Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Moving a Hard Drive From an Old Computer to a New One

Tags:
  • HIS
  • Hard Drives
  • Computers
  • Storage
  • Windows 8
  • Windows Vista
Last response: in Storage
Share
October 7, 2014 7:56:08 PM

I know this is a stupid question, but hard drives are the one computer part I know practically nothing about. I just built a new pc for my grandpa to replace his old vista pc. I want to take the hard drive from his vista, keep all the data except for vista, and use it as a second HDD for the new computer. I have a new hard drive to run Windows 8 on. How can I do this without deleting his data.

More about : moving hard drive computer

a b G Storage
a b * Windows 8
October 7, 2014 7:58:18 PM

well, you can try putting it in, and when asked if you want to upgrade the OS or just wipe the hdd and re-instal, choose upgrade. there may be compatability issues though. also, if he is used to windows vista, id advise getting either windows 7 or 8.1 :p 
m
0
l
October 7, 2014 8:16:20 PM

Danbuscus25 said:
well, you can try putting it in, and when asked if you want to upgrade the OS or just wipe the hdd and re-instal, choose upgrade. there may be compatability issues though. also, if he is used to windows vista, id advise getting either windows 7 or 8.1 :p 


I am using 8.1. Can I boot 8 off of the New hard drive and just plug in the old hardrive?
m
0
l
Related resources
a b G Storage
a b * Windows 8
October 7, 2014 8:18:29 PM

that should work aswell, but again, there may be compatibility issues.
m
0
l
a c 365 G Storage
October 7, 2014 8:25:18 PM

It should work just fine. Two suggestions to avoid problems:

1. When assembling the new system and installing Win 8.1, the Install step should be carried out with ONLY the NEW HDD installed. Having only one HDD in the machine at Install time avoids an obscure future issue if another HDD fails. AFTER Win 8.1 is installed and running, you can shut down and install the old HDD.

2. When you do install the old HDD, I suggest you boot immediately into BIOS Setup and go to where you set the Boot Priority Sequence. Make sure it is set to boot from (maybe your optical drive first and ...) your NEW HDD, but there is NO mention of the old HDD in the boot sequence. This will prevent the machine from even trying to boot Vista from the old HDD.

The old HDD should show up immediately in My Computer with its own new drive letter, and you should have full access to all old files on it. If it does not, post back here what you do see.
m
0
l
!