Moving a Hard Drive

[mb]

I see information about this topic all over the Web, but much of the
information is conflicting. I'm no computer whiz, hence the question,
but I'm going to take a crack at assembling my own this month.

I currently have a WD 1TB Caviar Black installed on my old HP with an
upgrade version of Windows 7. I understand that I can't simply plug the
drive into the new mobo/system, and that it might even damage the drive,
but can I install the drive as is, boot to my Windows 7 upgrade CD and
do a format/clean install? Or do I have to drag out all my disks from
XP to Vista ugrade to now?

Any advice on migrating a hard drive to a newly assembled system would
be very much appreciated.

mb

 

[Bob Hatch]

I see information about this topic all over the Web, but much of the
information is conflicting. I'm no computer whiz, hence the question,
but I'm going to take a crack at assembling my own this month.

I currently have a WD 1TB Caviar Black installed on my old HP with an
upgrade version of Windows 7. I understand that I can't simply plug the
drive into the new mobo/system, and that it might even damage the drive,
but can I install the drive as is, boot to my Windows 7 upgrade CD and
do a format/clean install? Or do I have to drag out all my disks from
XP to Vista ugrade to now?

Any advice on migrating a hard drive to a newly assembled system would
be very much appreciated.

mb

One option

http://www.laplink.com/pcmover/pcmoverimageassistant.html

Follow the instructions to the letter.

--
"Never argue with an idiot, they will knock you
down to their level and beat you with experience."
Unknown

http://www.bobhatch.com
http://www.tdsrvresort.com

 

[Mark Opolo]

Yes, you cannot just plug it in....driver conflicts and all that.

And yes it most probably will ask to see one of the previous discs.

 

[a]

I see information about this topic all over the Web, but much of the
information is conflicting. I'm no computer whiz, hence the question,
but I'm going to take a crack at assembling my own this month.

I currently have a WD 1TB Caviar Black installed on my old HP with an
upgrade version of Windows 7. I understand that I can't simply plug the
drive into the new mobo/system, and that it might even damage the drive,
but can I install the drive as is, boot to my Windows 7 upgrade CD and
do a format/clean install? Or do I have to drag out all my disks from
XP to Vista ugrade to now?

Any advice on migrating a hard drive to a newly assembled system would
be very much appreciated.

mb

You can certainly plug your drive into your new system without
damaging it. You can also try booting it to see if there are
sufficient drivers already present for windows to run. Worse case
scenario it that you'll get some windows error or BSOD because you
don't have the right drivers.

Your biggest problem since you're changing motherboards, whether it
runs without a reinstall or if you have to reinstall, is that your
windows activation will no longer be valid and you will have to call
MS and explain why you need to reactivate a previously activated
version. Be prepared to beg and grovel.

 

[Jan Alter]

I see information about this topic all over the Web, but much of the
information is conflicting. I'm no computer whiz, hence the question,
but I'm going to take a crack at assembling my own this month.

I currently have a WD 1TB Caviar Black installed on my old HP with an
upgrade version of Windows 7. I understand that I can't simply plug the
drive into the new mobo/system, and that it might even damage the drive,
but can I install the drive as is, boot to my Windows 7 upgrade CD and
do a format/clean install? Or do I have to drag out all my disks from
XP to Vista ugrade to now?

Any advice on migrating a hard drive to a newly assembled system would
be very much appreciated.

