Help with installing used HDD?

lolz1314

Honorable
Feb 9, 2013
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Hi,

So I had a spare 1TB HDD in my old computer that I wanted to use in my new build as a second HDD. At the moment I allready have a 1TB HDD in the new build but wanted to put an additional 1TB HDD that is used and has a copy of windows on it. Now here is the thing, I tried installing the HDD and things kinda messed up. Because I am using Windows 8 on my primary drive on the new build I also have a second copy of Windows 8 on my old computer's HDD so my new computer got confused on which was the primary drive and it loaded up my old computer's drive as the primary.

In result, I had to send it in to a computer shop to get it fixed up but the second HDD wasnt installed. So is there a way I can clear off everything on my second HDD so that when I install it, it won't get confused with the second copy of Windows 8 on it?

Kindest Regards,
 
Make sure the right HDD is on the lowest number sata port of the same color. When the bios is looking for the boot drive it starts with the lowest number port and works its way up looking for a boot drive.

Install the old hdd on a port in the middle, I like to put the optical drive on the highest port number). Write down the model number of the old drive.

Boot into the bios and set the correct drive as the highest in the boot order or select it as the boot device. Save and exit.
(This varies by bios)

Now when you power up on the same screen that says Press Del to enter the bios, look for and press the key to select the boot device, navigate to hdd and make sure that the old drive is not the one you boot from.

Once you've booted wit win8 correctly you can use disk management to delete all the existing partitions until you have all unallocated space and then you can initialize the drive as you wish.
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1656364/add-hard-drive-windows.html
 


Hi popatim,

I tried like you asked but no matter what I do it keeps booting up my old HDD and its files belonging to it. I even disabled it in the Boot order to see if it would load my primary drive.