New Hard Drive, HELP!

[Danny Holmes]

I recently decided to upgrade my computer by installing a faster hard drive (Haven't installed it yet). I do not want all of the programs and files form the old drive on it, so was told recommended to install windows 7 again on the new drive. I intend to keep the old drive on the computer and was wondering whether the programs installed on it would still work, even when booting from the new drive, so that i can re-installing them slowly. If not, do you have any advice, both drives are 1tb but i have nearly 100 steam games, and i think there are some issues with the old install of windows (clogged up with ad bots and shizzel).
P.s. i have a number of programs including word and AVG that i have purchased, do you any advice in regards to transferring them to the new drive.
P.P.s i will be installing a new motherboard to facilitate the new sata3 drive, is this likely to cause any problems.

 

[FireWire2]

Win7 in new HDD work runs the Programs in old HDS right off the cuff. Serious mod need to do.


How do you determine the new 1TB is faster the old 1TB? are they both 7200rpm? If so, do not waste your time.

Get an SSD if you want faster

Otherwise clean up your old 1TB with Microsoft Security Essential, then you are good as new

 

[popatim]

Only some games/apps/programms on the old hdd will work after you install windows onto the new drive. These will be the programs that do not write to the windows registry during install. Minecraft is one of these games and really there are only a handfull of programs/games that don't write to the registry...
All the others will need to be reinstalled so plan on a lengthy steam download session.

Avg & word will easily reinstall, just have your activation codes handy.

Install windows to the new drive with the old drive disconnected. Before installing windows, make sure the bios sata port type is set to AHCI (if you have that setting) and this will speed up your drive some plus make it easier to drop in an SSD in the future. Once Windows has been installed you can reattach the old drive and transfer data over (that doesnt write to the registry) like music, videos, emails, documents... from the old drive.
Once you are 200% sure nothing else on the old drive is needed go ahead and quick format it and then you will have a nice big empty drive to install to or use for backups.

Don't bother with a new motherbd. A mechanical HDD will not bottleneck a sata2 bus (ie - it cannot transfer data faster than a sata2 bus can sustain) the drive will work fine as is. SSD's are the ones that benefit from sata3.

 

[phil22]

If you are also installing a new motherboard, then a fresh install of Windows is unavoidable since an existing installation will not start after a motherboard change.

Any existing games or applications will have to be re-installed too. You cannot transfer them over from your old hard drive.
Presumably you will have made a note of any serial numbers or activation keys, and backups of your games and applications setups? Keeping these backed up is essential in preparation for several scenarios, including drive failure.