Old HDD in a New computer

Yoonsi

Yoonsi

New Member
If I was to build a computer from the ground up, Everything except the HDD. If I were to put in a HDD from another computer with an OS already on and all the pre-existing files, could I:

Just put it in?
Would I have to format it first?
format the install OS?

Any help appreciated. ;)

Yoonsi
 
you cant do that, because each computer has different mobo drivers or something, but whatever, the answer is no :cool: , you would have 2 re-install windows..
 
It depends more on the operating system there. With XP you would have the problem if too many hardwares are changed. If the other case had the identical video and sound cards and a few other things the same except the board you might get by with a repair install. With older versions of Windows like 98 and ME no longer supported by boards let alone MS you would have to fight to drivers removed and reinstalled. You could delete the current installation without reformat of the drive if you choose that option during the first installation screens.
 
i've tryed it a couple times, sometimes at the beginning of the boot i wold get NTDLR is missing etc., sometimes in the middle of windows, i would get a blue screen, in the end i always had 2 do a fresh install...
 
jp198780 said:
i've tryed it a couple times, sometimes at the beginning of the boot i wold get NTDLR is missing etc., sometimes in the middle of windows, i would get a blue screen, in the end i always had 2 do a fresh install...
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I concur. Same thing happened to me on multiple occasions...
 
you will have to reinstall windows but if the windows you have got is a recovery disk from your old pc that wont work if it is a oem version of windows you will have a problem activating it because it ties itself to your mobo so it will know that it has been installed on another pc and you would have to ring microsoft and tell them you had to replace the mobo because the old one broke and they might activate it for you
 
meanman said:
you will have to reinstall windows but if the windows you have got is a recovery disk from your old pc that wont work if it is a oem version of windows you will have a problem activating it because it ties itself to your mobo so it will know that it has been installed on another pc and you would have to ring microsoft and tell them you had to replace the mobo because the old one broke and they might activate it for you
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Product activation isn't specifically tied to one board but the collection of hardwares at the time of installation. Microsoft took into consideration the occasional upgrading would be done. You can swap boards out and perform a repair install with the original disk and retain the product activation. But swap too many within a 120 day period and oops! :(
 
It's a little touchy at times. But one way to reinstall Windows on the same machine without needing to reactivate is to save the wpl.dba file to floppy, cd, or even another hard drive. There you are still running the same hardwares but can save the activation in case of virus or drive failure. Once you swap hardwares over a certain limit such as a new build not just one or two items it's back to MS time.
 
You can do it, no matter what OS it is and what time frame is involved. It can be a 5 year old installation for all Microsoft cares. All you have to do is change the busmaster drivers to the Microsoft defaults. Reboot, it will redetect the new hardware. Then you do a registry hack, show hidden hardware in the device manager and delete all the old hardware. When you go to reactivate you will have to call Microsoft to get a new installation ID. Don't ever let anyone tell you it can't be done, because if they tell you that they don't know what they're doing.
 
SirKenin said:
You can do it, no matter what OS it is and what time frame is involved. It can be a 5 year old installation for all Microsoft cares. All you have to do is change the busmaster drivers to the Microsoft defaults. Reboot, it will redetect the new hardware. Then you do a registry hack, show hidden hardware in the device manager and delete all the old hardware. When you go to reactivate you will have to call Microsoft to get a new installation ID. Don't ever let anyone tell you it can't be done, because if they tell you that they don't know what they're doing.
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all true, while i have never done this process i have heard of others that have done it. You obviously have, would you say that there was any performance penatly as a result?
 
Just throwing Windows on with some hacks would see quite a bit. Windows always sees the best performance when freshly installed on a clean drive not one polluted with fragmented data still liingering around. That was true with the older versions as well as XP.
 
apj101 said:
all true, while i have never done this process i have heard of others that have done it. You obviously have, would you say that there was any performance penatly as a result?
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No, not really. That is an old skool rumor. It used to be that if you rebuilt the kernel too many times it would eventually cake on you. That was with the 9x kernels. The NT kernel doesn't seem to have that problem.

And yeah, I've done it a few times.. lol. I've done it in my own home even more times than I can recall. Microsoft just asks if I have it installed on any other computer. I tell them I don't and it's all good. I just tell them that I'm always playing around with new hardware.
 
SirKenin said:
No, not really. That is an old skool rumor. It used to be that if you rebuilt the kernel too many times it would eventually cake on you. That was with the 9x kernels. The NT kernel doesn't seem to have that problem.

And yeah, I've done it a few times.. lol. I've done it in my own home even more times than I can recall. Microsoft just asks if I have it installed on any other computer. I tell them I don't and it's all good. I just tell them that I'm always playing around with new hardware.
Click to expand...

And as if they didn't know? :rolleyes: hhhmmm... If you immediately change 3 items before the first 120days "they know"! :eek: Vista will be a little more "exclusive" in that regard. The NT kernel has always been at the advantage over the dos core of the other direction Microsoft went.

One of the two drives here was taken immediately out of the old case and tossed in here. Windows was reinstalled just before while in the old case due to not even being seen one day. The replacement drive was bought before the reinstallation of Windows showed a still working drive. At first it was used in the new build by simply right clicking on a few things in the device manager to install the new board's drivers. Now it has a second OS on it as the second drive with a large storage partition. New Drive - New Build - New Installation of Windows! :D
 
No they don't know ace.. You know why? Because I have the same unique disk and key (which not many people have, by comparison) installed on two of the six computers that are in my home, both using completely different hardware. Both activated. Both updated regularly by automated update. Yeah, so I lie. So what. Sue me. I have several copies of XP Pro sitting in a box right behind me and as a VAR I have access to as many as I could possibly want, but for convenience reasons (moving drives around... yes, I do know what I'm talking about, I have done it plenty obviously), they both have the same install.

You can change hardware 30 times in a month and they don't give a shit. I know. I've done it many, many times.

As for the last paragraph, first, how does it relate to anything or disprove my point in any way, and secondly, who bloody cares?
 
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i tried with with two completely diffent pcs and hardwares and it works is just that there is alot of asking to add a new hardware and thats about it.
 
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