# Adding a hard drive

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/adding-a-hard-drive/200935>\
**Category:** random\
**Created:** [September 16, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/adding-a-hard-drive/200935 "2006-09-16T20:26:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dude9er](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@dude9er](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/dude9er)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/adding-a-hard-drive/200935/1 "2006-09-16T20:26:12Z")

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My old computer’s motherboard got fried and I ended up having to buy a new computer. I’m trying to install my old hard drive into my new computer as a backup drive and retrieve my old design files. I’ve hit a wall (not knowing much about installing drives). The old drive uses a ribbon cable (with what looks like a serial connector) and it had the capability/options of using the SLAVE or MASTER connectors. The new drive does not include or use this ribbon cable. It has a power connection and a master connection, without the SLAVE/MASTER option.

How do I install my old drive and make it a SLAVE to the new master drive. How do I convert the installation cables to make them both compatible? Can someone help with some leads, or explanations etc? Is this possible to do?

Thanks in advance for any help, I appreciate it!