accessing an older os on a secondary drive

can anyone tell me if i can get windows xp to recognise my old hdd which was the master hdd with win98se installed.

Due to a lost motherboard i decided to upgrade to xp with a new p4 processor unfortunately the p.c won't boot with the old hdd in any setting (master,slave or cable select) i have tried the same operation on a second p.c i have running win98se(from the same original copy) and that won't boot either. i am so stuck because their is a lot of work on it that i need to access i.e invoices

please i'm so stuck

 

Yes Paul this can be done.

If this is a very small older drive it may be best to hook it up temporairly get the files and disconnect it.

To do this you could remove the case (or just a side panel if it is a tower) then just set the old hd on paper or something to support it. Don't even install in case.

Unplug your cd cable from the CD (not the motherboard) plug it into the old HD, plug up the power and it will be there when you booot if it is OK!

XP has a program to help you with this called the Files and settings transfer wizard. Run this and it will get the data and will actually move any programs that you choose and install them so that they are ready to run inXP.

I usually make a folder and call it old drive and copy all the old drive to this folder then remove the drive and put the cd cable back on then run the transfer wizard.

Mike