Can I use a old hard drive with new MB & CPU?

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movielord25

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Jan 4, 2016
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Hi everyone, I recently bought a new MB and CPU and before I put it all together I had one question. Can I use my old hard drive that has windows already on it? I just recently updated windows so everything should be up to date.
 
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photonboy
As said, clean install is best.

There may be extenuating circumstances where you want to just insert the drive and hope for this best. Maybe your motherboard died and you want to put on a new machine to get your files off (some things need a system running to export or find information).

Example:
1. build system, add no other HDD/SSD, try to boot old drive (other settings such as UEFI, legacy, older AHCI vs IDE etc so there's no guarantee the drive will boot and that's aside from HARDWARE compatibility issues)

2. If tries to boot Windows but fails then try using SAFE MODE etc to rebuild MBR/boot file

3. If boots Windows 10 but there are glitches you can try doing an "in place upgrade" (google that, but basically run the install...
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CONVERSION

CONVERSION

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Feb 9, 2016
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I believe so, but you may have issues with it not being recognised as a genuine copy because as far as I can remember, most programs tie the key to the motherboard. There's absolutely no harm in trying though as far as I know.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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As said, clean install is best.

There may be extenuating circumstances where you want to just insert the drive and hope for this best. Maybe your motherboard died and you want to put on a new machine to get your files off (some things need a system running to export or find information).

Example:
1. build system, add no other HDD/SSD, try to boot old drive (other settings such as UEFI, legacy, older AHCI vs IDE etc so there's no guarantee the drive will boot and that's aside from HARDWARE compatibility issues)

2. If tries to boot Windows but fails then try using SAFE MODE etc to rebuild MBR/boot file

3. If boots Windows 10 but there are glitches you can try doing an "in place upgrade" (google that, but basically run the install media "setup.exe" file for W10 while W10 is running. when prompted choose to keep data and applications. That reinstalls the core of W10 so may fix some or all issues.)

4. STAY HERE IF WORKING?

5. Otherwise, backup data, passwords etc and plan to do a clean Install
 
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jdcranke07

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Feb 10, 2014
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If you have Windows 10, then you won't be able to do anything except back up your data and do a clean install. Depending on your license, you will have to purchase another key for Windows 10, if you don't have more that one use available to you. Windows 10 embeds the product key into your BIOS, so you will not be able to do a swap, if that has been your OS. Otherwise, you can just drop in the drive, but you will run into issues more than likely. So again, a clean install is just the best way to make sure you don't have screw ups.
 
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jdcranke07

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Feb 10, 2014
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If you have data you need/want on that drive, then transfer that to a back up/external drive and then clean the drive to factory default.
 
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jdcranke07

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Feb 10, 2014
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OP did not mention if the drive was used in a pre-built PC, if so you could be right. Otherwise, it will wipe the drive to have nothing on it and then he can proceed with the install afterward. I was not talking about reverting Windows to factory defaults.
 
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jdcranke07

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If you do not have Windows 10 and you can get around different drivers from tripping and saying you can't use that drive with the new motherboard, then technically you could. However, you should back up all data you want on another drive and reformat/wipe the drive you want to use, so you can do a clean install of Windows and have all the drivers associated with your new motherboard installed on there as well. As stated earlier, if you have Windows 10, you will not be able to use the old drive since the product key for that installation was embedded into the previous motherboard BIOS and will not be allowed to be used with the new motherboard, hence the reason why a clean install of Windows in best. By resetting the drive, not Windows, to factory defaults, I was referring to wiping the drive completely. Like it was when originally put into the PC and before the OS was installed. However, even using the older drive for the newer build isn't recommended since you don't know how much longer the drive will have before it kicks the bucket.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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You're conflating 2 different issues....Operation and Licensing.

Operation - Will it boot or won't it boot.
Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe you just find some issues later.
With all new hardware, a clean install is strongly recommended.

Licensing - What to do about activation?
If this is a purchased Windows 10 that you installed, no problem. See below
If this is a Win 10 that was Upgraded from a previous valid Win 7 or 8.1, again, no problem. See below
If this was a preinstalled Win 10 (like from Dell or HP), then maybe problem.

For activation after changing hardware, read and do this, before changing any hardware
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html
 
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