My friend gave me a HDD they had windows 7 on, what do I do now? Can I just use it or restore it ?

[WolfLoverPro]

My friend gave me their old HDD and it was their main windows 7 HDD but nothing’s wrong with it 

 

im worried in case it has any viruses LOL 

i use windows 10 on my ssd so if it had a virus will it even effect it? 

 

I can restor it right? But I wanted to keep some of the stuff he said he put on there 

 

is there a way way to remove windows on it without a full restore? I’ll be running games on there basically. So it don’t matter that windows is on there it’s just the space it takes. 

 

Do i I just hope it has no viruses?

 

or just don’t run any programs but install all my new games on it and only run them

 

beCause if it had viruses on windows 7 I wouldn’t be running the os I’d just be using it like a usb so I’d have to run a program right 

[porina]

If there is nothing on the disk you want to keep, safest option is to wipe it and start fresh. Then it doesn't matter what was on it before. Download any games fresh.

[Radium_Angel]

28 minutes ago, WolfLoverPro said:

But I wanted to keep some of the stuff he said he put on there 

If you attach the drive as a slave drive, nothing will autorun, so if there are any infections on it, you are safe from them. Do a malware scan all the same.

If you want to delete the Windows directory, just go ahead and delete it. Any installed programs, however, will probably not run, so all you can use will be data on the drive.

[WolfLoverPro]

2 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

If you attach the drive as a slave drive, nothing will autorun, so if there are any infections on it, you are safe from them. Do a malware scan all the same.

If you want to delete the Windows directory, just go ahead and delete it. Any installed programs, however, will probably not run, so all you can use will be data on the drive.

 

2 hours ago, porina said:

If there is nothing on the disk you want to keep, safest option is to wipe it and start fresh. Then it doesn't matter what was on it before. Download any games fresh.

How can I delete windows 7 or shall I just leave It on there?? Can I get hacked or a virus if windows 7 on there or is it only if I actually boot into windows 7 on the HDD. ??? 

 

Or or can I not delete it individual unless I restore the hdd 

 

 

also can HDD be used in any direction? So like you know the part where you can see the electrics? Does it matter if it’s upsidedown or does a hdd not matter 

[BecauseICanTBH]

Run Recuva on it and see what he had on it that he thought he deleted before he gave it to you.

[porina]

To do a wipe I'd use diskpart > clean but if you're not familiar with the tool be extremely careful as a mistake could nuke another drive. Once it has been cleaned, you can use the regular disk manager to create a partition and format it. Doing this means there's no real risk of anything potentially bad on the disk from coming back to bite you, although strictly that would only be the case once everything had been overwritten.

 

If there is anything you want to keep on the drive, I'd still be inclined to move what you want to keep off, nuke it, then move it back. 

 

Physically HDs don't really mind how they run. Consider laptops where the user may move it while it is in operation. Best practice is to make sure you don't move them while running.

[WkdPaul]

3 hours ago, WolfLoverPro said:

unless I restore the hdd 

Can you please explain what you mean ??? I'm not sure you're using the correct word for what you want to do, and as a non-native English speaker, it's confusing.

[Radium_Angel]

5 hours ago, WolfLoverPro said:

How can I delete windows 7

Right click on the folder, choose the "delete" option.

5 hours ago, WolfLoverPro said:

Can I get hacked or a virus if windows 7 on there or is it only if I actually boot into windows 7

Only if you boot the system into Windows 7.

5 hours ago, WolfLoverPro said:

also can HDD be used in any direction?

Yes, but upside down will shorten the lifespan somewhat

[Kilrah]

5 hours ago, WolfLoverPro said:

How can I delete windows 7

If you don't care about anything on the drive, right click -> format.

[Kisai]

9 hours ago, WolfLoverPro said:

My friend gave me their old HDD and it was their main windows 7 HDD but nothing’s wrong with it 

 

im worried in case it has any viruses LOL 

i use windows 10 on my ssd so if it had a virus will it even effect it? 

 

I can restor it right? But I wanted to keep some of the stuff he said he put on there 

 

is there a way way to remove windows on it without a full restore? I’ll be running games on there basically. So it don’t matter that windows is on there it’s just the space it takes. 

 

Do i I just hope it has no viruses?

 

or just don’t run any programs but install all my new games on it and only run them

 

beCause if it had viruses on windows 7 I wouldn’t be running the os I’d just be using it like a usb so I’d have to run a program right 

It depends.

 

If there is something you want to save from it, pop it into another machine (or a USB chassis) and mount it as a secondary drive, retrieve anything from it you want, and then wipe it.

 

If you for some reason want to use the Win7 license... well that isn't going to happen, the license is tied to a combination of hardware in the original system.

