Is possible to put a HDD from an old pc to another?

[Hijitus]

Hi, I'm new here, I'm from Argentina and I have a little problem, so I need help.

My problem is that I want to put the disk of my uncle pc's into another one and use the pc of my uncle. This is because my actual pc is really bad, to have an idea it use Windows 7 Pro, and is 32bits, and I dont have enought money to buy a complete new one and I almost can buy a new disk to use. So every suggestion is or help is welcome.

[ShaheerWasTaken]

Yes if it's compatible. Also wait for sales like black friday or cyber monday. you can get good deals.

[Hijitus]

1 minute ago, ShaheerLikesGames said:

Yes if it's compatible. Also wait for sales like black friday or cyber monday. you can get good deals.

And if it has windows on it? Is possible to still use it like a normal disk?

[ubuntu-guru]

Yup, you can use a HDD in a PC as a storage drive that was once in another PC as an OS drive. Just format it and start storing whatever you want.

[TimLatte]

4 minutes ago, oort said:

Yup, you can use a HDD in a PC as a storage drive that was once in another PC as an OS drive. Just format it and start storing whatever you want.

Do you want to still be able to use the OS on that drive on the new PC it is going to?

If you do, don't format it!

[ubuntu-guru]

5 minutes ago, TimLatte said:

Do you want to still be able to use the OS on that drive on the new PC it is going to?

If you do, don't format it!

OP didn't specify if they wanted to use the actual OS from the migrated hard drive.

There's numerous ways he can do it depending on the purpose.
 

- My original statement of using it as a secondary storage device, which would mean he already has a primary drive with windows, and is just extending the amount of storage he has.
 

- Using that new HD as the primary OS drive, which gives him two options.

     1) Create a bootable USB with windows, format via the Windows installation manager, and create a fresh install.

     2) Install the drive, boot into the OS on that primary drive, and then do all of the driver installations since it would detect all of his hardware as "new". Thus skipping the install of Windows, and just using whatever was already there.

[Hijitus]

3 minutes ago, oort said:

OP didn't specify if they wanted to use the actual OS from the migrated hard drive.

There's numerous ways he can do it depending on the purpose.
 

- My original statement of using it as a secondary storage device, which would mean he already has a primary drive with windows, and is just extending the amount of storage he has.
 

- Using that new HD as the primary OS drive, which gives him two options.

     1) Create a bootable USB with windows, format via the Windows installation manager, and create a fresh install.

     2) Install the drive, boot into the OS on that primary drive, and then do all of the driver installations since it would detect all of his hardware as "new". Thus skipping the install of Windows, and just using whatever was already there.

What I want with that migrated hard drive is to install it on the other pc and keep the data that is on it so I can access the data from that other pc. Because is a drive with old family photos and videos.

[ubuntu-guru]

Oh. if you already have a hard drive in the PC you're moving the other hard drive to which already has windows, etc on it, and you're just wanting to add this drive as a secondary in order to access the data on it, then hook it up along with the original and boot up.

 

Once you load up into windows; see if it recognizes the drive immediately and assigns it a drive letter, then you can go into Windows Explorer and do whatever you want with the drive (backup the photos, etc)

 

Then once you get the photos/videos/etc and say transfer them to your PC's primary hard drive for safe keeping, then you can format the 2nd drive that was in the other computer to wipe it completely if you don't want all the data on it. Then afterward, you can migrate the photos/videos back to the 2nd drive that is now clean. And you can utilize the space for other stuff.

 

But don't do anything related to formatting UNTIL you get those photos/videos off. Just hook it up in the PC, along with the hard drive you have now, and run them together.

[Hijitus]

24 minutes ago, oort said:

Oh. if you already have a hard drive in the PC you're moving the other hard drive to which already has windows, etc on it, and you're just wanting to add this drive as a secondary in order to access the data on it, then hook it up along with the original and boot up.

 

Once you load up into windows; see if it recognizes the drive immediately and assigns it a drive letter, then you can go into Windows Explorer and do whatever you want with the drive (backup the photos, etc)

 

Then once you get the photos/videos/etc and say transfer them to your PC's primary hard drive for safe keeping, then you can format the 2nd drive that was in the other computer to wipe it completely if you don't want all the data on it. Then afterward, you can migrate the photos/videos back to the 2nd drive that is now clean. And you can utilize the space for other stuff.

 

But don't do anything related to formatting UNTIL you get those photos/videos off. Just hook it up in the PC, along with the hard drive you have now, and run them together.

Thank you so much. Really thank you,