Upgrading to a new PC - Hard Drive question

[hoimand]

Hi,
So im buying new pc tomorrow. It alredy has a hard drive in it, and the guy im buying it from says that it has W10 installed. I was wandering if i could use my old hard drive since i have a lots of files i would want to save, and use the new one as a second hard drive to my new pc. If not what would be the ideal thing to do in my situation.

The OLD PC has Windows10. / The NEW PC has Windows10.
The old one doesnt have any problems with softwere or hardware as far as im aware.
Im changing my pc because i need an upgrade.

I hope im posting this in to the right forum and thank you in advance.

 

[lochlomonder]

What exactly do you have on the old hard drive? I would surmise it contains the operating system, and do you have personal files on there as well? What about installed programs? Are you looking to simply plug it in and then have everything working from the old hard drive on the new PC?

 

[SmartKitty]

if you want to use your old drive as a secondary storage just make sure you can plug it in

 

[SmartKitty]

i recommend using the new drive as a primary drive and the old drive as secondary storage

 

[hoimand]

What exactly do you have on the old hard drive? I would surmise it contains the operating system, and do you have personal files on there as well? What about installed programs? Are you looking to simply plug it in and then have everything working from the old hard drive on the new PC?

I have the OS, some games i would like to save since my network isnt unlimited and it wouldnt be nice if i have to download them all again. Random softwere like fl studio with a lot of saved tracks(most of them are bad but they are mine so i want to keep them). Some photos and text documents. I dont exacly know if i can just plug it in and work but that would be nice. Im hoping i can save everything i have if possible.

 

[hoimand]

i recommend using the new drive as a primary drive and the old drive as secondary storage

If i just plug it in, will it work? Which operating system will it use, since both of them have one. And how to choose which one is the primary.

 

[SmartKitty]

in the computers BIOS you can select which drive to boot from

 

[SmartKitty]

If you tell me what motherboard is in this pc i can help you enter the BIOS and select the default boot drive

 

[SmartKitty]

whatever drive you boot off of will show the other drive in This PC and you can launch programs and move files just like a USB drive

 

[SmartKitty]

if you want to take advantage of dual hard drives, check out this article: 4 Tips on How to Use Multiple Hard Drives. Sorry for so much Info at once!

 

[SmartKitty]

The boot drive is always the " Primary " drive

 

[hoimand]

whatever drive you boot off of will show the other drive in This PC and you can launch programs and move files just like a USB drive

So i can just plug it in, choose which one is the primary one in the BIOS? If thats so, i can use my old one for the primary drive and keep absolutly everything and delete the OS from the new one and use it just for downloads and saves.

I seached up how to choose the main drive in the BIOS and i think i would be able to do it on my own, if not i can ask here again.

 

[SmartKitty]

You are correct. The only thing i am not sure about is deleting the OS but I'm sure me or you can figure that out

 

[hoimand]

You are correct. The only thing i am not sure about is deleting the OS but I'm sure me or you can figure that out

Alright thank you so much. I was gonna delete the OS from the new drive which will be my secondary since i dont need it. But if im incorect im totaly fine with just keeping it, it wont take that much space since its a clean install. When i get the PC tomorrow ill try and let you know how it went.

 

[SmartKitty]

Ok! I'm very happy rn because this is the first problem I have resolved!