Swopping Hard Drives

Verb

I have a new PC tower and to avoid having to reinstall everything. If I was to just take my Hard Drive out of my current PC and put it in the new one, will it all still work fine??

Will it automatically discard any old hardware setting and reconfigure to the new ones??

Lucero_2

It depends on the OS, but in virtually all cases, no. You should just swap over all your data to the new system. The new system will have different MB drivers, gfx drivers, audio drivers, LAN drivers, etc, etc. It's not worth the potential hassle

GunJack

finding device drivers is the potential sticking point, but in most cases it won't be too hard to find....try it and see

fenlander_uk

But why would you want to encumber a nice new PC with an old copy of the OS? Make a fresh start.

Dave_C_2

Lucero wrote: »

It depends on the OS, but in virtually all cases, no. You should just swap over all your data to the new system. The new system will have different MB drivers, gfx drivers, audio drivers, LAN drivers, etc, etc. It's not worth the potential hassle

+1 for that. Best to start with a clean install on your new PC.
You can either put your old hard drive in a USB caddy or fit your old hard drive as a second (slave) hard drive in your PC.

The latter method could invalidate any guarantee.

Dave

Davve

Depending on drivers it may or may not work. I wouldn't recommend it personally.

If there is data you want to keep and don't want to spend time copying it across you can, as mentioned above, simply place your old hard drive in the new PC and use it as data storage, personally I'd prefer to copy the data to the new hard drive, format the old drive, then move the data back, but that will take a while (I tend to do this either over night or when I'm out of the house).

BrutalUK

Personally firstly I would find out what motherboard is in your new system and then go to the manufacturers website and check they have the current drivers for your OS, then backup everything you want to keep, documents/photos/music etc then as said I would perform a clean install. I have tried what you are attempting to do and it did work though the system was so sluggish it wasn't worth it. Clean installs are the best way to give a slowing down computer a spring clean if you don't mind spending a little time installing all your programs from scratch.

Blackjack_Davy

Retail copies, yes. OEM or otherwise, no. Delete the old motherboard and other drivers before putting in the new machine. I've done it with XP and with Win7 without any problems, I havn't tried it with win8. There are guides out on how to do it.

macman

Windows Easy Transfer anyone?
I cannot see the logic in buying a new PC, and then replacing a new hard drive (the component most likely to fail with age) with an old one.
By all means install it as a slave though.

WilliamO

If you put an old hard drive into a new computer, and even if it is recognised driver-wise/hardware-wise, there is still the issue of GENUINE COPY.

Normally you have an existing windows computer whereby its hard drive fails. You then replace the old hard drive with a new one and then reinstall windows on that new hard drive. Microsoft's genuine scheme then detects the old licensed, reinstalled, windows is now on a new hard drive which is accepts as genuine and knows only 1 new component (the new hard drive) has changed in the whole scheme of things. All is well......new hard drive with old windows installed.

If you try and do the reverse, put the old hard drive into the new computer, the windows genuine check will reveal that the windows on that old hard drive (now inside the new computer) is genuine but too many components have changed - In other words, it will know you are trying to put an old windows on a new computer which normally invalidates the license (i.e. this product key does not match the original computer it was put in. therefore making it look pirated). Microsoft does not want XP users for example carry over their old system to a new computer......They want you to buy Windows 8

Even if you were to try and put the old windows onto a new computer, I would actually use a Clone/Partition Copier software to put a clone/image of the old windows onto the new hard drive. At least that way, if you pass the genuine check, all your personal data and paid for installed software will be salvaged.

Your current hard drive (the old one) is probably ready for the knackers yard anyway

WilliamO

Spankey

i have done this many times and it works fine as long as your old harddrive is in good working condition and your motherboard driver disc has the drivers on it that match up with your old operating system.
you insert the old harddrive then try and boot the pc, if it boots ok you just install all the drivers on the new motherboard disc approptiate to your old o/s.
once it is all up and running you then have to reactivate your copy of windows using the automated telephone system.
the first authentication will fail then it will ask you for the new installatiion id which is now on your screen which you type in using your phone keypad.
once it revalidates your windows copy it will give you a new authentication code which will link your old windows copy with your new pc.
just leave the new harddrive in the case and copy the whole o/s over to it as a stand by drive once everythings complete.