Windows 8 and Windows 7

TheCheapGamer

Distinguished
Dec 14, 2013
299
0
18,860
Hello everyone.
I have recently finished building my 'new' PC ( some parts taken from my old PC )

I have recently purchased a Samsung 1TB 7200rpm HDD.

I plan on adding Windows 8 64bit to this HDD. If I plug my old HDD ( Samsung 500GB 5400rpm , Windows 7 64bit ) into the PC once everything is set up will I be able to access the files from it? Will it be readable on the PC as it is Windows 7?

Much Appreciated.
 
Solution

delellod123

Honorable
Jun 5, 2012
1,094
1
11,660
No, you will get a Blue Screen Of Death when trying to boot into the new one. If you plug it in, the computer will turn on, then bring you to a Boot Menu, at which you can choose between windows 7 or 8. This will be a black DOS looking menu. You can enter windows 8 no prob, but if you click 7, there will be issues. Either a boot loop, or a blue screen. This is because that windows is set up for your old hardware. There are drivers installed on your windows 7 to run the old hardware, once the computer sees conflicts between the drivers and new hardware, it will stop (as a means of protection).

You can enter windows 8 and use the old hard drive to store and read data from, but not as a bootable drive.
To get your windows 7 to work, you would need to enter it via safe mode, running SYSPREP. Then Enter System Out-of-Box-Experience (OOBE), select Generalize, select Shutdown Options Shutdown. Click OK
.
 

TheCheapGamer

Distinguished
Dec 14, 2013
299
0
18,860




I do apologize but my message was slightly unclear.
The new HDD with windows 8 installed on it will be used as the primary HDD. The only reason I want the old HDD to be accessible would be to get files such as games, movies and so on off of it and onto the new device. I do not want to use the old HDD to boot off of, only to access files and possibly storing data at some point. Will this work out?
 


With the computer booting to the Windows 8 drive, and using the Windows 7 drive as basically a data drive, you will be able to access some files. However things like your documents folder, music folder, etc will need to have the ownerships taken over in the securities properties panel in order for you to access them. But if you're looking to try and pull installed programs/games off of the drive and simply copy them over to the new install of 8 thats not going to fly, that stuff is going to need to be reinstalled.

If your looking to use the drive as a storage drive after you get your files off, my recomendation would be to pull all the data you want off of it, and then just format it in to a secondary do. Free's up the room from the OS your not using, and nips any confusion in the bud should you plug it in to the wrong port on your motherboard at some point in the future.
 

TheCheapGamer

Distinguished
Dec 14, 2013
299
0
18,860


The issue I have is that I am a huge gamer, with 250GB of games off of steam. So I do not have any disks to install. Another issue is that I can only afford a 2Mb line ( The equivalent to $60pm where I live ) So downloading 250GB will take ages!

Will 'program files' be a part of the files I can access off of the old HDD? And be able to transfer that across in some way? Sorry for being a drag about this topic.
 


Oh, that should be easy as. Ok so your needing to transfer your steam files from your old directory under Win7 to your new on under Win8. The folder structure will be the same so just go to where the files are on your Win7 drive and (after making sure steam is installed but not running) copy/move them to the new location on the Win8 drive. Steam will take its sweet time verifying the games integrity but thats all it should takes.

Take a look at this from steam. They're talking about a new location in a computer rather than transferring from old drive to new, but the locations and info should be the same https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129
 
Solution