Can I switch hard drives w/o losing data?

The Windows XP is not working properly in my Compaq Presario laptop.

I was wondering if it was possible to take the Hard drive out of that
Compaq laptop and put it in another Laptop brand such as a Toshiba
without losing it's data, then copy it all onto DVD?


Then I could put the Compaq hard drive back into the Compaq Laptop &
restore Windows XP from scratch since I don't have any way of restoring

Windows XP without losing it's hard drive data.


Any help is appreciated.


Thanks
:)

Duncan
Wed Mar 22 05:32:06 CST 2006

In article <1143024157.296826.29820@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>,
rantr13@yahoo.com says...
> The Windows XP is not working properly in my Compaq Presario laptop.
>
> I was wondering if it was possible to take the Hard drive out of that
> Compaq laptop and put it in another Laptop brand such as a Toshiba
> without losing it's data, then copy it all onto DVD?
>
>
> Then I could put the Compaq hard drive back into the Compaq Laptop &
> restore Windows XP from scratch since I don't have any way of restoring
>
> Windows XP without losing it's hard drive data.

Imaging the drive might be a lot *easier*. You don't even need another
identical drive - just be able to create the image on another drive.

Then you can reinstall. Then install the imaging s/w - you'll then be
able to access the image file, and get (data) files you need from it.

That's all possible with Symantec Ghost - I would assume most other
imaging s/w will provide that functionality too.

--
Duncan

Steven
Wed Mar 22 14:55:56 CST 2006

You might find that easier to do with a desktop computer and the proper
adapter such as shown in the link below and then it could simply be a data
drive and not the operating system drive. If your laptop does not have a
writeable DVD/CD drive you might also consider a network adaptor to try and
access and backup your data files or a USB flash drive which you could copy
to, backup to DVD/CD somewhere, and do again until done. Beware that if you
have encrypted any files with EFS you want to back them up as clear text
files before you reinstall the operating system. It is also possible to
reinstall the operating system to the same Windows folder without formatting
the hard drive which should preserve your data files [and you probably would
have to find and take ownership of files in your original user profile] but
applications would need to be reinstalled since the new install would not
have references to them in the registry. --- Steve

http://cgi.ebay.com/USA-New-Laptop-IDE-2-5-3-5-Hard-Drive-Adaptor-44-40pin_W0QQitemZ6861126645QQcategoryZ31531QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

<rantr13@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1143024157.296826.29820@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
> The Windows XP is not working properly in my Compaq Presario laptop.
>
> I was wondering if it was possible to take the Hard drive out of that
> Compaq laptop and put it in another Laptop brand such as a Toshiba
> without losing it's data, then copy it all onto DVD?
>
>
> Then I could put the Compaq hard drive back into the Compaq Laptop &
> restore Windows XP from scratch since I don't have any way of restoring
>
> Windows XP without losing it's hard drive data.
>
>
> Any help is appreciated.
>
>
> Thanks
> :)
>