Can i reuse my hardrive from my previous computer, which essentially broke. The harddrive is in fine condition. Is there a way that i can use it as my primary and still retain all programs and my OS without having to reinstall everything. I do not plan on buying another harddrive.
2007-12-11 10:24:44 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Yes. But the hard drive has to meet the specification of the Motherboard.
What I mean is, there are two Hard Drive interfaces: IDE and SATA (Serial ATA); If your Hard Drive has a IDE interface, but the new computer has a SATA interface, they won't connect because the connections are different.
2007-12-11 10:31:28 · answer #1 · answered by radiocaf 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Contrary to what some might say youre not going to be able to just pull a drive out of your old system and plop it into your new system and hit the button and go. Only way you can do that is if, like others have said, your new motherboard has the same chipsets as your old motherboard because thats the drivers that are on your hard drive. Without chipset drivers your board isn't gonna let you boot into windows. If you buy a board with the same chipsets you can usually get into Windows and tweak it. Anyone who says, "Yes windows will automatically reconfigure itself" is full of it because you're never gonna get into Windows for that to happen if you use a board with different chipsets. Been there--done that.
2007-12-11 18:39:06 · answer #2 · answered by s j 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, your new computer will have completely different hardware which will require completely different software/drivers. You'll have to do a fresh install of windows then reload all of your programs. If you try to boot your new system with your old drive it would blue screen, the operating system will not recognize your new hardware! Unless your new computer has the same identical hardware configuration as the old one.
2007-12-11 18:30:59 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
SJ is right.
It sounds simple, but it ain't.
Windows will blue screen if you try to boot to different motherboard.
Worse case scenario is that you do a repair function. Once you get it installed, you save yoru documents pictures etc, but you have to reinstall your programs and such......
2007-12-11 19:52:29 · answer #4 · answered by Michael H 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if you are using WinXP, it kinda freaks out when you switch motherboards on it.. if you buy the same exact motherboard that you have now, you can use the same hard drive with the OS on it and it *should* work fine..
2007-12-11 18:37:10 · answer #5 · answered by Ghrowl 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yup just set your hardrive into a master and if you have a new hardrive make it a slave, so that all the programs still remains and plus u have and extra harddrive(slave)
2007-12-11 18:29:46 · answer #6 · answered by jorge 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