Can my dad install his old hard drive into a new computer?

Question

My dad wants to purchase a new computer but wants to use his old hard drive. He has a large hd and would perfer to use it instead of a new hd. Has anyone had any problems using their old hard drives in a new computer?

He DOES NOT want the Vista program. He wants the xp that we are using now. His hd is working just fine. It is only a couple of years old. He wants to save space and get a smaller cased computer.

Answer 1

Shouldn't be much of a problem if it is in good condition.

Answer 2

Other than installing new or more RAM, swapping a HD is the easiest thing you can do yourself with a compute. Just open up the case, make sure the power is off, disconnect the HD power cable and the ribbon cable, hook your new HD in place of the old one, and fire up your computer. The computer will automatically see your new drive and set it up for you. You might also want to use an anti-static wrist strap too or at least be holding onto something metal while you do. DON'T forget to unplug it though. I've shocked myself a couple of times and it hurts.

Answer 3

it depends
if the hard drive is clean it would work in the new computer after installing the operating system
but if he has an old operating system and he installed on a new computer
probably the harddrive would not find the drivers for the new
computer
you will have to download the driver from the manufacture

Answer 4

he can do it as long as the new computer has the connections on the motherboard and, as far as I know, they still do. The only thing about using an old hard drive is the speed may be slow depending on how old it is. Even so, he may not notice the difference. It is easy to do, I have done it dozens of times. Depending on the operating system he has, he might have to reinstall Windows so it will recognize the new components.

Answer 5

yes you can install a new one but make sure the if it has an SATA(Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) interface make sure your motherboard is compatible. SATA is a computer bus primarily designed for transfer of data between a computer and storage devices. The main benefits are faster transfers, ability to remove or add devices while operating (hot swapping), thinner cables that let air cooling work more efficiently, and more reliable operation with tighter data integrity checks than the older Parallel ATA interface. check on this site to look at some more information.

http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/CategoryIntelligenceArticle.asp?articleId=209

Answer 6

yes and no let me explain

your dad cannot just plug the hard drive into a new computer and use it what i mean by that is he can not just plug it in turn on the computer and windows will boot up he will need a second hard drive to install windows on in the new computer and set up the old hard drive as a slave drive he would then be able to access all of his old files on the old hard drive

Answer 7

properly the respond is not any much less complicated. Had the 2d stressful stress been put in properly, XP could have seen it as added storage and it does not have affected the C stress in any respect. so some distance as setting up it properly, for IDE that could of meant placing the grasp/Slave jumper properly counting on which IDE channel it grow to be on. For SATA it may be purely plugging it in. Then as quickly as the workstation booted, you need to of wnt into Disk administration and partitioned the recent area. considering which you assert that it grow to be added as a "ok" stress it maximum likley grow to be achieved properly. Your interplay with the device could have been sparkling, meaning you does not of relatively observed it grow to be there and each little thing could artwork great. i've got faith which you have an fullyyt unrelated problem. yet this is that if it grow to be put in as a 2d storage stress. Rereading your submit, apparently you tried to instaqll abode windows XP on the seond stress, which wasn't neccesary. considering which you assert it won't boot to the "old" C stress i've got faith it is the case. So no count if it quite is working great on the "new" stress you need to log in with admin rights and circulate the data to the recent stress. "person does not have get admission to privileges" in fact states which you do not have rights to the data you're attempting to get admission to, so which you are able to be an admin to get them. In all honesty, at this factor i could keep all the innovations to an exterior stress. And rebuild the device. Use 20-30GB of the 250 GB stress as your C stress, and partion the the rest + the 500GB to in good shape your desires (consistent with possibility one partiton for Dad, one for you and so on,..)

Answer 8

Yes that should be fine, just remember the new PC must correspond with the type of Hard Drive he is already using. IDE or SATA.

Answer 9

It would most likely work. Just make sure that you it's not soo old that it slows your new computer down. You're also most likely need to delete your old drivers and install the new ones (for your new computer)

Answer 10

he can use boyh 1 as a master the other as a slave, but if he is getting vista he will have a problem, vista doesn't work with old programs it has a lot of problems all so with hardware & software

Answer 11

He can install it but make it a slave to the current one. Do this just incase there are driver issues. Also older HD may be slower.