Can I use my old PC HDD in a new build

[Flexing]

Okay guys so my old PC went belly up. I saved the HDD and I have really slow internet so I don't wanna redownload all my games again. So I was wondering how would I be able to use my old HDD what would I have to do.

Any help with this will be nice thanks in advanced.

 

[Mattios]

You can move some things over such as Steam games https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129 but other programs you can't do anything about and will need to reinstall.

 

[Flexing]

You can move some things over such as Steam games https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129 but other jprograms you can't do anything about and will need to reinstall.

Yea see its mostly games but I do have important documents that I do need and some programs :/ I really need to use my old HDD

 

[Mattios]

Yep documents are fine. Programs can sometimes be moved but generally can't. Also bear in mind that old HDD will fail sooner than a new one because it is old, so make sure to keep backups.

 

[johnbl]

Sometimes you can start the install of a game to get the registry settings, kill the installer and tree coy the files from your old drive to the new location and do a game repair or start the installer again. Often it will not download the files if they are already in the correct spot on the drive.

Okay guys so my old PC went belly up. I saved the HDD and I have really slow internet so I don't wanna redownload all my games again. So I was wondering how would I be able to use my old HDD what would I have to do.

Any help with this will be nice thanks in advanced.

 

[Flexing]

Well Im really not worried about my games. I just wanna know if and how I can use my old HDD

I was wondering if I could plug it in and re install windows using a ISO disk. So it would re write all the windows noot settings and what not

 

[ScrewySqrl]

you could do an 'upgrade' of windows and not lose the installed items. as long as your old drive is SATA and ot IDE, it will work in the new system.

 

[johnbl]

Yes, it should work. How well it works depends on the version of windows you were running and the version you want to run. OEM versions of windows don't transfer to new systems, retail versions do. Windows 7 and older versions expect you to do drive maintenace, windows 8.x and above do it for you since people rarely do the proper maintenace. You might consider running crystaldiskinfo.exe and looki at the smart data of the drive to get a idea of the drives health. You might just use it as a data drive also.

Well Im really not worried about my games. I just wanna know if and how I can use my old HDD

I was wondering if I could plug it in and re install windows using a ISO disk. So it would re write all the windows noot settings and what not