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annapanagiot 0 Newbie Poster

Hi

I've just bought the Samsung HD502IJ hard disk and I am
trying to install it myself. My old HD had a 'disk failure',
and what I am trying to do is make the Samsung be the master
HD, install windows XP on it, then connect the old HD as slave
and try to save as many files as possible from it.

These are the photos of my old HD as it is installed at the
moment:

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq335
/annapanagiot/WD_harddisk_photo1.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq335
/annapanagiot/WD_harddisk_photo2.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq335
/annapanagiot/WD_harddisk_cables.jpg

And these are the photos of my new HD:

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq335
/annapanagiot/samsung_HD502IJ_photo1.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq335
/annapanagiot/samsung_HD502IJ_photo2.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq335
/annapanagiot/samsung_HD502IJ_cables.jpg

Here are my questions:

1. I've marked with red an extension of the power cable of my old HD,
that goes somewhere in the motherboard behind some other cables.
The power cable that came with the Samsung (see photo above) does
not have this extra extension. If I use the new power cable do I
let the old extra-cable be connected or not? (does anyone know what is
it used for?).

2. Since I don't know many things about hardware, I did a bit of research
and found out that my new Samsung HD does not need to be configured
as master (or slave for that matter) since it's SATA-II. Therefore
I don't change the pin settings. Is this correct?
After the Windows XP installation, how do I connect the old HD?
Do I have to set the old HD as a slave first? If yes, as you can see
the pins do not have any connectors... Do I connect it with the Samsung
HD as well?

Is there anything else I should know?

please be patient with me!

any help would be appreciated
many thanks in advance

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Dani AI

Generated

— short, practical plan and a few checks based on your photos and goals.

First, install Windows XP on the Samsung with the old drive disconnected so the installer only sees the new disk. If Windows XP setup cannot see the SATA disk, switch the motherboard SATA mode to IDE/Compatibility in BIOS while installing (or supply the SATA/AHCI driver via F6 during setup). After a clean XP install and updates, shut down and attach the old drive for file recovery. For the hardware basics, see differences between interfaces: Serial ATA and Parallel ATA.

About the mysterious extra power lead: identify connectors visually before swapping anything. SATA power is a flat 15‑pin plug; older drives use the large 4‑pin Molex. The extra lead in your case is likely part of the PSU/case wiring or a power tap for another bay, not a special motherboard connection. If unsure, trace it to the PSU or the front-bay connector rather than guessing; images and labels on the drive usually tell you where jumpers go. See the Molex connector overview here: Molex connector.

If the old HDD is an IDE (ribbon) drive, jumpers only matter when two IDE devices share the same ribbon; a SATA drive will not share that cable. If the jumper block or shunt is missing, either obtain a small replacement jumper or use an external USB‑to‑IDE/SATA adapter to copy files (this avoids altering your system and is safer for a failing disk). If the old drive is physically failing, try to image it (read‑only) first with recovery tools rather than browsing and copying directly.

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