Swapping drives from old pc to new pc

[Sinsanatis]

So im starting to get parts for a new whole ass build, except for the drives. I have a 250gb ssd for boot and other, a 500gb ssd for extra storage, and a 1tb hdd for storage. What im wondering is if i can just take out my current drives and install all of them onto the new pc and continue where i left off. One thing for sure is to use DDU or other for the gpu drivers. and if not, im guessing it would be the boot drive. so if thats the case, would i be able to install the 2 non boot drives and just have my game downloads and other be fine.

[aDoomGuy]

You sure can, although it depends on your Windows license if you can simply activate it. If it is OEM or VOLUME you probably can't. If it is RETAIL you can just plug them in and be as you were.

 

How to check:

Open cmd as administrator (search start menu for cmd and choose run as administrator

Run command in window:

slmgr -dli

 

Look for the term RETAIL/OEM or VOLUME

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, Sinsanatis said:

So im starting to get parts for a new whole ass build, except for the drives. I have a 250gb ssd for boot and other, a 500gb ssd for extra storage, and a 1tb hdd for storage. What im wondering is if i can just take out my current drives and install all of them onto the new pc and continue where i left off. One thing for sure is to use DDU or other for the gpu drivers. and if not, im guessing it would be the boot drive. so if thats the case, would i be able to install the 2 non boot drives and just have my game downloads and other be fine.

It may or may not work. The safest way is to do a complete reinstall of Windows. Your data drives can remain as is. Just remove them prior so you don't accidentally format them. Your applications would have to be reinstalled with the exception of your Steam library. 

[Sinsanatis]

1 hour ago, aDoomGuy said:

You sure can, although it depends on your Windows license if you can simply activate it. If it is OEM or VOLUME you probably can't. If it is RETAIL you can just plug them in and be as you were.

 

How to check:

Open cmd as administrator (search start menu for cmd and choose run as administrator

Run command in window:

slmgr -dli

 

Look for the term RETAIL/OEM or VOLUME

retail whew. does that mean my windows license can be linked to my microsoft account? saw something on that a little while ago but dont know how it all works

[Sinsanatis]

12 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

It may or may not work. The safest way is to do a complete reinstall of Windows. Your data drives can remain as is. Just remove them prior so you don't accidentally format them. Your applications would have to be reinstalled with the exception of your Steam library. 

may not work, but theres nothing bad that would happen right. worst case scenario being id have to reinstall windows and anything else on the boot drive? as non of my drives have anything that needs to be saved. everythings just programs and games. main gripe really is just i dont want to have to redownload everything and setup up like a new pc

[aDoomGuy]

4 hours ago, Sinsanatis said:

retail whew. does that mean my windows license can be linked to my microsoft account? saw something on that a little while ago but dont know how it all works

Yes it is true and your license can be transferred to a new PC.

4 hours ago, Sinsanatis said:

may not work, but theres nothing bad that would happen right. worst case scenario being id have to reinstall windows and anything else on the boot drive? as non of my drives have anything that needs to be saved. everythings just programs and games. main gripe really is just i dont want to have to redownload everything and setup up like a new pc

It should work fine. Of course it's best with a fresh install but it should work fine.

[Pool Float]

10 hours ago, Sinsanatis said:

So im starting to get parts for a new whole ass build, except for the drives. I have a 250gb ssd for boot and other, a 500gb ssd for extra storage, and a 1tb hdd for storage. What im wondering is if i can just take out my current drives and install all of them onto the new pc and continue where i left off. One thing for sure is to use DDU or other for the gpu drivers. and if not, im guessing it would be the boot drive. so if thats the case, would i be able to install the 2 non boot drives and just have my game downloads and other be fine.

A fresh Windows install is always best, although you can carry an existing one forward if your new hardware supports it. Depending on the current SATA config in your BIOS (AHCI, RAID), and other things like CSM or SecureBoot, you may not be able to get Windows to boot on the new board.

 

I just did a drop-in upgrade from Ryzen 3000 to 5000, and it was a mess (separate post coming on that), so I personally would always recommend an OS reinstall when changing motherboard/CPU.

