installing 2 hard drives

[ambrosesainsbury]

This might be a little confusing but if I have a PC with a hard drive can I take that hard drive out and then put in a new hard drive, download windows and other stuff on that, then replace my old hard drive and everything would be normal.

NOTE: this new hard drive is for my new PC which will be in a place with TERRIBLE internet and I want to download all my games, apps and stuff before I go to my new PC.

 

[Belphegore]

Yes, you can. Just make sure to not install your current PC's motherboard or GPU drivers to avoid confliction on the new HDD.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there ambrosesainsbury,

As far as I understand, you want to install OS and games on a HDD in one computer and move it to another. Correct me if I'm wrong.
If this is the case, then most probably, this would not work. You will get a BOSD or something. You need to install your OS and all the games and apps on the computer that you are going to run them on.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Belphegore]

With all respect to D_Know_WD, I can verify that it will still work if it's just a vanilla OS install with no motherboard drivers, or specific PC drivers, etc.

I took my HDD from my secondary PC (AMD FX-8350, ASUS Crosshair Formula Z motherboard, MSI Lightning R9 290x GPU) and put it into my mother's PC (AMD FX-6300, Gigabyte motherboard, very weak GPU) and everything worked.

It simply reconfigured Windows files when I put in my HDD, and then again when I replaced her original HDD. I was attempting to get some data from my secondary PC. This was with specific drivers installed on both HDDs, but it's best to go vanilla for this specific purpose to avoid long-term conflictions.

 

[USAFRet]

With all respect to D_Know_WD, I can verify that it will still work if it's just a vanilla OS install with no motherboard drivers, or specific PC drivers, etc.

I took my HDD from my secondary PC (AMD FX-8350, ASUS Crosshair Formula Z motherboard, MSI Lightning R9 290x GPU) and put it into my mother's PC (AMD FX-6300, Gigabyte motherboard, very weak GPU) and everything worked.

It simply reconfigured Windows files when I put in my HDD, and then again when I replaced her original HDD. I was attempting to get some data from my secondary PC. This was with specific drivers installed on both HDDs, but it's best to go vanilla for this specific purpose to avoid long-term conflictions.

With all due respect, it does NOT work all the time.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There is no 100% either way.

Yes, even for a vanilla brand new install.