Can I use old hard drive in a newly built computer?

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mokktarr

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I am thinking about building a pc from one of those newegg bundles, but I want to use the hard drive from my old dell. The cpu fried but I think the hard drive is still good.

is it possible to just plug it in to a new pc and have it recognize all the new parts?

Thanks for your help. :)
 
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Math Geek
the games would be the only thing that has to installed on the new drive. get the new drive running with windows installed and then put in the second drive. now make a folder on the second drive and put all your data into it such as pics, music, videos and this type stuff. now delete EVERYTHING else on the drive to get rid of the windows installation, programs and all that stuff as it is not needed anymore and wasting space.

the programs will not transfer and will need to be reinstalled including your games. if any save games are kept locally then they will need to be backed up to be kept. if you use steam or origin for games those saves are in the cloud and will be there when you reinstall.

and finally, the os version does not...
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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you can use it in the new build but it will need to be formatted and a fresh copy of windows installed. it won't simply boot up and run with new hardware.

you can reuse the drive but not the windows installation. just format it at install time and it'll be good to go.
 
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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you don't have to lose your data. you can back it up or create a second partition on the drive and move everything over depending on how much space is used and free.

if the data is on a second partition, you can format the c: and all your data will be safe and sound on the d: even though they are on the same physical drive. programs will have to be reinstalled but there is no reason to lose any pics, music, videos ..... you may have.

how big is your hdd? how much free space is there and how much data will you want to back-up? it is pretty easy in win 7 and above to create a partition. won't take but a couple minutes.
 
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mokktarr

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Ohhh ok good deal. The drive is sitting in a dead computer atm. I have a ton of pictures and games and videos on there I would like to not lose.

So if I just use it as a storage drive, my new computer will read and be able to get to my old files? And does it need the same OS in order to do that?
 
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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the games would be the only thing that has to installed on the new drive. get the new drive running with windows installed and then put in the second drive. now make a folder on the second drive and put all your data into it such as pics, music, videos and this type stuff. now delete EVERYTHING else on the drive to get rid of the windows installation, programs and all that stuff as it is not needed anymore and wasting space.

the programs will not transfer and will need to be reinstalled including your games. if any save games are kept locally then they will need to be backed up to be kept. if you use steam or origin for games those saves are in the cloud and will be there when you reinstall.

and finally, the os version does not matter. put whatever you will be using on the new drive and the second one will be fine as it won't be booting up. just delete that second drive's windows install as soon as you can to save the space.
 
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