I want to put an old HDD in my new PC. What do I need to know/do to not mess it up?

[Drakthuran]

Hi. So, I just today got my package in my mail. I bought this http://www.amazon.com/CyberpowerPC-Gamer-Ultra-GUA880-Desktop/dp/B0089KDCIU?ie=UTF8&ref_=de_a_smtd&showDetailTechData=1#technical-data and my old PC has a PSU and GPU to replace the ***** ones in the pre-built PC so that's totally fine, but I noticed that there's definitely enough space to place another HDD in there and I want to keep all of the information on my old hard drive and use it on my new computer. What should I know or do to ensure that neither my hard drive or my new computer get messed up? My old PC was an ASUS from about 2009.

Language, please

 

[USAFRet]

keep all of the information on my old hard drive

What do you mean, specifically? 'all of the information'...

If you're talking the OS, and attempting to boot from that old drive...almost certainly not.
If you mean the applications, not that either. They need to be reinstalled with the new OS
If you mean your personal data...no problem.

 

[alexoiu]

Hi, Just connect the old HDD (power off the PC when doing it) to one of the SATA ports, without changing the position of the original one.
After connecting it, make sure that the original one is still the 1st boot device in BIOS.

 

[Drakthuran]

keep all of the information on my old hard drive

What do you mean, specifically? 'all of the information'...

If you're talking the OS, and attempting to boot from that old drive...almost certainly not.
If you mean the applications, not that either. They need to be reinstalled with the new OS
If you mean your personal data...no problem.

Well, they're the same OS. Both Windows 7? Wouldn't I be able to keep the programs/applications?

 

[Drakthuran]

Hi, Just connect the old HDD (power off the PC when doing it) to one of the SATA ports, without changing the position of the original one.
After connecting it, make sure that the original one is still the 1st boot device in BIOS.

Great! Thank you very much. How do I make sure that the original harddrive is still the 1st to boot in BIOS?

 

[alexoiu]

Enter BIOS and see what is the 1st device listed.

 

[USAFRet]

keep all of the information on my old hard drive

What do you mean, specifically? 'all of the information'...

If you're talking the OS, and attempting to boot from that old drive...almost certainly not.
If you mean the applications, not that either. They need to be reinstalled with the new OS
If you mean your personal data...no problem.

Well, they're the same OS. Both Windows 7? Wouldn't I be able to keep the programs/applications?

The OS on your primary drive you boot from will know nothing about those applications.
The must be installed properly. You can put them wherever you want, but the actual OS needs to know about them.

 

[Drakthuran]

keep all of the information on my old hard drive

What do you mean, specifically? 'all of the information'...

If you're talking the OS, and attempting to boot from that old drive...almost certainly not.
If you mean the applications, not that either. They need to be reinstalled with the new OS
If you mean your personal data...no problem.

Well, they're the same OS. Both Windows 7? Wouldn't I be able to keep the programs/applications?

The OS on your primary drive you boot from will know nothing about those applications.
The must be installed properly. You can put them wherever you want, but the actual OS needs to know about them.

Okay. Thank you very much. I understand now.
So there's no making sure that the old hard drive and the new motherboard will mix well? My computer won't explode or anything if I connect them?