Old HD in new system

[GBC]

I'm going to build a new system and would like to know is it possible to take a hard drive from my previous system and install it in the new system without reformatting, or reinstalling Windows 7?

 

[jasonp12]

yes and no....

are u going to be getting a new HD or using just the current?

 

[kureme]

It really depends on the system. Most will allow you to just swap hard drives and you jst need to install all the drivers for the new hardware, others will just not recognize the hard drive as a boot disk.

There is also another problem if your old HDD is IDE and your new system only has SATA connections.

 

[GBC]

yes and no....

are u going to be getting a new HD or using just the current?

I will be using my current HD. It's only a couple of months old. It's a Western Digital 500 GB SATA 2 green drive.

 

[kureme]

You should be fine using that HDD. Try and see if it will boot to windows by connecting it in the new system. If not, plug it back into the old one and back up your stuff, can't be too much since you've only had it for a few months. Then reformat it as needed.

 

[batuchka]

I suggest u back up crucial/important data and fresh install OS for peace of mind

 

[GBC]

You should be fine using that HDD. Try and see if it will boot to windows by connecting it in the new system. If not, plug it back into the old one and back up your stuff, can't be too much since you've only had it for a few months. Then reformat it as needed.

Thanks for the advice. Now all I have to do is decide whether to build my system around a DDR2 motherboard or a DDR3 motherboard. I can save about $200 with the first option by using my current CPU and RAM. Anybody have any advice?

 

[kureme]

If you're going to build a new system, definitely go with a DDR3 build. But first of all, what are the specs of the system you have right now? Maybe an upgrade will be enough to last you another few years instead of having to spend all the money on a new build.

 

[GBC]

If you're going to build a new system, definitely go with a DDR3 build. But first of all, what are the specs of the system you have right now? Maybe an upgrade will be enough to last you another few years instead of having to spend all the money on a new build.

My current system is a Dell Dimension E521 which I've already upgraded to an AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.8 GHz Windsor CPU, 4 GB of DDR2 667 MHz RAM and a 500 GB hard drive.

I don't play games that require a lot of power. Mostly what I play are Facebook games. What uses the most power is Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software which I use because I'm disabled. It tends to slow way down when issuing commands in Facebook games and some other software.

 

[GBC]

Best answer selected by GBC.