Reformat hard drive without losing data

[Toasted201]

Hi,

About a year ago I installed a second Hard drive into my present computer which I run on Windows Vista. Now I've bought a brand new computer that runs on Windows 7. I need to save all of the files on that second Hard drive and would like to install it in the new computer. Some of the files are executable like Microsoft office.

Can i simply plug in the second Hard drive into the new computer?

Do I need to re-format the Hard drive being that it will run on a new operating system?

What should I do?




Thanks any help is appreciated.

 

[howardp6]

If you are only accessing the data files, there is no need to reformat the drive. You can remove the program files folder and the Windows foldern as well.

 

[japps2]

you can access files, but programs will have to be re-installed. in your BIOS it will point to what harddrive to boot off of. So you can just plug the old HDD in and all files will be accessable.