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New computer with Old hard drive.

Brendan
By Brendan
in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
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Posted

I have my windows OS already installed with all my files and old stuff on my hard drive.

I also have a brand new mobo, cpu, ram everything.

Can i just plug the HD into the new computer and have everything run off it like normal but with a new system?

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Yes you can but, it is not recommended, it is due to the fact that all the drivers of the new computer are not on it so it can be a bit buggy. Fresh install of windows is key and can even cause your old virus and bugs to be erased. It basically makes a better and faster computer but it is kinda your choice.

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Personally I would just do a new install..

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Fresh install will be much better, but it should work, just not as efficiently as you would like.

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I'm getting a new HD and SSD later. It just for now.

I was wanting to make sure that it will actually work.

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I'm getting a new HD and SSD later. It just for now. I was wanting to make sure that it will actually work.

It's not a guarantee that the HDD will work on new hardware, I've tried it and both times it failed till I did a fresh install

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If you've backed up your stuff then there's no harm in trying. Though you might run into problems even if it did work, so you might end up doing a fresh install anyways.

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It works, but you will need to re-activate windows, office and probably antivirus also if you are using a licensed version. After you plug the old hard drive it will take several minutes for Windows to reconfigure drivers but yeah, I recommend a clean install of Windows for a new PC.

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you can put the windows disk in and do a repair. It will work but may still be buggy. I would recomend fresh install.

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Oh. Im going to do a fresh install on seperate hard drive.

If i plug this one in too. What OS will it actually Load?

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Oh. Im going to do a fresh install on seperate hard drive. If i plug this one in too. What OS will it actually Load?

You can set the boot priority in the bios to which ever drive you want to load into.

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you can do it ! and it may actually work but the old drivers will be clashing with the new ones and the whole system would not work fast as it should. In worst case you can get blue screens.

Always better to install on a empty drive. Back up the data if you have a external HDD.

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I've done this once when I upgraded my last PC. It didn't work and I had to do a fresh install because there was a problem with the BIOS.

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Update, didn't uninstall anything.

Plugged it in.

Installed everything from CD and everything works now.

Upgraded from Z68AP-D3 to Asrock Extreme9

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Update, didn't uninstall anything.

Plugged it in.

Installed everything from CD and everything works now.

Upgraded from Z68AP-D3 to Asrock Extreme9

What hard-drive to you have? If it is pretty old, i would recommend that you upgrade since the hard drive can slow your new pc down a lot.
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Update, didn't uninstall anything.

Plugged it in.

Installed everything from CD and everything works now.

Upgraded from Z68AP-D3 to Asrock Extreme9

It's not too old. Seagate barracuda 7200rpm 1tb
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Update, didn't uninstall anything.

Plugged it in.

Installed everything from CD and everything works now.

Upgraded from Z68AP-D3 to Asrock Extreme9

It's not too old. Seagate barracuda 7200rpm 1tb
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don't do that backup your files .this had happened to me once when i plugged in my old hard drive to my new system my windows inside the hard got a blue screen and i had to install a new os so i lost all my files in c.

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Oh. Im going to do a fresh install on seperate hard drive. If i plug this one in too. What OS will it actually Load?

You can set the boot priority in the bios to which ever drive you want to load into.

Windows may actually ask you which drive you'd like to boot from
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Oh. Im going to do a fresh install on seperate hard drive. If i plug this one in too. What OS will it actually Load?

You can set the boot priority in the bios to which ever drive you want to load into.

I've never actually ran two OSs before, but doesn't it only ask you which OS you want to boot from if the two OSs are on the same hard drive but different partition? So if you set the boot priority in bios to a hard drive that only has 1 OS, it'll only load that OS. Correct me if I'm wrong though :)
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I think it is best to just back up your important stuff. and I recommend doing a clean install so its better for your registry.

and try not to use cd to install drivers. It is recommended to go to manufacture website to download latest drivers.

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If you are gonna be getting your HDD and your SSD in like 2 months, I would recommend a fresh install. When I used my old HDD, I had quiet of bit of BSOD because of the previous drivers of the motherboard conflicting with the motherboard.

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