Temporary hard drive swap

[BDAWBTP]

I am in the process of building a new confuser, but due to a mortgage and hungry kids, all I could afford to get so far is the mobo,cpu,vid card,ram,and case.
My question is, can I install the hard drive from the system I'm using now in my new setup till I can afford a new hard drive, without causing some kind of problem from switching it back and forth?
Will I end up having to reformat it at some point?Or should the kids eat spagetti-o's for the next two weeks, so I can buy a new one?

system specs: (new)
Abit KT7
Duron 700
Diamond Viper II 32 meg
128 megs PC133 Crucial RAM

Thats as far as I've gotten

System specs: (old)
FIC VA503+
AMD K6-2 500
VOODOO 3 2000
Quantum Fireball 6.4 gig
64 megs PC100 ram
SB 16 sound card
3com 56k modem

I will probably put the sound card in too(saving for a sound blaster live)

any advice would be appreciated

Bill

[NDC]

Personally, I would not be recommend switching the hard disk back and forth from two different mainboards. Both mainboards have different specs, so it will need to install new drivers each time the hard disk is put into one of the system. I'm sure it will cause some kind of conflict sooner or later. I would say to get a new hard disk later when you can afford to buy one.

Spagetti-o's are tasty, but please feed the kids some real food and hold off on the PC goodies!



[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 12-28-2000).]

[BDAWBTP]

That's what I thought, thanks for the reply.
Just anxious to get it up and running, but it's probably a good thing to wait, you know what happens when you rush things.
And as much as the kids would like it , spagetti-os are out.
At least I'll have plenty of time to learn the user manual.
Thanks again,
Bill

Oh yeah, when I got my new case, inside the box was a pair of white cotton gloves, do those help to control static? This had me scratching my head.

[zskillz]

although I wouldn't recommend doing it (cause you never know what could happen), it certainly shouldn't be a major problem. In fact, I've done that with several of my systems for various reasons. Each time though, I've either had the important info backed up on disks or there was nothing important on there anyway (usually the case http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif)

How many times do you plan on switching it back and forth??

-Z

btw-I still eat spagetti-o's and I'm a 22yr. old college kid!!

[Dave_H]

I don't recomend it either but I have done it before. I had everything backed up just in case and wasn't worried about loosing anything.
I did it using Win-98, using 2 different hardware profiles. If you create a second hardware profile, you get a boot menu at startup prompting you for what profile you want the system to use.
This can be found under
Control Panel\System Properties\Hardware Profile.
The risk would be in picking the wrong profile and having the system lock up when it found a different hardware configuration.
I would reccomend that you wait, but if it were me, I'd be dying to try my new box. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif
Dave

[CMonster]

I've done it.

Copy the chipset drivers from the new motherboard CD to a folder on your hard disk before swaping the drive over to the other system because you will likely not be able to access the cdrom drive until these drivers are loaded.

DO NOT LET THE KIDS EAT CANNED CRUD FOR THE SAKE OF UPGRADING!

Dump the 503+ as fast as you can - what a POS that board is!!!!!! I had several!!!

[BDAWBTP]

First of all, I was just kidding about the spagetti-o's.

I am not having any probs with the VA503+
It was a little frustrating to setup being the first computer I've ever built, but once I figured it out, it has been pretty reliable. I will pass it on to the kids once I have the new one running.
Another question comes to mind.
I have an Iomega Zip CD 650 CD-RW, which I plan to install on the new computer. I want to use this as my primary CD-ROM also. But it says that I have to install the software first before I install the hardware. Do I have to install my old cd-rom to get the files on the hard drive , then uninstall it to use the cdrw?
By the way, I've decided to wait for the new hard drive.
Thanks
Bill

[Fingers]

I have a Zip CD 650 CD-RW also. It was originally installed on a computer with another CD-Rom and I followed their directions and installed the software first, but when I built this one, I just stuck it in and installed the CD-software afterward. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[BDAWBTP]

Thanks for the info Fingers. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif