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Hard drive with data on it

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What will happen If I try to install a hard drive that has data on it in windows? When the computer boots will all the files be on the pc then?

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the files will show up when you go onto your file explorer (assuming youre on windows 10, its been a long time since i used any other OS so cant remember the name on others) but they'll be under another drive, if its the 2nd drive in your pc it'll most likely be under D: drive and any files on that hard drive will show under that

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1 minute ago, RKRiley said:

the files will show up when you go onto your file explorer (assuming youre on windows 10, its been a long time since i used any other OS) 

What if that hard drive use to be a boot drive? Will it conflict with other windows files

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It won't conflict, aslong as you don't change your BIOS to boot from the new device, you'll be fine

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12 hours ago, Endrivia said:

~snip~

Hi :)

 

What matters here would be the file format that the drive uses regardless if it was a boot drive or not. As long as the OS can read the file format it doesn't really matter if the drive was used on another computer, another OS or if it was a bootable drive from another OS. 

Also, you have to be sure that the drive isn't encrypted or password-protected. 

If it's a regular Windows boot drive without any encryption it should be using NTFS and you should be able to easily use it on another PC. If it doesn't pop up in File Explorer you should be able to easily fix this by assigning the drive a letter in Disk Management. 

 

Let me know if you need any further help!

 

Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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You can also install the drive with windows being on, its like plugging in a usb.

The geek himself.

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On 21.10.2016 г. at 8:39 PM, Dawson Wehage said:

~snip~

Well, using an internal drive can't really work like a USB drive unless OP has a hot-plug option enabled and running the old OS on another computer with different hardware wouldn't probably work and even if it did OP would have problems running it due to driver differences and issues. 

But you are correct, using it even with Windows on it should be as easy as plugging a USB drive. :)

 

Captain_WD. 

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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