Wiping a hard drive from a different computer

toolzers · Dec 30, 2013

Hello, I'm an avid gamer and recently I've found out that my windows 7 is 32 bit

. My computer is custom made (1st time) and I thought about connecting my hard drive from my old computer to my current one, clean wipe it, then install a new 64 bit OS onto it and move all my files to the new OS hard drive. Can I pull this off? Is there a better method? If so how would I do this? I'm a novice when it comes to this so any help would be invaluable. Thank you in advance

USAFRet · Dec 30, 2013

Far too complex and failure prone.

You can't just 'move' your applications onto a different drive and hope that they work. Some will, some won't. And some may work, but not fully.

Gather your application disks and install files.
Install Win 7 64 on the existing drive.
Reinstall all your applications. Some of them will need to know they are now on a 64bit system.

aldan · Dec 30, 2013

not a bad idea and totally doable.

corroded · Dec 30, 2013

have you copied off all "your stuff"? If so, just install the 64bit using the custom options and delete all the partitions from the driver before installing.

USAFRet · Dec 30, 2013

aldan :

Files, yes. Applications, not so much.

corroded · Dec 30, 2013

++ USAF... Files, as in Profile Desktop, Documents, Music... NOT programs.

toolzers · Dec 31, 2013

Hmmm i see, just moving my files are fine (music and some documents primarily) I can reinstall all my applications. So if I were to just move my files how would I pull this off???

USAFRet · Dec 31, 2013

toolzers :

So - the easiest way is to do a little bit of prep work before.

On the old PC, create a few new folders. MyDocs, MyMusic, etc.
Copy ALL the files, not the top level folder, from Documents to that new MyDocs, etc.
Once the new PC (64bit) is built and everything is running OK, either connect via LAN, or take that hard drive out of the old PC. Then copy those files from MyDocs, etc into the Documents on the new PC.

Why make those new folders first? Because the "Documents" folder is tied via NTFS permissions to that original user. Just the folder....not the actual files. If you try to access it via the new user on the 64bit system, you'll run into "Access is Denied". Yes, you can take ownership, but moving the files out from under that permissions sidesteps that little issue.

toolzers · Dec 31, 2013

Thank you. I'm planning to install my old hard drive onto my new computer and write my OS from there. Is that possible? If I manage to do that then how could I transer my files between 2 harddrives with different files?

USAFRet · Dec 31, 2013

toolzers :

What do you mean "write my OS from there" ?
If you're moving to 64bit, that is a full new installation.

toolzers · Dec 31, 2013

I mean do everything from one computer

USAFRet · Dec 31, 2013

toolzers :

I'm still not getting it.
The drive with the 32bit OS has nothing to do with installing the 64bit OS on another drive, in another PC.

Build the new PC. Install the drive, OS, and applications. Then copy your personal files (procedure from above) onto the new HDD.

toolzers · Jan 5, 2014

Will I need to clean wipe the old hard drive though? OR can I just plug in the old hard drive and use it along side with my 64 bit SSD

USAFRet · Jan 5, 2014

toolzers :

You don't have to. But an applications on it almost certainly won't work, though. They'll just be taking up space.

toolzers · Jan 5, 2014

hm ic how would I wipe all the unnecessary files then? Just delete them?

USAFRet · Jan 5, 2014

toolzers :

Yes

toolzers · Jan 5, 2014

ok thanks a lot

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