Dell 530 how to slave old Hard Drive

W

WireYourWorld

New Member
Hi all. Thanks in advance for bearing with me on this, I'm not a complete idiot (I don't think) but I have very little knowledge in installing computer hardware correctly.

I have a Dell 530 Core 2 Duo with Windows Vista and the mother board died. Under someones suggestion, I went on ebay, found and purchased another Dell 530, this one is Core 2 Quad and upgraded to Windows 7.

I would like to put my old hard drive on my new computer presumably as a slave drive. "I would like" is as far as I have gotten with that. What I need and hope you can provide are simple to read step by step instructions of how I accomplish this. I think I can grasp how to physically remove the old hard drive and slide it into the slot in the new computer, but as to what should plug where, sliding pins, rebooting, recognizing, partitioning and all that, I'm lost. What I have found online is usually not specific enough and assumes knowledge I don't have. Can anyone walk me through this?
 
I'm assuming it's a SATA drive, in which case all you need to do is get another SATA cable and just plug it in.
 
oh I see, there is another slot that another cord will plug into? In which case I can use the cord from my old computer. But what about the blue one?
 
perhaps I'm not clear. I have figured out that the blue cord actually operates the dvd drive. I guess I have to buy another sata cord as the one in the old computer appears to be wired into the power pack, is that correct? I am to buy a new cord, plug one end into the hard drive and one end into the spare slot on the mother board?
 
ok now I'm even more confused the more I read online. Which one is the SATA cable? Is it the multi colored bundle of wires one or is it the blue one? Are the multi ones the power cable? Do I use the extra plug on the new hard drive to plug into the old hard drive for the power and the blue cable plugs into the black port next to the other blue port on the motherboard?

When I said step by step I was not joking.
 
The multi-cable cords are for power. The one coming from the DVD drive is a SATA cable. You can just pull the SATA cable out of your old computer.

Power is on the left here and data is on the right.
7-7%20-%20SATA%20connectors.jpg


And then the data cable plugs into a slot like this on the motherboard.
200px-SATA_ports.jpg


And I'm sorry, there is no step by step. You just do it.
 
some day I'm going to have to rewrite every instruction manual in the world so that they actually instruct. "Just doing it" is just guessing in my book. I'm guessing to plug the extra blue cable into the slot right next to the other blue cable. hope it doesn't blow up.
 
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