Can I install my old hard drive in my new PC with all the data saved?

[Khamiri2]

I recently got a new PC and I want to install my old hard drive in the new PC with all the data saved. Can I do that or is it not possible? I tried finding a tutorial on YouTube but I haven't found anything useful. 

 

Edit: I mainly want clips I saved from that PC and I have like 1TB Worth of clips of different games which I need.

[Fasauceome]

Yes, unless the data is encrypted or otherwise protected, you can just throw it in the new PC and read data from it 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1 minute ago, Khamiri2 said:

I recently got a new PC and I want to install my old hard drive in the new PC with all the data saved. Can I do that or is it not possible? I tried finding a tutorial on YouTube but I haven't found anything useful. 

 

Edit: I mainly want clips I saved from that PC and I have like 1TB Worth of clips of different games which I need.

If it is a secondary HDD you will probably be fine but if it has Windows on it you're more or less fucked as far as directly transferring the hdd across w/o wiping it goes

[Falkentyne]

It depends.  If the chipset is similar (e.g. z170->Z270, Z370->Z390), windows MAY whine and complain but if the windows build is new enough, it should be able to get the system booted just by putting the drives into the new system and booting, then you can install the necessary chipset drivers.  Sometimes it helps to uninstall stuff from device manager (like sound and network drivers), and then do your upgrade install and see if windows will install basic drivers and then when you get in the OS, you can install the chipset drivers.

 

If it BSOD's and fails, then you may be able to do an upgrade install which will keep the current installation, and thus all your program data.

 

If worst comes to worst, you can install windows as a new install on the drive and choose keep your current files and apps.  This works without a problem if you have a GBT partition and can UEFI boot.

 

if your disk is MBR however, you're going to have to wipe the partition to install windows in GBT mode.

[vanished]

14 minutes ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

If it is a secondary HDD you will probably be fine but if it has Windows on it you're more or less fucked as far as directly transferring the hdd across w/o wiping it goes

What specific situation are you thinking of regarding this statement?  I can't imagine one for which I would say this personally.  Excluding the encryption scenario mentioned already, the C drive is just as standard and accessible as any secondary drive would be.  Only potential hangup is the new machine trying to boot the existing install, but that is easily remedied.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

What specific situation are you thinking of regarding this statement?  I can't imagine one for which I would say this personally.  Excluding the encryption scenario mentioned already, the C drive is just as standard and accessible as any secondary drive would be.  Only potential hangup is the new machine trying to boot the existing install, but that is easily remedied.

The booting thing. As a matter of policy I never reuse old drives without wiping them for exactly this reason

[vanished]

2 minutes ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

The booting thing. As a matter of policy I never reuse old drives without wiping them for exactly this reason

I see.  That should be as simple as removing it from the boot list in the BIOS, or at least putting it below the new main drive though.  You could also change the partition flags so it's not seen as bootable, in addition to removing the system files and 500 MB auxiliary partitions Windows always tends to put down on the boot drive.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

I see.  That should be as simple as removing it from the boot list in the BIOS, or at least putting it below the new main drive though.  You could also (or as well) change the partition flags so it's not seen as bootable, in addition to removing the system files and 500 MB auxiliary partitions Windows always tends to put down on the boot drive.

I've had trouble with motherboards sometimes overriding manual boot order settings because fuck you but I guess that's just what you get when you buy ASUS

[Underi]

Even if the old drive has windows installed on it, as long as you tell the motherboard to boot from the right drive you should be able to read from the older one just fine.