[Sinsanatis]

6 hours ago, Pool Float said:

A fresh Windows install is always best, although you can carry an existing one forward if your new hardware supports it. Depending on the current SATA config in your BIOS (AHCI, RAID), and other things like CSM or SecureBoot, you may not be able to get Windows to boot on the new board.

 

I just did a drop-in upgrade from Ryzen 3000 to 5000, and it was a mess (separate post coming on that), so I personally would always recommend an OS reinstall when changing motherboard/CPU.

i dont have my drives in any sort of config. just plugged in for storage. whats csm and secureboot?

 

doesnt zen 2 to zen 3 just need a bios update?

[Pool Float]

3 hours ago, Sinsanatis said:

i dont have my drives in any sort of config. just plugged in for storage. whats csm and secureboot?

 

doesnt zen 2 to zen 3 just need a bios update?

Technically only a BIOS update was needed. But it wasn't that simple for me, and I'm still dealing with gremlins.

 

What are the specs of your current computer? You can move the non-OS drives over without issue, but the SATA configuration for your current system will determine if you can attempt to boot Windows without reinstalling it clean.

 

Depending on the age of your current system, SATA can be in 1 of 3 modes: Legacy (also known as Compatible), AHCI, or RAID

 

Each of these modes changes how drives are seen by the BIOS/UEFI and Windows. And the setting needs to match in order to have the best chance at booting.

[Sinsanatis]

4 hours ago, Pool Float said:

Technically only a BIOS update was needed. But it wasn't that simple for me, and I'm still dealing with gremlins.

 

What are the specs of your current computer? You can move the non-OS drives over without issue, but the SATA configuration for your current system will determine if you can attempt to boot Windows without reinstalling it clean.

 

Depending on the age of your current system, SATA can be in 1 of 3 modes: Legacy (also known as Compatible), AHCI, or RAID

 

Each of these modes changes how drives are seen by the BIOS/UEFI and Windows. And the setting needs to match in order to have the best chance at booting.

current system is

ryzen 5 1600

16gb 3000mhz ripjaws v (2x8)

asrock b350 pro 4

1660 super tuf gaming x3

250gb 860 evo ssd boot drive

500gb ssd m.2 teamgroup

1tb hdd

 

i never really touched drive configs i think. built system like summer 2019

[Pool Float]

7 hours ago, Sinsanatis said:

current system is

ryzen 5 1600

16gb 3000mhz ripjaws v (2x8)

asrock b350 pro 4

1660 super tuf gaming x3

250gb 860 evo ssd boot drive

500gb ssd m.2 teamgroup

1tb hdd

 

i never really touched drive configs i think. built system like summer 2019

OK, since you're on newer hardware, and never touched SATA config, then you should be fine to just move all the drives over. Just make sure that the one with Windows is higher up on the SATA ports, so the BIOS will see it first.

 

Assuming Windows boots, it will first run a detection of new hardware/devices, and then boot to your login screen. Once logged in, you will want to install the AMD chipset drivers that match your current board.

[Sinsanatis]

16 hours ago, Pool Float said:

OK, since you're on newer hardware, and never touched SATA config, then you should be fine to just move all the drives over. Just make sure that the one with Windows is higher up on the SATA ports, so the BIOS will see it first.

 

Assuming Windows boots, it will first run a detection of new hardware/devices, and then boot to your login screen. Once logged in, you will want to install the AMD chipset drivers that match your current board.

isnt the boot drive kinda autodetected? but if not, technically u could just choose boot/boot order in the bios anyway right.

 

also is the chipset driver similar to like gpu drivers where itd be better to clean them off and install the new? 

[Pool Float]

On 11/28/2020 at 5:24 PM, Sinsanatis said:

isnt the boot drive kinda autodetected? but if not, technically u could just choose boot/boot order in the bios anyway right.

 

also is the chipset driver similar to like gpu drivers where itd be better to clean them off and install the new? 

Yes, if you don't want to go through a complete reinstall, then at the very least the old chipset drivers need to be removed.

 

I personally always reinstall Windows for a clean start with new hardware. I took a chance on not doing it with the 3700X to 5800X, and it went bad.