Hi. I have a new computer I built. I had Win 98 on the old machine and I understand my old HD is on the same FAT32 system. My friend told me I can plug in the old HD and use it. So I did so but XP wants to erase and format it. Is there something I am doing wrong. How can I recover my old files. If you could get back to me asap. That would be great. Thank you Danio7

Hi, How do you mean "XP wants to erase and format it",At what point is XP giving you that message?? Just a tip though , It is better to set up XP on NTFS as oposed yo FAT 32. I think if you cant get past your problem the best way would be to put your old HDD back in your old PC and use the file transfer wizard on XP to move all the old files you want to recover from your old Pc to your new one..You just need a com cable,Or just burn them to a disk. Good luck. Oz

You can use two hard drives on the same PC but I think you need to use a 'boot manager' if both HD's have an operating system. This tells the PC which to use when you start up the machine. I have only had two hard drives on one PC once. With that, (BIOS didn't see the second hard drive when it was in the original machine) but Windows in the new machine showed it up as drive letter E:\. Right clicking this new drive letter and opening, I could access the drive as though it was on another machine and copy and paste the files onto the working hard drive. (from E:\ to C:\). Someone else will be able to give you a better idea but this will give you something to think about while help comes....

You can install the old HD in the new computer. You don't need a boot manager if all you want to do is access files. IF you want to run Win 98 and WinXP, then you need a boot manager. I think what you are asking is to see that drive an copy files to the new drive. Is that correct? If so, post what kind of drives are currently in the new computer.

The drive should work fine on the XP machine. XP recognizes both NTFS and FAT drives. You might have made a cabling or plugging error. More information about the message you receive might help.

OK heres the deal. Bios doesn't see the HD. When I boot the computer up I go into my computer and there is the HD. BUT when you go and try to get into it... it wants to reformat it. I am running Win XP Home (NTFS). The old HD is on a fat32. All I want is to have my old files on the new computer. My old computer died so I cant use the transition wizard. Thank you Danio7

If the drive isn't being recognized in the BIOS, but runs, then you may not have the jumpers or cables setup correctly. Set the jumpers according to how you are connecting the drive to the cable. Two drives on one cable must have master/slave configuration. Check the ribbon cable orientation and make sure you have power connected. Don't even bother to go into windows if the drive isn't seen in the BIOS. Do you know what the BIOS is? if not, don't be embarassed by that. To enter the BIOS you need to hit a key or keys on the keyboard while the computer is booting. To see if the harddrive is configured correctly, all that is needed is to watch the POST screen at startup. However, if you don't see the drive mentioned during POST you may need to enter the BIOS and make some changes. Post how all your drives (HD and CD) are connected and jumped in this machine.