Help! Building a gaming pc

[Dash_1]

Hello , I am building a gaming pc and I was wondering if I could use my old hard drive or do I have to buy a new one , will It cause any errors of it being a new pc , and will I have to reinstall windows ? Thanks

 

[Starspiker]

Yes, you will most likely have to reinstall windows, but you can use them. Be sure to backup all important data on the drive beforehand, as you will need to format it most likely.

 

[Dash_1]

So... what will happen when I plug it in the new pc? My old pc broke and the driver is still good .

 

[Dash_1]

And this is also my first pc build so I'm new at this , also I don't need anything on the hard drive , I heard that you can just restart the hard drive without going through and reinstalling windows , is this true

 

[Starspiker]

You can use that hard drive, but you will need to reinstall Windows on it with an install CD or USB stick with a product key. Usually the Windows install process will format the drive for you.

 

[Dash_1]

So after the hard drive runs , will windows setup itself and I would need to get a product key?

 

[Starspiker]

You will need an installation disk with product key

 

[Dash_1]

Okay thanks , one last question , how do I reset the hard drive or does it do it's self after I install windows ?

 

[Starspiker]

When you install Windows, the install process should have an option to format the hard drive

 

[belo]

you will almost always want to install a fresh copy of windows. That being said, I was shocked when I replaced my 10 year old pc that was using a sata II WD hd running windows 10 with a completely new system and windows still booted up after doing some tweaking on its own. I still installed a fresh copy onto my new m2 drive and it's a lot faster. get a cheaper usb drive backup your files and go.