Had been using an old 486 running Win95 until a failed cooling fan fried the CPU- so it was certainly time to get up to date. Got a new Pent4 running XP. The hard drive in the 486 had been replaced 2 years ago- so it was fairly new. Is it feasible to move the old drive into the new machine as backup space? Would XP be able to read the old Win95 files on it?

i think maybe and maybe not your other drive probably has enough space anyway what gigs mb are these drives ?

a cpu and fan for a 486 could ony cost maybe 5 dollars used somewhere check ebay

Thanks for answering- yeah that was my first idea- ressurect the old machine long enough to pull the data and then trash it-- just thought it would be quicker to move the drive if it would work. I've got 80 gigs in the new Dell- the old drive was only about 10 gigs.

Go ahead and connect it as a slave...just be sure to set the jumpers on it. It should read it just fine, imo. 80 Gigs ain't much compared to new drives...it is a lot Besides...most folks don't of 80 gigs worth of created files to back up anyways....just be sure to back up your most critical stuff to a CD periodically too.

Since this Dell has 512MB RAM and an 80GB drive I think you got the Dimension 8400 (good choice) or a 4700 upgraded. The Dimension 2400 and 3000 do not have the same hardware as the higher models. A new Dell uses SATA drives and so it only has one IDE connector. You can attach two IDE devices to a single IDE connector. Your Dell likely came with, at least, a single CD or DVD drive. If it has two then you won't be able to attach the 10GB drive without getting an IDE to SATA adapter (~$25). The 10GB drive is not worth the extra investment. Having a second hard drive, even if only 10GB, is good to have for working with video files. When working with video files it is better to save and work with the files when they are not on the same drive as the application you are using to perform the task. However, the drive must be able to sustain a data transfer rate of 4MB per second to work with video files. It is also good for backing up data files or possibly a compressed image of your C: drive using Ghost or a similar utility. Rather then putting money into the 10GB drive (if needed) you would be better off to buy an additional 80GB (or greater) directly from Dell that matches your current drive for ~$70 (plus the cable ~$5). The 10GB drive is likely a 5400 RPM drive and may be able to sustain the rate needed . SATA drives can sustain between 40 and 50 MB/sec or about ten times faster. I personally prefer having a secondary hard drive for a few reasons and one of them is that I do dabble with video editing. Otherwise just leave it as is. 80GB will last a fairly long time (unless you work with videos). HTH Bryan