Can I use my old hard drive on my new build?

[DarthHiram]

Hello all!
As I was doing a compatibility test online for the build I'm currently doing. I had the idea of just reusing my old hard drive. However, is that even possible? I had Windows 10 on it, can I just hook up the old hard drive to my new build? I have so many photos and files that are really important that I don't wish to lose, is there any way I can use the same hard drive or if not, will installing Windows on it erase all of the files or is there some way to back them up? They're really important so it'd be nice if there was a way to keep them and not end up having to delete them when installing Windows on it again. Also, if any of you are about to suggest to just go on my old PC and save the files onto a USB stick; I can't. Sadly, my old PC won't display anything on the screen, I have no clue what happened to it. I was getting error messages and then the next day it just didn't display anything on screen. So I can't really back them up through the old PC. I'm a newbie at PC building so I'm not quite sure if installing Windows will even erase my files, hopefully not. But if it will is there a way to back it up? Excuse the repetitiveness of this post but I really don't want to lose everything I had haha.
Thanks in advance!

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Basically, you can connect your old drive to the new PC and use it as a storage. You can even delete the windows from there.
That will be very easy.
If you want to use your old drive as a system drive in your new system, that a bit tricky.
So let us know which way you want to go.

 

[DarthHiram]

So if I do that and use it as storage. It'll essentially be just like a flash drive? I'll be able to browse through files and folders as if it was a USB drive?

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Better. But basically yes. It will appear as another drive.

 

[DarthHiram]

Thanks a lot! Sorry for a dumb question haha not much of a computer wiz just yet