Question Is it a good Idea to add old Hard Drive to my new PC?

[orinorin]

Hi there,
I have a fairly new PC, a few months old. Then there is my old PC. I don't recall when I had bought it but it's at least five to six years old. I can assure you that. So far there doesn't seem to be any hard drive related issues.

The PC I'm using right now; ie; my new PC has an SSD which with windows installed in it. Unfortunately it's very small in memory (120 gigs) since my other hard drive was ahem 'moved' and luckily I had warranty for it. I bought the SSD for the mean time, since they said I had to wait a few days until I could retrieve it. So is it safe to completely format the old hard drive and add it to my pc? Will it cause any issues?

 

[King_V]

No issues at all. If it was the boot drive for your old PC, you might want to see if you can delete all the partitions from it first (including hidden partitions, backup partitions, etc) with some kind of partitioning tool, then install it in the new PC.

Then go to Disk Manager in Windows, and create a single large partition encompassing the whole drive (or multiple partitions, if that's something you want to do), format, and you're good to go.

 

[orinorin]

No issues at all. If it was the boot drive for your old PC, you might want to see if you can delete all the partitions from it first (including hidden partitions, backup partitions, etc) with some kind of partitioning tool, then install it in the new PC.

Then go to Disk Manager in Windows, and create a single large partition encompassing the whole drive (or multiple partitions, if that's something you want to do), format, and you're good to go.

Thanks! Relieved to know it is safe since I am in hot water right now and I needed the memory, but what do you mean about deleting the partitions? Do I have to merge them all to the main partition?

 

[King_V]

If you look at a normal hard drive in Disk Manager in Windows, you will see that it's not all one single, continuous section. Windows will usually create 2 or 3 other small partitions for its own housekeeping. That's typical on the boot drive.

They do only take a relatively small amount of space, though. BUT, in my experience, once you're booted into Windows, the Disk Manager will not let you delete those extra partitions.

I might be obsessing too much, though. The simplest thing is to simply stick it in the new system, and format it, You should still have almost the entire capacity as a result, even if you don't bother with the partitions. I just happen to be very nit-picky.

 

[orinorin]

If you look at a normal hard drive in Disk Manager in Windows, you will see that it's not all one single, continuous section. Windows will usually create 2 or 3 other small partitions for its own housekeeping. That's typical on the boot drive.

They do only take a relatively small amount of space, though. BUT, in my experience, once you're booted into Windows, the Disk Manager will not let you delete those extra partitions.

I might be obsessing too much, though. The simplest thing is to simply stick it in the new system, and format it, You should still have almost the entire capacity as a result, even if you don't bother with the partitions. I just happen to be very nit-picky.

Don't worry your nit-picking is justified, sometimes even a small error can lead to bigger problems.

 

[jsmithepa]

Partition, a very simple concept. Partitions=Virtual drives.

So let say this HD contains 3 partitions, by the time your are done you will end up with c: (SSD), d: (HD partition 1), e: (HD partition 2), f: (HD partition 3).

Is that what you want?

Most people want a simple c: (SSD boot), and d: (data) and that's it. That's why you are suggested to consolidate any partitions present on that old HD. If old HD has 1 partition then u don't need to do anything but format it.

 

[orinorin]

Partition, a very simple concept. Partitions=Virtual drives.

So let say this HD contains 3 partitions, by the time your are done you will end up with c: (SSD), d: (HD partition 1), e: (HD partition 2), f: (HD partition 3).

Is that what you want?

Most people want a simple c: (SSD boot), and d: (data) and that's it. That's why you are suggested to consolidate any partitions present on that old HD. If old HD has 1 partition then u don't need to do anything but format it.

Thanks.
I know what a partition is, was just confused if i had to merge them into one or just delete them.

(P.S I know that deleted partitions go into an unallocated space 😛)