mb

It's helpful that you already have some insight to know that moving the hdd
from one computer to another probably wouldn't work since the hardware on
the second system will be different requiring different drivers that were
already installed to the OS on the first machine.
A couple of things to ask are if your Win 7 upgrade is OEM or retail. If
it's OEM then license-wise it's legally only good for the HP and not
transferable to your new rig. Whether or not you could get it installed if
it were OEM I'm not certain. If your upgrade disk is retail then you would
have no legal problem reinstalling.
As for having to reinstall all your software you should bank on it and
locate your install disks. A clean install of all the programs loses the old
drivers and settings and sets up the new machine for only the files that are
necessary and avoiding conflicts.
However, I have come across some software that does allow complete
migration from one computer to another without reinstallation of the OS and
all the installed programs. This method allows simply adding the new drivers
to the new hardware that the OS needs. I've used TrueImage Home 2010 with
the added on TrueImage Home Pluspack to allow a universal reinstall and been
successful. The way it works is to install TrueImage Home 2010 on the old
computer, install the Pluspack software, make a backup image of the OS with
the software, make a bootable rescue media CD using the TI software. To get
the new computer running one boots with the rescue media, restores the image
to the new hard drive, and then installs the new drivers.I do remember
having to reactivate Windows 7 after doing this, but all my programs worked
without a hitch. Go to Acronis.com if you find this method for
consideration.
In any case, no matter what you do make sure you have backed up your
drive to an external drive before you begin any migration.

 

[Parko]

I see information about this topic all over the Web, but much of the
information is conflicting. I'm no computer whiz, hence the question,
but I'm going to take a crack at assembling my own this month.

I currently have a WD 1TB Caviar Black installed on my old HP with an
upgrade version of Windows 7. I understand that I can't simply plug the
drive into the new mobo/system, and that it might even damage the drive,
but can I install the drive as is, boot to my Windows 7 upgrade CD and
do a format/clean install? Or do I have to drag out all my disks from
XP to Vista ugrade to now?

Any advice on migrating a hard drive to a newly assembled system would
be very much appreciated.

mb

Make a backup of all your important stuff before you do anything. Go on,
right now. Use an external HD. They're cheap.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/278ugav
When you install Win7 on your new machine select custom installation.
This will leave you with a new installation of Win7 to play with, but
with a Windows.old folder on your HD that will contain your old windows
data on it. If its been at least 3 months since your upgrade activation
won't be a hassle.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/26egywy
Personally, I would use the 1Tb HDD as a data storage drive ie: D: and
use a WD velociraptor for the OS ie C:. Fast SSDs are a bit too expensive
at the moment

--
Where's the cursor?
Where's the eraser?
Where's the cursor?
Where's the eraser?
G-O-H-O-H-O-9-O
G-O-H-O-H-O-9-O
G-O-H-O-H-O-9-O
H-O-9-O-G-O-H-O

 

[philo]

I see information about this topic all over the Web, but much of the
information is conflicting. I'm no computer whiz, hence the question,
but I'm going to take a crack at assembling my own this month.

I currently have a WD 1TB Caviar Black installed on my old HP with an
upgrade version of Windows 7. I understand that I can't simply plug the
drive into the new mobo/system, and that it might even damage the drive,
but can I install the drive as is, boot to my Windows 7 upgrade CD and
do a format/clean install? Or do I have to drag out all my disks from
XP to Vista ugrade to now?

Any advice on migrating a hard drive to a newly assembled system would
be very much appreciated.

mb

Sure you can put the drive in your new machine,
format it and perform a clean install

but you will lose all your data.

I'd just put a new drive in the machine
load your OS on it
and connect the old drive as a data drive...
the OS folders can of course be deleted

 

[Dave]

I see information about this topic all over the Web, but much of the
information is conflicting. I'm no computer whiz, hence the question,
but I'm going to take a crack at assembling my own this month.

I currently have a WD 1TB Caviar Black installed on my old HP with an
upgrade version of Windows 7. I understand that I can't simply plug the
drive into the new mobo/system, and that it might even damage the drive,
but can I install the drive as is, boot to my Windows 7 upgrade CD and
do a format/clean install? Or do I have to drag out all my disks from
XP to Vista ugrade to now?

