Retaining data on non-OS hard drives with a new build

bobrea

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I've got a question I'm not too sure on. MY current set up has my OS and most used programs on an SSD. I have two other 1TB hard drives for games and movies. I'm going to be buying a new CPU/MOBO/RAM combo in the coming weeks and I'm curious as to what I'll have to do.

I know I'll have to wipe my SSD and reinstall Windows, no problem there.
But I have almost a TB of games on one hard drive (Steam, as well as a huge emulator suite) and all movies/music on the other drive. Will I have to do anything in order for my fresh install of Windows 7 to recognize everything or will I end up having to uninstall Steam and reinstall every game, remap every program that's installed on hard drive 2? Will I have to reformat this second hard drive? I'm not worried about the third hard drive because I don't have any programs on it, so linking the three folders on there is easy enough.

Thanks for the help,
Bob
 

bobrea

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But what about other programs on that HDD? I can't think of what's on it off the top of my head, but the Steam client is already installed on there, so do I just open the steam directory once I have windows up and run it from there? Can I do that with any other program on the hard drive? I guess I'm wondering if it's worth just formatting the drive and starting over if it's going to be a pain in the ass to get all the other programs up and running as well.
 

bobrea

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Well the SSD isn't new. It's the same one I have now, I'm just upgrading my CPU and motherboard and RAM. I'm assuming I'll need to reinstall Windows after that, right? I can't imagine I can just swap all that hardware out and just plug in the drives and pick up where I left off?
 

USAFRet

Titan
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Right. New CPu/Motherboard/etc...generally (but not always) requires a new OS install.
If not required, highly recommended.