I have a new computer, and need to transfer my old hard drive to it - how do I do this?

You just move it over, then when you boot up, go to computer management, and disk management, and assign a letter to the drive. Since windows is istalled on both drives you might have trouble though, but if youg et in copy everything over, format the old one and copy back.

@XOIIO “Might” is an understatement!

I have found that it’s often best to boot from the new drive, install all of your old programs on the new, and then plug in your old drive into another port and use it for storage.

Putting your old drive in the new computer and trying to boot from it may run into enough headaches that I not only do not recommend it, but I strongly advise against it unless you have a thing for pain.

The two biggest problems that come to mind immediately;

- If your old drive had an OEM version of Windows (in other words, the old computer had Windows pre-installed when you bought it) then it may no longer be a valid copy of Windows. OEM copies are registered to the first PC that they boot on and are generally non-transferrable licenses. And if they boot from a different motherboard than the computer they are registered to, they don’t like it so much.
I was blessed with a retail copy of WinXP so I avoided that hassle for many years.

- If your new computer is not exactly the same, and odds are that it isn’t, then you will run into driver issues as it can’t figure out the “new” video card, sound card, network adapter, optical drives….

While installing all of your old apps onto the new PC booting from the new drive is a bit time-consuming and may result in losing some settings, it is a far less painful option as the new drive already has a legal/valid copy of Windows with all of the right drivers for your computer.

Also note that most of the settings you “lose” are actually in the “Documents and settings” folder of your old drive; copying that folder over restores many of them. Note that you cannot just copy applications that way though. Those must be installed or the Registry will not have the right changes made to make the program usable.

Or you could just cheat and use the migration tools that Windows has built-in to transfer your settings and documents after you reinstall your programs :)

@jerv well we don’t know what the old OS is, heck this might not bbe windows even, or the other one is old enough the newer bootloader is what takes controll.

You can just hot swap the drive if you have AHCI enabled too.

@jerv Duly noted. So, once I’ve set up the new computer, do I just plug the old hard drive in, turn the computer back on, and all of a sudden have access to all my files again? Or…

@XOIIO They’re both Win 7 Home. Possibly both 64 bit. Sorry, forgot to mention that.

@Aethelflaed You can’t just boot from it, since windows was isntalle don another machine is is configured and only has drivers for that machine, new one will just have it freeze or BSOD

I have plugged my old drive into a new machine many times, but as an auxiliary/secondary drive. That gives access to all of my old documents, but the new computer often doesn’t know what to do with them yet unless I have already installed the appropriate programs.

If you like to experiment you could try this: boot the old drive in safe mode and then uninstall every driver. then reboot and have your windows/other driver disks ready when windows reconfigures itself.

@ragingloli It would be easier to go into the bios, enable AHCI and just plug it in while it’s running.

@ragingloli Sometimes, I do. And then sometimes, it’s midterms. Like now.

@jerv Ok, so, what do I need to do with the old hard drive now to make it a secondary/auxiliary drive? Uninstall anything? Just plug it into any old SATA connection? Other?

Unlike the older IDE drives, SATA is smart enough that you should just be able to plug it in and go without any drama.

Ooooo, sexy….

Buy an external USB hard drive case or caddy. Take the old drive out of the old computer and put it in the drive caddy. Then plug it in. Your computer will automatically recognize it as an external USB drive and assign it a letter.