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Can I reuse my hardrive?

Tags:
  • New Build
  • DVD Burner
  • Hard Drives
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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January 23, 2009 2:56:09 AM

This is my first time building a system, but I want to use parts from my previous system. In particular the hard drive and the CD-Rom/DVD burner (both of them). Will this be a problem (for instance will a new Mobo recognize the hard drive is my main concern).

The hard drive is small (70 G with only 20G free) so I'm thinking about getting an external for extra storage. Should I look for a board with eSata or stick with either USB 2.0 or IEEE/firewire.

Thanks for your time.

More about : reuse hardrive

January 26, 2009 12:33:39 AM

Any help would be appreciated

:hello: 
January 26, 2009 1:28:55 AM

As long as you reformat the drive and install windows again, it will be the same as a brand new drive.

You might even be able to get away with not reformatting but I would recommend against that.

However, if you are considering purchasing an external drive for additional storage you may as well spend the money and get a nice fast and fat 640GB internal drive for everything.
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January 26, 2009 4:57:20 PM

Or, you could still use the old hard drive for your Windows (operating system) installation. Then, buy another internal drive for data storage.

If you really want an external drive, then know:

USB 2.0 < Firewire 400 < Firewire 800 < eSata

In regard to data transfer speeds of large files.
January 26, 2009 5:23:22 PM

interal sata is cheaper than external per gigabyte.
January 28, 2009 2:28:11 PM

internal drives are so cheap, I drecommend a new drive. Especially if the old drive is IDE, not sata. Surely your new system has sata ports.
January 28, 2009 2:38:24 PM

A new drive would be MUCH faster than that old one. I'd pick up a new 7200RPM SATA drive. The 320GB & 640GB drives are both very good options because they have very high data density which makes them very fast. You'll be crippling a new build if you use your old, slow drive.

Another thing to keep in mind is that new motherboards only have one IDE connection for a total of two IDE devices.
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