Any advice on migrating a hard drive to a newly assembled system would
be very much appreciated.

mb

Just as Parko said, back up all your important information. Then, if you
want you should be able to do the upgrade/install as you stated. Also, you
should be able to install the old HD to the new system with no problems, and
it won't damage the HD. Almost all new MoBo have auto-detect for the HD, so
it should be recognized fine. When you boot into windows, if there is a
bridge, video, audio or other hardware that wasn't in your old system then
Windows will want the drivers for them. Since Windows 7 is relatively new it
has a lot of drivers, so if you don't have the drivers, then Windows will
load it's default drivers, if it has them, and if it doesn't then it will
load generic drivers. For instance on the video, if you don't have a driver
for your specific card and Windows doesn't either, then it will load a
generic VGA, SVGA, EGA, or whatever it determines your hardware will use,
driver for that card.
Just to be safe, you could get the drivers you need for your specific
hardware and have it ready on a CD or thumb drive for when you do the first
startup.
When I had my computer shop I kept a spare HD with a basic install of
Windows on it so I could boot a machine that I suspected of having a bad HD,
or if there was a problem with the OS, then I'd move the original HD to the
secondary position and install my HD as primary and boot from it. Worked
fine every time.
HTH,
Dave

 

[Prescott]

You can certainly plug your drive into your new system without
damaging it. You can also try booting it to see if there are
sufficient drivers already present for windows to run. Worse case
scenario it that you'll get some windows error or BSOD because you
don't have the right drivers.

Your biggest problem since you're changing motherboards, whether it
runs without a reinstall or if you have to reinstall, is that your
windows activation will no longer be valid and you will have to call
MS and explain why you need to reactivate a previously activated
version. Be prepared to beg and grovel.

And if it won't do a normal boot, you may still be able to boot to the
safe mode with networking. That's worth a try too.

 

[mb]

Thanks for all the useful information. My mobo/processor/RAM arrive
tomorrow and I'll spend the next holiday weekend tackling the project.

My Windows 7 disk is retail, so that's one less concern, and thanks for
reminding me of the Raptor drive. I had two in an old Dell computer in
RAID 0, then installed Win 7 RC which turned out to be a bad idea. I
was unable to reformat either drive after that, RAID or no RAID. Any
thoughts on what might have happened there, other than not having the
correct RAID drivers? I never did quite understand the "F6" option, but
it seems strange that the drives can no longer be formatted
indivudually.

I want to move up to 64 bit this time, so I've always planned on a new
clean install, but it would be nice to get one of those Raptors working
and use the current drive for data. Are newer Raptors any better, i.e.
bigger cache, etc.?

Thanks again, but keep the info coming!

mb

 

[Mark Opolo]

Thanks for all the useful information. My mobo/processor/RAM arrive
tomorrow and I'll spend the next holiday weekend tackling the project.

My Windows 7 disk is retail, so that's one less concern, and thanks for
reminding me of the Raptor drive. I had two in an old Dell computer in
RAID 0, then installed Win 7 RC which turned out to be a bad idea. I
was unable to reformat either drive after that, RAID or no RAID. Any
thoughts on what might have happened there, other than not having the
correct RAID drivers? I never did quite understand the "F6" option, but
it seems strange that the drives can no longer be formatted
indivudually.

I want to move up to 64 bit this time, so I've always planned on a new
clean install, but it would be nice to get one of those Raptors working
and use the current drive for data. Are newer Raptors any better, i.e.
bigger cache, etc.?

Thanks again, but keep the info coming!

mb

Can I suggest that you install the drives into a comp as backups and then
use EASYUS from http://www.partition-tool.com/ to format them. Its worth a
go as this FREE software is good.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Can I suggest that you install the drives into a comp as backups and then use
EASYUS from http://www.partition-tool.com/ to format them. Its worth a go as
this FREE software is good.

Typo above. The program is called EASEUS (of course, that would be
obvious on the site). It's useful.

 

[Parko]

Typo above. The program is called EASEUS (of course, that would be
obvious on the site). It's useful.

Gparted works a treat too, y'know.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Gene E. Bloch wrote:

Gparted works a treat too, y'know.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

All I was doing was correcting the typo.

However, I should have noticed what you pointed out