Moving a hard drive to a new build

[buttmunchlunch]

So I am moving the hard drive of the computer I am currently using (1 TB Hard Drive) to my first new build. I would like to keep everything on the drive (Windows 10, drivers, files etc.) and I have never done this before. I would like to think it will just work and boot windows normally but I am unsure. If anyone can help me with this I would greatly appreciate this, thank you! P.S Would I be able to than transfer windows to an SSD afterwards?

[Gonio]

Don't transfer OS from HDD to SSD.

It is overall better to just do a fresh install on SSD. Add the HDD later so you can transfer the files you want to keep.

[buttmunchlunch]

So I would have to buy windows again and than put that on the ssd?

[Gonio]

Don't you have productkey or connected it to your account? You can ask here on the forum how that exactly goes, I havn't done it myself yet.

Your current windows 10 is working on your current hardware, not your new build. So putting the HDD in your new system will likely not work at all or give problems with booting.

[buttmunchlunch]

Dang it. Alright thanks for your help! I will figure out the product key details later.So what about all my files drives apps games etc. will I have to move those to a cloud or external storage? I know for steam games I can just redownload them later.

 

[Gonio]

For safety it's always good to back it up somewhere else. But if you disconnect the HDD before installing the SSD, nothing should happen to the data. Once Windows is installed, turn the PC off, connect HDD and all files should be there. Drive letter can be assigned trough diskmanager. Because it holds your old OS, I would then strip all needed data from it to another drive for a while so you can format the HDD and have no remains of old build.

 

For steam you can copy the files of games to the new steam folder, what should save you time on downloading.