Putting Hard Drive from Old Computer into New One?

Question

Hello everyone,
I am building myself another PC (I have done this several times). However this time, I really need basically everything on my old PC to be on my new PC. So what I am going to do is bring my Old C Drive (by old I mean that I built the computer about a year and a half ago) to my new computer. Is it possible to use that as my boot drive? To run Win XP, and all of my programs?

Thanks for the help,

Blake Adams

Answer 1

Should work, but you will need your XP cd at least the first time to install new drivers etc. Make sure you set the master/slave jumpers on your hard drives.

Answer 2

If you are looking to use the old HD and currently installed OS, in the new system then you are going to have problems with almost every piece of hardware in your system, since it will be newer and from different manufacturers. It would be best to use a new HD for your OS and place your old HD as a secondary to transfer all your data you wish to keep onto the new one. You will need to install all your programs again onto the new harddrive to be able to use them. If you build a new computer with the identical hardware as your old one the you will be to just install the harddrive into the system and even then you may still have some driver issues. Plus if you are running XP, by just changing certain pieces of hardware you would need to reactivate Windows.

Trying to reinstall all the drivers again to make your old hardrive work with the new equipment is a headache, takes longer the reinstalling all the software again and is not 100% effective, if the system will even come up at all.

Answer 3

You may or may not be able to use it AS IS as the boot drive. You will be missing all of the drivers for the new hardware. You could get lucky. If you have the drivers, you could load them when XP asks you for it. Be prepared to validate XP on the NEW machine. You can do it. You may have to do it by phone.

If you are getting a new computer, why not get a new hard drive. Most hard drives these days have a piece of software that will clone your existing drive onto the new one. I know for a fact that Seagate does. It won't solve your driver problem, but you might get a bigger drive for yourself.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Yes, it will work. It may want to load driver's for mobo resources , or other thing that are present on your new computer. The XP on your HD may not recognize some of the stuff on your new motherboard, in otherwords. It should still work... you may have to mess with a few thing but heck, give it a try.

Answer 5

You can plug it in, but when Windows starts up the first time (assuming it's already installed from the old computer) it may not even boot because of the different hardware devices. If it does boot, it'll try to change alot of the hardware items because it'll "find new hardware".

If WinXP isn't already installed, it should be no problem.

Answer 6

You can use the old drive,Put the xp cd in and do the repair Have your keycode handy and some programs like word excel would have to be reinstalled but your files will still be their

Answer 7

Sounds like a lot of trouble. You could just get the connections between the 2 and put your files on the new one.

That is the easy way.

Answer 8

Yes, you have to attach it to the master drive setting and upgrade the old C: (if not already in XP mode) and it should start working.

Answer 9

sure is....

just plug it in...and bam...it will work

you may want to format it to brand new using an operating system disk...