suggestions are as good as any, since you'll be re-installing everything anyway (though some things will have to be upgraded or replaced to work in XP), but you could certainly try this for the time being.

Mike, isn't it more difficult than that? There's the sound, graphic, and modem drivers for start. Then there's the configuration files for software programs that were set at the programs' installation. It just simply doesn't work to remove an active hard drive and placing it into another computer, unless the two computers have identical hardware.

My suggestion is to save your parents' personal files (photos, documents, etc.) on a CD. Then re-install their software from scratch on the new computer. I think you'll have fewer problems.

Or after the new computer is set up, install the old hard drive as a Slave drive on the new computer. You'll be able to access any of their files, but you'll still have to re-install their software.

Best Luck,
Bob

Win 98/98SE will automatically find that there is new hardware, it's just a matter of installing drivers for things that have changed. If you can use some of the pieces from the old system on the new, those things won't need to be changed in Win 98. You would have to do that anyway, for everything, if you did it Stuart's way.

"It just simply doesn't work to remove an active hard drive and placing it into another computer, unless the two computers have identical hardware. "

It does work, I've done it several times. It's a heck of a lot less work than an install from scratch. You do have to install drivers for some things that were not on the older computer, including drivers for the new mboard itself.
You may also have to re-set some software settings that depend on hardware settings.
However, most of your software does not require re-configuration or re-installation.

You would have to re-install everthing if you switched to XP, and some of it, and possibly some hardware from the older computer, will not work with XP.

thanks everyone!