how do i move hard drive to new computer?

[keakar]

im looking to unplug the hard drive from my rig and put it into a completely new build without having to reformat and reinstall windows and programs. i saw a few post talking about doing this but i cant remember how it was done.

can someone advise me as to how to go about successfully doing this and not have any issues later?

 

[Mussels]

there will always be issues unless its the same/very similar chipset.

what mobo chipset are you starting on, and what one are you going to?


My vote is that you should always format, i've done transfers before and theres always a problem sooner or later (this is under XP - i have never tried it with vista)

 

[keakar]

there will always be issues unless its the same/very similar chipset.

what mobo chipset are you starting on, and what one are you going to?

lol its a whole new world

going from single core prescott and 865pe chipset to q6600 and p35 chipset

 

[cdawall]

there is a way search on MS i did it switching my comps cant remember the exacts though

 

[Mussels]

intel to intel you have a shot.

Install the latest intel chipset drivers and it may just work transferring it over - the key is to have teh new sata controllers drivers installed BEFORE moving it over (i normally transfer to a PCI-E SATA-II card i have, then boot the new system on the PCI-E card, install the onboard drivers, and then move to the onboard sata.)

for clarification on my steps.

1. install new SATA card/controller in original PC and install drivers
2. power off, move boot drive to the sata card
3. boot windows to make sure it works
4. get new system up, move sata card to it with boot drive attached.
5. boot windows - a few reboots are always needed to get around the change of hardware
6. move the boot drive to the new mobos sata ports, and it should work.

 

[panchoman]

well the problem is with drivers, and sometimes it works, and other times it doesn't.
you're best bet is to clean all chipset drivers off of your drive and then boot, and if it works, then you need to install the new drivers.

 

[jjnissanpatfan]

Honestly i went from a amd3200 nf4 to intel core duo and it benched the same as my clean fresh install!!Just make sure you uninstall everything motherboard video and processor related.Then use some kind of registry cleaner.

 

[Mussels]

Honestly i went from a amd3200 nf4 to intel core duo and it benched the same as my clean fresh install!!Just make sure you uninstall everything motherboard video and processor related.Then use some kind of registry cleaner.

benching is completely irrelevant - we're talking stability here. your cleansing of drivers/registry would have helped in that regard, for sure.



you can use the info here to make a .reg file, that will let it work on any PnP IDE controller - imo, sata may not work unelss you set IDE mode on the new mobo.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082

 

[strick94u]

backup everything you need format reinstall its the only way to fly

 

[keakar]

ok i better get specific here so i can be sure of the advice im getting, and by the way guys thanks for taking the time to help with this.


i now have:

p4 prescott 3.4ghz 1mb 800fsb cpu
2x1gb kingston hyperX ddr400 pc3200
MSI PM8M-V (VIA P4M800 chipset)
WD Caviar SE 320gb sata 2 hdd (hard drive to be moved)

my new system will be:

q6600 2.4ghz cpu
2x1gb A-DATA pc6400 ddr2 800
gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
the hard drive above will be used here



just a slight upgrade

 

[Wile E]

The only thing you can try, is to uninstall all the chipset drivers(all IDE and SATA controllers, LAN drivers, and SMbus drivers), on-board sound drivers, the cpu drivers, and just to be safe the video drivers. Then run a reg cleaner. Do all this without rebooting. Pull the drive, and try to boot it into the new system.

Something I would consider, just to be on the safe side, is to use something like Acronis Disk Director Suite to make another partition of a few GBs without destroying what you already have. That way, if worse comes to worst, you can install Windows on the new partition, and use it to pull data off of the old partition in the event it won't boot.

 

[keakar]

The only thing you can try, is to uninstall all the chipset drivers(all IDE and SATA controllers, LAN drivers, and SMbus drivers), on-board sound drivers, the cpu drivers, and just to be safe the video drivers. Then run a reg cleaner. Do all this without rebooting. Pull the drive, and try to boot it into the new system.

Something I would consider, just to be on the safe side, is to use something like Acronis Disk Director Suite to make another partition of a few GBs without destroying what you already have. That way, if worse comes to worst, you can install Windows on the new partition, and use it to pull data off of the old partition in the event it won't boot.

ok so should i shut down or just kill power because wont it save my settings if i shut down?

as for files i dont have much i just wanted to avoid reinstalling windows, i just put this drive in a week ago lol.

my hard drive died and since i was about to put together a new system and the sata2 drive i wanted cost $5 more than the IDE replacement i was looking at so i just bought it instead and i was waiting all week for a christmas sale on IDE drives before i bought one to put in this old system that i will now try to sell. only now im ready to build so i ordered the IDE drive which should arive wednesday. so as you can see i will need to install windows on the old computer with the ide drive (the one im on now) but i wanted to not have to install it again on the new computer if i could avoid it.

 

[keakar]

intel to intel you have a shot.

Install the latest intel chipset drivers and it may just work transferring it over - the key is to have teh new sata controllers drivers installed BEFORE moving it over (i normally transfer to a PCI-E SATA-II card i have, then boot the new system on the PCI-E card, install the onboard drivers, and then move to the onboard sata.)

for clarification on my steps.

1. install new SATA card/controller in original PC and install drivers
2. power off, move boot drive to the sata card
3. boot windows to make sure it works
4. get new system up, move sata card to it with boot drive attached.
5. boot windows - a few reboots are always needed to get around the change of hardware
6. move the boot drive to the new mobos sata ports, and it should work.

i dont have a sata card and i also dont have any idea how to use one or what its for.

 

[keakar]

i think i will just go ahead and reformat and reinstall for the new computer system but cant i save time and avoid installing windows on the replacement drive by ghosting this 320gb drive to the IDE 160gb drive that is replacing it since it will be for the system it is going into anyway even though the IDE drive is half the size of this one. can i do it that way and not have "issues" with it?

 

[Wile E]

i think i will just go ahead and reformat and reinstall for the new computer system but cant i save time and avoid installing windows on the replacement drive by ghosting this 320gb drive to the IDE 160gb drive that is replacing it since it will be for the system it is going into anyway even though the IDE drive is half the size of this one. can i do it that way and not have "issues" with it?

Yeah, ghosting it to the 160GB should work fine. That avoids at least 1 Windows install.

 

[Mussels]

i dont have a sata card and i also dont have any idea how to use one or what its for.

instead of using the motherboards SATA plugs for the hard drive, you simply add more on a PCI card, so you can move it machine to machine. you arent doing that, i'm simply saying thats how i do it and it works - so long as the drivers are working first!

 

[Darren]

im looking to unplug the hard drive from my rig and put it into a completely new build without having to reformat and reinstall windows and programs. i saw a few post talking about doing this but i cant remember how it was done.

can someone advise me as to how to go about successfully doing this and not have any issues later?

well if you don't want any driver issues or performance issues it is advised to format your system.