Will HD from Win98 computer work on XP-Pro?

[Davermonk]

My current computer runs Win'98. My new system will have XP-Pro. I have a slave HD on my current system that I want to add to the new one. Can I simply take it out of the old computer and put it into the new one? (it doesn't have the system files, only misc. data that I want to keep)

It's a 40GB HD and Win'98 has it partitioned into 6 separate drives. Will XP be able to read from the drive or will it have to be reformatted before it will work?

I have network cards in both computers. Can I (should I) just plug old computer into new computer, copy all of the data from #1 to #2, and then reformat #1?

[Bizkitkid2001]

I think you will have to format it if it has any programs that were in the win98 registry. If you don't the programs might not work.

[Ryan S]

All data on the drive will be accessible. Some installed programs may not work. If it just has data (files accessible by other programs, like mp3's, word processing documents, picture files, movies, etc.) then there shouldn't be any problems at all accessing the data. The best way to tell is to hook up the drive and see what you can do. As long as you don't repartition (with windows' utilities) or format the drive during the process, the drive can be returned to the original computer if you change your mind. If there are any programs installed on the hard drive that don't work, they will just have to be reinstalled under the new operating system (if there is a partition that is all programs that don't work and no data, I would recommend formatting that partition before reinstalling).

Unless you already have the networking set up to share files between the systems (or you are familiar with how it is done), it would be easier to just place the drive in the XP machine (and file transfer will be faster). If you want to format and repartition the drive, you can transfer the files to the XP hard drive before you do and then transfer them back at the end (with both drives in the XP system; again, file transfer will be faster, although there will be some loss of performance if both hard drives are on the same IDE channel, it should still be faster than NICs).

When it comes down to it, you can pick either method if you want or need to transfer the files. But WinXP will have no problems reading and accessing a Win98 drive.

[Shinta]

yes it will work but some programs might not work properly.. why dont you partition the drive? o_O