Need help getting things off existing HD


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Hey all -

I've found myself in a pretty odd situation, so please excuse the nature of this question if it's a bit ridiculous.

My main computer (used for work, school, etc) has seemingly been on the fritz for months lately, so two weeks ago I decided it was time for an upgrade. I bought a new pc with the intention of using Easy Transfer to migrate everything from my old computer to my new computer. The new build came in last week, but I never got a chance to sit down and take it out of the box until this morning. Keep in mind that I had continued to use my existing (old) computer up until last night.

I got everything setup this morning with the new pc and placed the old pc on the other side of the room so I could use a Ethernet cable to facilitate the transfer process. (Of course) the old PC decided today would be the day it failed to start. The fan would blast off upon power up and the computer would fail to boot. I know that the HDD is fine -- it's always seemed like there was some kind of electrical issue with the old PC, that even with cleaning and on the first boot of the day (I turn everything off @ night) the fan would run constantly. Regardless, at this point I was fairly frustrated and began taking apart the old PC.

I'm wondering if there is anyway to swap out my existing HDD with the hard drive in my spare (working) computer in the basement, just for a few hours so I have enough time to transfer everything off. The problem is that the current HDD has windows 7 already installed, and in my quick test (didn't bother mounting it just plugged it in) my basement computer would continuous reboot while on the win7 startup screen. Booting into safe mode also yielded the same result. I can get into the windows 7 diagnostic tool where I can restore, etc, but I don't want to do anything to compromise all the **** I need to get off first.

Is it possible for me to get this HDD to run in this other computer in its current (existing) state?

thanks all!

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"Is it possible for me to get this HDD to run in this other computer in its current (existing) state?"

Run?? Yes you can just connect the drive to your new machine, if your new machine has the correct connection. Ie is the old drive PATA or SATA? Or a great little device to have in your toolbelt is a USB cable you can connect any sort of drive to your machine via usb. 2.5, 3.5, PATA or SATA, etc. etc.

EXAMPLE

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156017

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