Using Old HDD as storage for new built?

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xElevationsx

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Dec 5, 2015
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Hello, I've recently built my parents a new computer. I assumed that I could just take the harddrive out of their old computer with Windows 10 on it and install it in the new. I didn't know it was motherboard bound so when I booted up on the new computer it said Windows not activated. So I downgraded to Windows 7 and some Windows files got corrupt yada yada I eventually got it to boot in to Windows. I'm going to buy them an SSD and a new copy of Windows, could I use their old harddrive as mass storage? Also how would I transfer all their data from the old harddrive to the SSD or atleast delete Windows off the old HDD. Thanks!
 
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Neur0nauT
I would get the new SSD. Disconnect the old drive first..connect the SSD preferably to your SATA 1 port on the motherboard, The Windows setup will initialize the drive upon install. Continue with the new Windows installation.

Once the system is booting to Windows on the new SSD as C:\.... power down the system then reconnect the old drive to SATA 2 port, and it should show up as a secondary drive with a different drive letter (possibly D:\ or E:\ or the next available letter) within Windows.

From there, you can go about transferring the old data over to the new SSD.

To make sure you get all the old user data, First place to check on the older drive is D:\users\*yourname* This will contain My Documents, Links, Downloads etc...
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Neur0nauT

Neur0nauT

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Dec 1, 2014
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I would get the new SSD. Disconnect the old drive first..connect the SSD preferably to your SATA 1 port on the motherboard, The Windows setup will initialize the drive upon install. Continue with the new Windows installation.

Once the system is booting to Windows on the new SSD as C:\.... power down the system then reconnect the old drive to SATA 2 port, and it should show up as a secondary drive with a different drive letter (possibly D:\ or E:\ or the next available letter) within Windows.

From there, you can go about transferring the old data over to the new SSD.

To make sure you get all the old user data, First place to check on the older drive is D:\users\*yourname* This will contain My Documents, Links, Downloads etc. Basically all the important stuff that was used on the old drive.

When you've finished transferring any older data, you can reformat the old drive and it will be available as mass storage for the system.
 
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