Question about Installing windows 7 on a new build for a friend.

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

So i am going to be helping a friend build a PC, He currently has a pre-built piece of crap that has pretty much stopped working, He has 2 Hard drives in his current pc and the pc has windows 7 on it already but it can't be transferred over to the new build. One hard drive has his OS and i'm not sure what else on it and his other hard drive which is new has files on it. My question is what do i have to do to install a new copy of Windows 7 on the hard drive that currently has it on there and could the second one just be plugged in after the computer has posted and done driver updates without any problems with files still intact? I would appreciate any help i just got done building my PC but i had new hard drives so this is a new one for me.

nathanstrainrocks · Jul 16, 2015

I will work under a few conditions, But I would say it is unlikely, your best shot would be to use the licence from the old computer to install it on the new PC.

vlxedits · Jul 16, 2015

Get a bootable windows 7 install usb or disk and install it fresh on a new harddrive, Don't use old harddrives in a new computer because it is bound to run into some issues

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

nathanstrainrocks :

vlxedits :

Would it be possible to just erase the hard drives completely and install the new windows 7 on one of them and back up whatever files he wants to keep on a flash drive....New hard drive is not in his budget.

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

gcavazos88, what is the capacities of the 2 hard drives? in what way do you want as to install a new copy of Windows 7 on the hard drive that currently has it as in a fresh install of a dvd disk or overwrite current windows? what was the chipset of old motherboard & what is the chipset of new motherboard as maybe possible to use his recovery partition to re-install windows?

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

Old PC has 1 TB and 250GB the 1 TB was just purchased a few months ago Chipset from what i can find online is Intel® 945G chipset, His new pc is AMD A68H chipset i believe. We are doing a new DVD disk Install as i have a new copy of windows 7 sitting at my house, just need to find a way to make this work,

nathanstrainrocks · Jul 16, 2015

gcavazos88 :

ffg7 :

Old PC has 1 TB and 250GB the 1 TB was just purchased a few months ago Chipset from what i can find online is Intel® 945G chipset, His new pc is AMD A68H chipset i believe. We are doing a new DVD disk Install as i have a new copy of windows 7 sitting at my house, just need to find a way to make this work,

I assume that you still have the product key? If not you will have to get it off the old PC's control panel.

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

nathanstrainrocks :

gcavazos88 :

I assume that you still have the product key? If not you will have to get it off the old PC's control panel.

I have a brand new copy of windows 7 with disk and key...it was for a build i was going to do but changed OS and never returned the windows 7

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

gcavazos88, are both hard drives sata as I would use the 250gig for windows & the 1tb for data\games?

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

yes both are sata drives....the 250 is the original that came with his current pc and has his current OS on it, Do i have to completely wipe the hard drive to install a new OS over it or can i partition it in and delete the partition the current os is on then install the new OS. The 1TB just has files and what not.

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

anything important he wants saved on that 250gig drive?

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

No....the only thing really on there is the OS and programs that can be downloaded again

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

bootup with dvd disk, delete partition(s) on the 250gig, make new partition as windows will also make a 100meg partition for itself. format the new partition not the 100meg. continue to install windows. when almost done, skip the password section as not need it unless he wants 1 but that can be done later.

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

ok...and i do this on the new build with the 250 gb HD only installed

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

do it with the 1tb connected so will appear as "d" drive & the optical drive will be "e". don't need to do anything to it so this way it's info will still be there. I did that on this computer which has 2 500gig hard drives.

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

OK, so i will pretty much just do a build as normal and install everything in the new PC but when i boot up with the Disk and 250gb as main drive, then i delete the partition and create a new one and just carry on installing windows after.

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

yes. after windows is installed then load motherboard & videocard drivers.

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

Ok Cool, Thanks....Just incase this just completely fails i will probably order a 250GB hard drive I need more storage on my pc so hopefully this works and i can keep it. lol, Making it harder is that the town is in the middle of no where so i can't just run to a store and pick up parts and he is scared to build it himself.

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

you shouldn't have any issues unless you caused them tho windows does on occasion do hiccups that can do weird things. how big are your drives?

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

i have a 250gb ssd and 500gb hdd on my computer, ssd for boot, games and a few programs and hdd for gaming footage and any projects i'm working on but i am constantly running out of storage on the hdd...lol

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

go with a 1tb non ssd in place of the 500gig as you can use that as a backup.

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

I would but i'm just buying the 250gb as a worse case scenario thing if we can't get his to work with his old drives, its coming out of my pocket so i don't want to buy a 1tb and have his install not work and have to put a new 1tb hd i bought in his pc...lol best case scenario i end up with a extra 250 gigs, til next year when i do a major upgrade on my pc.

ffg7 · Jul 16, 2015

what happened to cause his old "pre-built piece of crap" to stop working?

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

No idea, he had problems with the memory almost immediately and they sent him replacement memory and it keeps blue screening after he replaced it. It needs to be replaced anyway, i bought him CSGO on Steam and it wasn't able to run it at all...so i used some bday money bought half the build and he is buying the other half. Not like i was gonna do anything better with it. lol

gcavazos88 · Jul 16, 2015

ffg7 :

Also he can no longer watch youtube or livestreams on anything above 480p.

Question about Installing windows 7 on a new build for a friend.

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