PC Died what are my options with old hard drive going into my new pc

instantlarry

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Old pc died what are my options putting my old hard drive into my new pc?
Iv'e been reading in several places online with some saying no way to others saying easy as pie.

old pc was 2nd gen Intel I3 with gigabite mobo, 8 gigs ram
new pc with be 4th gen I7 with gigabite mobo, 16 gigs ram

I really want to save my old hard drive it has several apps and programs on it that are no longer offered and one program has years of work on it in the program that cannot files in it cannot be used or converted without the program

My old hard drive was windows 7 on a IBUYPOWER pc

Could i use this as my main hd in new pc with everything intact?

If not and forced to use as a second hd i can get most files out but is their any way to get apps and programs out intact??

My plan was getting pc without hd or os from ecollagepc and the drivers for mobo are supplied
on a disc here is tech F&Q would that work in my case?http://www.ecollegepc.com/TechFAQ.html

Was in process of backing up all info but external card i bought off ebay was dead so the day before second one arrived the power supply on pc cought fire in case and fried mobo
i knew mobo was already going out but did not expect psu to catch fire so really bad luck

any ideas ? :)

thanks larry
 
Solution
It was a Cyberpower prebuilt, so the PSU was some cheap chinese garbage. Just hope that it going up in flames didnt kill everything attached to it.

On the new machine it should be easy as to plug in your old drive and access whats on there provided it didnt fry. You wont be able to boot off the drive because of the new hardware (if you have very similar specs, maybe), so you will need an OS set up to access the drive.
If this is an issue and your only priority is to get stuff off that drive, install a Linux Distro like Mint to a USB drive, boot off that and you should be able to access the drive.

Whether programs will run or not is iffy. In my experience programs typically do work when moving drives between machines or Windows...

snowctrl

Distinguished
WOW the PSU caught fire!?!?! Can I ask what PSU it was (so I can avoid them...)?

If you build a new PC, fit the old hard drive in and run it, it will probably work initially, but you will soon run into problems, probably when you try and install Windows Updates if not before. Hopefully this will give you enough time to get the data you need.

As for the programs.... I don't know of a way, unless they are of the type which don't have installers, in which case you can just copy them like data files

 
It was a Cyberpower prebuilt, so the PSU was some cheap chinese garbage. Just hope that it going up in flames didnt kill everything attached to it.

On the new machine it should be easy as to plug in your old drive and access whats on there provided it didnt fry. You wont be able to boot off the drive because of the new hardware (if you have very similar specs, maybe), so you will need an OS set up to access the drive.
If this is an issue and your only priority is to get stuff off that drive, install a Linux Distro like Mint to a USB drive, boot off that and you should be able to access the drive.

Whether programs will run or not is iffy. In my experience programs typically do work when moving drives between machines or Windows installs, but dont rely 100% on it to work.
 
Solution

instantlarry

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May 26, 2014
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Thanks for reply, ohh about the power supply it was a very genric brand from ca, in the city of industry but they are no longer in business as that company and ran checks on address they sold under several names but each website was dead and only phone number after going thru menu transfered me to an adult chat line:ouch:

Ok you say it should work until i have the data i need, will that be bios and chip drivers supplied with pc on a cd? like the tech info i posted, will it be something else? like what this talks about http://www.ecollegepc.com/TechFAQ.html

Thanks for reply =)
 

instantlarry

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May 26, 2014
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Thanks for reply so i will not be able to just plug in and go then becouse drivers..

so if i buy new pc that already has harddrive with windows 8.1 then i could just use old drive as external hard drive thru cables is this right? then access files but i will not be able to get programs out? is there any software that could pull it into new drive?
im at a loss one program really i must salvage i have no exe. unless its in folders for it the program is remote server based my side of it holds around 500,000 files that when used i use for 3d modeling each file is a mesh or voxel but server is active but product no longer sold or maintained so i cannot get new one for new hard drive its old program but i built my home on meshmoon with it .

thanks for reply=)
 
You can plug in the new drive as an internal drive outright, it will appear as just another drive on the system. No software required to get anything from it.

Everything on that drive before your PC went up in flames will still be there unless it also got fried. Whether the program you want works, I dont know, this is kind of just one of those situations where you wont have an answer until you do it.
 

instantlarry

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May 26, 2014
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Ok thanks for reply i will get pc with OS and hard drive and swap out and try in safe mode and see if i can if not then i just swap drives and then be forced to somehow get programs over

Thanks again and i will return to let everyone know what happened so others can gain insight on it.
 

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