Will my HDD transfer storage and memory from my old laptop

[C0BALT]

I was wondering, if I were to follow Dell's instruction on how to remove a hard drive would I be able to use that hard drive in my new pc and would it transfer all my things from my hard drive to the new pc

[Eigenvektor]

If it's a SATA drive then sure, you should be able to use it in another PC. Everything that is on the HDD will stay on the HDD if you connect it to your PC.

[Japsert]

If you have the wires or a dock to connect a HDD to your new PC, you should just be able to copy the files over to the new PC.
If you don't have Windows or whatever OS you use installed on your new PC, you could also just boot from the old drive.

[C0BALT]

Thank you im pretty sure it is a sata drive. It is called the 931GB Western Digital WDC WD10JPVX-75JC3T0 (SATA), so it is Sata.

 

[C0BALT]

Would it not work if i just put it where the hdd would go normally when building a pc. Like the slots?

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, C0BALT said:

Would it not work if i just put it where the hdd would go normally when building a pc. Like the slots?

You can put the HDD wherever you like, as long as you connect it to a SATA port on your new motherboard you should be able to access it.

[C0BALT]

Yes thats how you do it in all build tutorials, am I correct? Wait the hdd would go into the slots that are like a boolshelf right? Would it be connected via a wire or straight to tbe motherboard. I havent done much research on hdd's since i just got this idea this morning. I also just saw you need a certain wore called a Sata connector. Do you buy those seperate or are they supposed to come from the laptop with the harddrive? I just saw that it comes in the motherboard box, i saw it in rhe POV build guide.

[Vishera]

3 minutes ago, C0BALT said:

Wait the hdd would go into the slots that are like a boolshelf right?

Yes,but it depends on the case you have.

6 minutes ago, C0BALT said:

Would it be connected via a wire or straight to tbe motherboard.

Via a wire to the SATA port on the motherboard.

 

What OS are you using?

[C0BALT]

Dont exactly know what OS is but i think it means Operating System which im using windows 10

Edited June 11, 2020 by C0BALT

[mariushm]

You'll use two cables : one sata data cable from hdd to motherboard , and one sata power cable from power supply to hdd.

 

You may or may not have sata data cables - typically when you buy a motherboard you get at least 2 sata data cables in the box, but if you buy a pc it may not have those cables inside the pc.  You can buy them separately and they're cheap.

The power supply should have plenty of sata power connectors.

 

You can connect the hdd to any sata port on your motherboard. However. some sata connectors may be disabled by the motherboard if you have m.2 ssd drives installed on the motherboard. So if you don't see the drive or the motherboard doesn't detect the hdd, try moving the sata data cable into another port first. 

 

What else... you may have to go in Disk Management  (control panel, somewhere, but just type Disk Management and it should show up). to enable it or to give a drive letter to your old drive .  You'll see it in there and just right click on the entry for the drive and select "Activate" or "Set drive letter" or something like that, it will be obvious option.

 

You shouldn't run applications from the old drive, as in don't go in the old Program Files on that drive and try to start Steam or something from there. Watching movies or music you can do, or basically anything that has to do with regular files.

 

You could also copy everything you care about to another drive, and then simply go in Disk Management and right click on it and select format, to erase everything on the drive (the old program files, old windows folder and so on)

 

edit : as for installation ... laptop sata drives are the 2.5" kind, smaller than regular mechanical hard drives, so they may not sit nicely on a compartment for mechanical drives.

It depends on the case, some cases have those 3.25" slots for mechanical drives with screw locations for 2.5" (smaller) sata ssds so you can install either kind... some cases have separated places where you can screw a 2.5" drive into.

 

If there's no such location where the mechanical drive can be screwed, it can sit on the bottom of the case or pretty much anywhere, if you don't move the case often and don't hit it ... drives don't like to be shaken and moved.

 

So you can place it on the bottom of the case, BUT in that case you must place a sheet of paper / cardboard or plastic or something to insulate the bottom of the hard drive from the metal of the case ... you don't want electronics on the bottom of the drive to make contact with metal.

 

[C0BALT]

I think i might erase everything from the hdd and then use it because there isnt anything i need to save but it would be a tiny bit easier, now that you said I shouldnt that helps. I havent really even started building my pc i just wanted knowledge for when i do which will be layer today. But you definitely know your stuff so thanks. Could you give instructions on how to clear the hdd once i connect it to my pc?

[mariushm]

That's super easy, you'd just right click with the mouse on the drive letter and select Format ... and that will erase everything on the drive.

 

If for some reason you want to make a bunch of smaller partitions (to have 2 or 3 letters instead of just one.... you shouldn't, it's bad idea especially with small size hard drives) you go in Disk Management, delete the partition with the current drive letter, and create multiple partitions and assign each partition a drive letter.  It's all mouse clicks and right click menus, easy.

[C0BALT]

The frick is a drive letter, could you do step by step on how to do it starting from the desktop? Sorry

[mariushm]

Drive letters are those things  C :   , D :  , E : things you click in Windows Explorer to see contents of the drive.

 

The drive letter from where Windows starts is most often  C :   , and when you have a second drive installed in the pc, that drive will get letter D :  ,  then an optical drive (if any) will get letter E :  .... but you can go in Disk Management and right click on drive and select the option.

 

Did you try at least to type "Disk Management" in that Search box to see how that looks ?

 

Here's how it looks in Windows 7 :

I have a SSD which has one partition which got the letter C :   and a second hard drive which has two partitions , one that's hidden and doesn't have a letter , and one that got the letter D :  and the "label" Storage because I store movies and music on it.

If I want to, I can right click (like the menu shows) and select Change drive letter, to change D : to something else ... or I can select Format to erase everything

 

[C0BALT]

Wait, i have a question. Do i need a m.2 ssd along with my ssd and hdd? Last question I think.

Edited June 11, 2020 by C0BALT

[C0BALT]

How to tell which drive letter belongs to the hdd? Also when starting my computer should I install windows to the ssd, because i dont want to format the file with Windows installed on it.