Moving a hard drive without an OS between two computers

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carriwitchety

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Aug 10, 2014
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If I were to build a computer and put the OS (say, Windows 7) on one hard drive, and put everything else (like pictures, music, and other programs) on a separate drive, would I be able to move the second drive to a different pc in the future with Windows 8 (or some newer version) installed on a separate boot drive?

Would I be able to access the data on the second drive easily, or would it need to be transferred some other way?

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
volcanoscout
If you transfer the second non-OS drive, the files will be accessible but any programs that aren't standalone (portable) will have to be reinstalled on the new system in order to run. If there are user profiles, saved games, etc, that you want to preserve, there are ways to do it but you'll have to check for each program.

When you do a reinstall, many programs will detect those files and do what's basically a program repair instead of a full install - it will retain the files that are present and just make the necessary changes to the Windows registry and user profile. Other programs will just over-write the present files, but prior to installing you can save key files in a separate location, then when the install is complete you...
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mohit_24041991

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Dec 6, 2008
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if u r using using your second HDD as storage device it won't be a problem u can store data like pictures, music, and other programs (software) but don't install any program on that hard disk or it will create problem in future
 
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volcanoscout

volcanoscout

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Jan 5, 2014
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If you transfer the second non-OS drive, the files will be accessible but any programs that aren't standalone (portable) will have to be reinstalled on the new system in order to run. If there are user profiles, saved games, etc, that you want to preserve, there are ways to do it but you'll have to check for each program.

When you do a reinstall, many programs will detect those files and do what's basically a program repair instead of a full install - it will retain the files that are present and just make the necessary changes to the Windows registry and user profile. Other programs will just over-write the present files, but prior to installing you can save key files in a separate location, then when the install is complete you can copy and paste the key files back into the appropriate directory folder. Every program is different, so you'll have to do some research.
 
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carriwitchety

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Aug 10, 2014
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Thank you!
 
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volcanoscout

volcanoscout

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Jan 5, 2014
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De nada
 
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