Can I transfer files to a new hard drive using my old PC?

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CloudedJudgement

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Oct 6, 2014
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10,510
Not sure if that made sense... So basically what I'm doing is building a PC and the parts are coming in slowly (what the hell, Amazon). To save time later this week when I finally have everything, what I would like to do is transfer my files now to my new HDD (which will be used in the new build) as it has already arrived.

I don't have an external (I know, I know...) and using my small thumb drive will take forever. I think it's 16 GB and I want to move about 1.2 TB over.

So naturally I'm thinking maybe I can install the new hdd into my old PC and then transfer the files like that. Then unplug it and use it the new computer after I build it. But I thought you need to format a hard drive before it can be used for data, and if you format something you lose all the data. Computer noob here. Not sure if what I said is all true.

That's where I am now. Is there a way to do this while I wait for the rest of the parts to arrive? And if I can't, what's the best way to move that amount of files over? I suppose I can get an external, if for any reason to be a responsible owner and backup my data, but is there another alternate to that?

Thanks!
 
Solution
B-man33
If you install new HD in your old PC, all you need to do is allocate the new HD if windows does not pick it up, here is a video for windows 7, it should be more or less the same as in windows 8.1 (I think)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUkn2ou4Nd8

You will not loose any data stored on that hard disk drive, don't worry, I recently did this for my new PC, had to allocate 2 HDD's and 1 SSD

I say your best option is to install the new HDD in your old PC, unless you want use the online storage method which will take ages and a good internet connection and a external will cost extra

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B-man33

B-man33

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Aug 9, 2014
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If you install new HD in your old PC, all you need to do is allocate the new HD if windows does not pick it up, here is a video for windows 7, it should be more or less the same as in windows 8.1 (I think)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUkn2ou4Nd8

You will not loose any data stored on that hard disk drive, don't worry, I recently did this for my new PC, had to allocate 2 HDD's and 1 SSD

I say your best option is to install the new HDD in your old PC, unless you want use the online storage method which will take ages and a good internet connection and a external will cost extra

 
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CloudedJudgement

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Oct 6, 2014
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10,510
Great. And to be clear (because I always manage to screw up the simplest of things), it's basically plugging it in after the file transfer?

Cables > Boot > Format > Transfer files
Off > Unplug
Cables (in new PC) > Boot > ...and there it should be? If not then do that simple volume stuff shown in the video?
 
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B-man33

B-man33

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Aug 9, 2014
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Yes, I moved my old one 1TB HDD (bought it in 2011) from my old PC to my new PC and all I had to do is allocate it (as shown in the video), all my data was on the HDD

Silly thing I did was, I unplugged the power cable from the PSU (modular) by accident without realizing that it was unplugged and I could not understand why windows or bios is not seeing any of my HDD's... haha
 
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