HD is dead or dying, need to transfer to external

[PassNthru]

i figure i need to transfer the present data i have to another Hard Drive if i can get this one started again.

i just had everything shipped from west TN to Winston-Salem NC.. we just got the RoadRunner hooked up it and now when i start my 3 year old Compaq Preserio 2.6Ghz it clicks and rev's... clicks and rev's... clicks and rev's.... it froze and started clicking and reving the first time, after using the new roadrunner for day or so.

i have another old HP 8670c Pavilion i put XP into.. it now also freezes after 10 to 30 minutes of use.. and i have to unplug it to shut it off.

i figure i need to transfer everything out of the Compaq if i can get it started again... to an external hard drive. do i have to put a new XP program in the external or can i get everything sent to the new external HD. how do i do that..?

the Xp in the Compaq does not have a backup program, and everything doesnt transfer to CD's...

i am on the old HP, at least 8 or 10 years old, the wife bought it used.. the last time i restarted it after unpluging it i lost the explorer 7 program i put into it.. dont know where it went..

thank you for any help ... gary

[Ob1]

here's my recommendation

if you can figure out whats wrong with your HP pc and can keep it running then, shut it down, open up the case and put the compaq hard drive in the pc, make sure you jumper it correctly and attach it either to the ide cable either with the hard drive (jumper it to slave) or attach it to the end cd rom ide cable (again put it on slave or if you pull the cable out of the cd rom then you can put it on cable select) connect the power cable to the hard drive and boot up your machine. go into the bios and make sure you can see the drive listed in there, if not then you might have look for a setting that turns on another IDE channel for the hard drive. then boot to windows, the busted hard drive if it works should show up in my computer, from there go through and pick and choose what you want, but i wouldnt be to picky cause time is of the essence since they drive is ready to fail if it hasnt already, and copy them over to your hp hard drive.

if you cant seem to find the hard drive because its dead, i recommend this but only do it once, wrap your hard drive in a hand towel and put it in a plastic bag, then put the dead drive in your freezer and let it sit for 20-30 minutes. then run it over to your hp machine and install it and try to get it to boot, you might get you might not. i read this some where, probably on this forum i can't remember,

if not one last thing you could do is send it in to a hard drive recovery specialist, but they can charge you $$$$$ to recover you files so you need to decide how valuable your data is, or try a cheap recovery program. maximum pc recommends this hard drive recovery program

file scavenger
www.quetek.com

it costs $50 but its a hell of a lot cheaper then sending it in to some specialist

[glc]

On both computers, shut them down and open them up. Reseat ALL cables, something may have jarred loose in the move.