How to transfer data from old hdd to new hdd with data already?

[DarkDubzs]

So someone wants me to transfer everything on her old hdd from her old work computer to her new work computer hdd which already is in use and has a lot data on it from regular use. She said the old one is like 3 years old, so i dont know if it is a SATA drive or an older PATA/IDE drive, but she said they gave her some adapter-not sure for what. I am pretty sure Windows is on the old hdd, and all i want to transfer are her work files and programs too, i do not want to transfer windows or have to tell her she has to re-install all her old programs. How can i do this?

I was thinking i could just plug in the old hdd along with the newer, current hdd, but i want it to boot from the new hdd and just be able to access the stuff on the old hdd. Maybe i can link the programs and files from the old hdd to the new hdd. I am also liking the idea of deleting all of windows from the old hdd so she can just access the data on the newer hdd, is that possible? I know this goal can be done, but i am just kinda unsure how to do it.

I didnt get to see her she was talking about, if it is a laptop, can i still open it and plug in the old hdd? Ive never worked with laptops, only desktops 😀

Please help me out. Any help and recommendations on how to do this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[manofchalk]

Plugging both drives into a machine and just copying everything over would work, no reason I can see that it couldnt apart from SATA/IDE incompatibility which there are adapters for.
Any programs that are installed on the old drive more than likely will need to be re-installed, especially if she was using an older version of Windows and/or 32bit.

Laptop drives you can plug into desktops just fine. With SATA its exactly the same interface, if its an IDE drive then I think it has a different physical connector on 2.5" drives.

 

[DarkDubzs]

Plugging both drives into a machine and just copying everything over would work, no reason I can see that it couldnt apart from SATA/IDE incompatibility which there are adapters for.
Any programs that are installed on the old drive more than likely will need to be re-installed, especially if she was using an older version of Windows and/or 32bit.

Laptop drives you can plug into desktops just fine. With SATA its exactly the same interface, if its an IDE drive then I think it has a different physical connector on 2.5" drives.

I am really liking the idea of just deleting Windows altogether from the old hard drive and plugging it into the new computer, then it will normally boot from the current hard drive and see the old hard drive as just a secondary file drive and she can access all the data(file and programs, etc.) from the old hard drive while normally working off her new computer. Is that possible and would it work right?

I know 2.5" laptop drives will easily fit in a desktop case, i am worrying that she has a laptop and the old hdd wont fit in the new computer if it is a laptop. And i think they gave her an IDE->SATA adapter, she said something about an adapter they gave her. She also said something about the files were incompatible, but wasnt specific, must be different versions of MSword or pdf readers, etc.? I guess i'll see, right now im worried about getting the data to be accessed, we can worry about file compatibility on the new OS later.

 

[manofchalk]

You can boot from the new drive even if the old one still has Windows on it, just make sure that the system doesn't even try to boot from the old one.
Yup, all you are doing there is just adding another drive to the system. You really could pull the old drive from the system and straight up plug it into the new one and it would work fine.

Whether the drive will fit in the new laptop depends on the drive and laptop in question. Usually laptops take 2.5" drives, but there is also the drives height to consider. Look up the compatibility of the new laptop and just measure the height of the old drive.
Its also worth questioning if the laptop can even take two internal drives, most can only fit one.

 

[DarkDubzs]

You can boot from the new drive even if the old one still has Windows on it, just make sure that the system doesn't even try to boot from the old one.
Yup, all you are doing there is just adding another drive to the system. You really could pull the old drive from the system and straight up plug it into the new one and it would work fine.

Whether the drive will fit in the new laptop depends on the drive and laptop in question. Usually laptops take 2.5" drives, but there is also the drives height to consider. Look up the compatibility of the new laptop and just measure the height of the old drive.
Its also worth questioning if the laptop can even take two internal drives, most can only fit one.

So just set the boot priority to the newer, current drive? I would be plugging in the older drive right into the system, and making sure the current, newer drive will be the drive being booted from and the main drive being worked off of. Hope you understand. I just want the current drive to work as normal and be booted from like normal and the older drive to be a secondary drive and just be able to access, read and write to the older drive, while working off the current drive as the main drive.