Installing data drives from old PC to new build while keeping data intact

[denton]

Greetings:

I'm building a new PC next week (I only do this every 4-5 years) and I have a question.

I'll be installing a new m.2 SSD to use as a clean boot drive and will install Win10 onto that. I'm a non-pro photographer and have an 8tb spinning drive with 4 tb of of photos, as well as a 2tb spinning drive with a 1tb of misc other data and music. I will of course have both of these drives backed up, but ideally I want to just drop these drives into the new build and have the new PC able to access the data. If I have to format the 8tb and restore the data to it that will take a day.

I was hoping that if I just unchecked the 'format' box in the windows drive manager that this would preserve my data.

What do you think?

Denton

 

[USAFRet]

As secondary drives, there should be no issue.

Of course, do NOT connect these until the OS is installed on the m.2 SSD and fully running.
Install the OS with only the target drive connected.

 

[USAFRet]

What OS are you installing?

If Win 10: How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

 

[boju]

Yeah if Win 10, don't have your storage drives connected when installing to your M2. Win 10 tends to muck around with other drives connected.

 

[denton]

Thank you all.