Old hard drive reusal: Possibilty???

[TheConfundedJerry]

I have recently decided to start building a computer and have selected all the parts but one. My hard drive. I dont really want to buy one, the reason being any half decent drive costs around the 60$ mark, putting the build over my price range. So i wanted to know if its a possibility to take my old hard drive and put in my future COM. This could also save me 120$ on a new copy of windows. Im doubting this would work though because of the things ive read and prior knowledge(such as things like driver installations and things along that line). I also would like to beleive i could port the old copy of windows on to a cheap HDD and install new drivers on it, again saving me at leats 200$, allowing to use my current HDD for everything else. Any and all tips are extremely helpful.
~HDD has 298 gigabytes
~Windows7 is retail
~HDD is more than likely IDE as its fairly old
~New MB: Gigabyte ga-970a-d3
~As it appears im probably going to have to wait a bit longer to get acom. I was planning on going 64-bit, current version is32-bit and now that ive checked isnt even home premium like i had wanted so its never going to happen.
~thank you all for your feedback
Follow up question: I can still reuse this hardrive as storage if windows/drivers are all deleted correct?
Windows will be installed on a smaller HDD

 

[MauveCloud]

You haven't provided enough information to answer your questions.
How old and how big is your existing hard drive?
Is it IDE or SATA?
Did you buy a retail copy of Windows or OEM?

 

[bignastyid]

Is your copy of windows OEM or Retail? Reusing the Hdd is possible as long as the new motherboard will support it.

 

[middleramen]

The HDD should be transferable, unless it's an IDE HDD and you don't have an IDE connection on your new mobo.

Windows may work when transferred to a new computer, depending on a number of factors.

I've done it with a retail copy. Windows had to download a number of drivers and I had to reinstall some apps, but it was fine. If you are using an OEM version as opposed to retail, it may not work. If you're using Win 7 as opposed to an older version, results will be better, as Win 7 seems to deal with drastic hardware changes better.

Also, are you changing from a 32-bit to 64-bit CPU or vice versa? If so, you can't use your old Windows install.

 

[middleramen]

Your mobo has no IDE ports. So if it's an IDE HDD, you're out of luck. I guess you could get an adapter but you would be better off just buying a SATA HDD.

If you had the right connection you could use the HDD as storage. As long as the HDD isn't set to boot, you wouldn't need to delete anything off of the HDD.

 

[sadman00]

How long have you used this hard drive? A long-term used hard drive is often damaged in some degree. Therefore, it may has some negative impact on your future data.

 

[th3_ory]

Are moving the hdd with Win7 OS to your new pc. It will not work as win7 is set to work for only that computer's specs

 

[middleramen]

Are moving the hdd with Win7 OS to your new pc. It will not work as win7 is set to work for only that computer's specs

Not at all true. Read my post above.

 

[th3_ory]

Not at all true. Read my post above.

Well thats wat i read from another post