 

On the other hand, if there is installed software (eg photoshop, drm-encumbered games, etc) you won't be saving those, so the only way to run that software is from that drive.

 

You will not be able to retrieve anything from the user's "my documents" or "downloads" folder however without the original user logging in, or using a data-recovery tool on it. This is because the file permissions are missing, they're not encrypted. You can however just try to boot the drive and unlock that account with a "locksmith" sysadmin tool but usually not worth the effort.

[WolfLoverPro]

6 hours ago, Kisai said:

It depends.

 

If there is something you want to save from it, pop it into another machine (or a USB chassis) and mount it as a secondary drive, retrieve anything from it you want, and then wipe it.

 

If you for some reason want to use the Win7 license... well that isn't going to happen, the license is tied to a combination of hardware in the original system.

 

On the other hand, if there is installed software (eg photoshop, drm-encumbered games, etc) you won't be saving those, so the only way to run that software is from that drive.

 

You will not be able to retrieve anything from the user's "my documents" or "downloads" folder however without the original user logging in, or using a data-recovery tool on it. This is because the file permissions are missing, they're not encrypted. You can however just try to boot the drive and unlock that account with a "locksmith" sysadmin tool but usually not worth the effort.

 

6 hours ago, Kilrah said:

If you don't care about anything on the drive, right click -> format.

 

6 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Right click on the folder, choose the "delete" option.

Only if you boot the system into Windows 7.

Yes, but upside down will shorten the lifespan somewhat

 

11 hours ago, porina said:

To do a wipe I'd use diskpart > clean but if you're not familiar with the tool be extremely careful as a mistake could nuke another drive. Once it has been cleaned, you can use the regular disk manager to create a partition and format it. Doing this means there's no real risk of anything potentially bad on the disk from coming back to bite you, although strictly that would only be the case once everything had been overwritten.

 

If there is anything you want to keep on the drive, I'd still be inclined to move what you want to keep off, nuke it, then move it back. 

 

Physically HDs don't really mind how they run. Consider laptops where the user may move it while it is in operation. Best practice is to make sure you don't move them while running.

 

11 hours ago, BecauseICanTBH said:

Run Recuva on it and see what he had on it that he thought he deleted before he gave it to you.

 

Okay so I installed the HDD and I didn’t have to do nothing in bios. 

 

He lied to me because it looks like he restored the hdd himsef but just put a few things on there to test if it was working. 

 

So its all fine apart from its very strange 

 

so its a 2Tb hdd right? 

 

I have a 1tb hdd and my 1tb just shows as well.... 1 hdd called H: 

 

This new one has 2 parts...!!!!????? 

 

It had letter F AND E ???? One is 128gb and the other is like 1TB something 

 

why is this? Is it because it’s 2Tb or something? 

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, WolfLoverPro said:

why is this?

It's been partitioned.

This can be undone easily, if you know what you are doing. If you don't, you can wipe your system

[Kisai]

4 hours ago, WolfLoverPro said:

 

 

 

 

 

Okay so I installed the HDD and I didn’t have to do nothing in bios. 

 

He lied to me because it looks like he restored the hdd himsef but just put a few things on there to test if it was working. 

 

So its all fine apart from its very strange 

 

so its a 2Tb hdd right? 

 

I have a 1tb hdd and my 1tb just shows as well.... 1 hdd called H: 

 

This new one has 2 parts...!!!!????? 

 

It had letter F AND E ???? One is 128gb and the other is like 1TB something 

 

why is this? Is it because it’s 2Tb or something? 

It's been partitioned, but that partition might be setup for something, like a Linux drive or something. If you don't need anything on it, format it and use it for yourself.

 

Make sure you don't accidentally format your C drive though. Usually when dealing with multiple drives that are bootable I pull the power on all the other drives I don't want to format so only the C drive and the target drive is running.

 

[Pharr Carnell]

He "lied to me"....really? On the Internet someone says "he lied to me"...that cannot possibly be true!

 

Everyone knows people do not tell untruths on the Internet...or to their friends...

 

OP...with a thousand plus post count; you need to ask these types of questions, relating to obviously attempting to use software contrary to its' Licensing obligations?

 

It's a wonder you've not been howled down...further, asking questions along these lines?

 

'Tis simpler to google up whatever you want to know...

[WolfLoverPro]

4 hours ago, Pharr Carnell said:

He "lied to me"....really? On the Internet someone says "he lied to me"...that cannot possibly be true!

 

Everyone knows people do not tell untruths on the Internet...or to their friends...

 

OP...with a thousand plus post count; you need to ask these types of questions, relating to obviously attempting to use software contrary to its' Licensing obligations?

 

It's a wonder you've not been howled down...further, asking questions along these lines?

 

'Tis simpler to google up whatever you want to know...

Sometimes I get carried away and end up asking here LOL