Can I add a 2nd internal hard drive which already has data on it, to my PC?

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hughjanus

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Jun 4, 2014
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Hi,

So here's what I have;
PC 1 - My custom built Windows 10 PC, which I'm currently using
PC 2 - My old Windows Vista PC, which I want to copy data from, onto PC 1

And here's my problem;

I wanted to copy data from PC 2 to PC1, so I tried doing it the conventional way, by plugging an external HDD into PC2 and copying the files onto it, then plugging this into PC 1 and pasting files across etc...

Problem is, I can't get PC 2 to power on (I think something may be wrong the PSU).

My (possible) solution;

So therefore, I was thinking of taking out the internal HDD of PC 2, and plugging it into PC 1 as a 2nd internal HDD.

Thing is, I'm a bit of a PC noob (this is my first build), and have never done this before.

And looking online it seems I may have to format PC 2's drive, in order to plug it into PC 1's? (which of course I don't want to do, as I need the data on it)

Anyone able to help me out in what to do here?

Thanks
 
Solution
B
Yes, you can plug it in as a second drive. No, you don't need to format it.
It should just show up as another drive letter in file explorer. You will also likely see the system partition and any other partitions that were on the old drive as drive letters as well, usually the biggest one is the one with all your files.
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BadAsAl

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Yes, you can plug it in as a second drive. No, you don't need to format it.
It should just show up as another drive letter in file explorer. You will also likely see the system partition and any other partitions that were on the old drive as drive letters as well, usually the biggest one is the one with all your files.
 
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Solution
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hughjanus

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Jun 4, 2014
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Ah ok, that's good!

Will I have to put in any passwords to access this drive?
Or have to do any kind of setting up for the drive? Or just next time I turn on the PC, another drive will have popped up?

Btw, by plugging it in, you mean connecting another one to the motherboard internally?
Or using it as an external hard drive, and plugging it into a USB port?
 
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BadAsAl

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Either way, plugged in directly to SATA ports on motherboard or via USB adapter, it will show up as new drives.
You shouldn't need a password or do anything special to setup the drive. Now I say that assuming that you don't have encryption on the drive or some other special circumstance. You will likely get prompted to provide permission to access the user files when you try to get to them but you just click ok and it should let you in after it spins for a bit.
 
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hughjanus

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Jun 4, 2014
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Ok thanks.

So its as simple as plug it in, then it should appear on the file explorer, next time I boot up my PC? There's no sort of "setting up" I need to do before that?
 
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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nope, just plug it in and boot it up and get to your files.

i do this numerous times a day to back up client files. i just drop their hdd into my pc and copy and paste what i want to save. nice and simple :) (also helpful to do this to run virus scans from a non infected pc. gets around a lot of the malware blocking a/v software and such)
 
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