windows to mac mini with bad boot file

[nunes013]

so my dads desktop at home seems to have finally died. it is stuck in a constant reboot cycle and won't boot to the login screen. its an old asus single core cpu with 1 gb ram. anyway i think have finally got him to buy the mac mini bc he wanted to do this eventually anyway and doesn't feel like dealing with this stuff anymore. whats the best way to get the files from the old hard onto the new mini if the old ones boot file is corrupt.

EDIT: the operating system is windows xp home edition under spa and the hard drive is a western digital. i can't tell the connector without opening it up.

 

[YanniDepp]

Find out the type of connector it uses (the BIOS might be able to tell you), and buy a really cheap IDE to USB converter or SATA to USB converter. Connect it to your hard drive, and plug it in to the Mac.

 

[nunes013]

Find out the type of connector it uses (the BIOS might be able to tell you), and buy a really cheap IDE to USB converter or SATA to USB converter. Connect it to your hard drive, and plug it in to the Mac.

cool thanks. i didn't know they had that. i found one that does both sata and IDE. ill check tonight and we are going tomorrow to buy the mini.

 

[nunes013]

i just got the adaptor in the mail today. i took the hard drive out of the old computer and plugged in the adaptor. the old HD is an IDE interface. i plugged the IDE on the adaptor into the HD and the power into the hard drive. when i do this the hard drive spins up, makes a clicking sound. spins down, then repeats everything. it keeps doing this but nothing else and the mac does not see anything. does this mean the drive failed or is there a chance to get out the information. we did make a backup but there is newer information that is not on the backup.

 

[smithrh]

i just got the adaptor in the mail today. i took the hard drive out of the old computer and plugged in the adaptor. the old HD is an IDE interface. i plugged the IDE on the adaptor into the HD and the power into the hard drive. when i do this the hard drive spins up, makes a clicking sound. spins down, then repeats everything. it keeps doing this but nothing else and the mac does not see anything. does this mean the drive failed or is there a chance to get out the information. we did make a backup but there is newer information that is not on the backup.

Sounds like a dead drive, sadly. Run into just this scenario one too many times... When using a good drive with the adaptor, it'll spin up and mount right away.

If you have one, try a known good hard drive just to make sure your adapter is working OK. It probably is but it's worth a try.

 

[nunes013]

Sounds like a dead drive, sadly. Run into just this scenario one too many times... When using a good drive with the adaptor, it'll spin up and mount right away.

If you have one, try a known good hard drive just to make sure your adapter is working OK. It probably is but it's worth a try.

i did this last night. it did work with my laptop drive. but the weird part was my dad actually was playing around with it and got it to spin up when the usb cable was not plugged into the computer but the second the usb cable went in it went back to to its old ways. he was able to produce it twice but not again.