Moving HDD To New Motherboard/Windows Install

[ImTotallyTechy]

Currently on Windows 10 upgraded from 8.1. I bought a new Mobo/CPU on Black Friday and I am a few days from it coming. Because of all the driver issues, I just want to do a reinstall of windows 10 onto my boot SSD.

I have 4 drives in my computer;

Drive 1; 120GB SSD (Windows Install & Some Programs I will reinstall later, Ill just get rid of the partition when installing Windows 10)
Drive 2; 1TB HDD (Personal pictures, videos, programs, etc, NEEDS TO BE UNTOUCHED)
Drive 3; 1TB HDD (Personal pictures, Vids, Documents, Programs. NEEDS TO BE UNTOUCHED)
Drive 4; 120GB SSD (Video Scratch Disk and Adobe Programs. Would rather not have it formatted)

So I want to disconnect drive 2, 3, and 4 just to snoop around on drive 1 to make sure all personal files are off. Then I will clear it, attatch to new Mobo, and, do a full install. Upon having windows 10 installed, I want to attach the rest of the drives.

Am I stupid? Am I missing somthing? Will I loose all data on the other hard drives or will my computer just pick it up and deal with it?

Thanks

 

[bailojustin]

Your computer should just pick back up the other drives as long as it is configured for it. I would wait until you get a clear boot with just the SSD then add your HHDs. after that on reboot enter the BIOS, change boot priority to your SSD and you should have full access to the other drives.

 

[neo_classical]

First off, never say on these forums "Am I stupid?" I must insist!!! These are questions that we all ask!
Anyway, back to case in point.
Removing your drives from the case won't prove problematic from the files point of view. However, programs installed on them are unlikely to work once you've reinstalled Windows. All the registry keys they create are likely to change. So for drives 2 and 3 - your personal pics, videos and documents are all perfectly safe. The programs will probably not work.
Lastly, Windows 10 as far as I understand binds itself to your motherboard information. So if you've performed the free upgrade to 10, you may find yourself needing a new copy of Windows when your new CPU/motherboard arrives...

 

[ImTotallyTechy]

Your computer should just pick back up the other drives as long as it is configured for it. I would wait until you get a clear boot with just the SSD then add your HHDs. after that on reboot enter the BIOS, change boot priority to your SSD and you should have full access to the other drives.

Yes, I will wait until I am certain that I have all the drivers installed before I connect the other HDDs. I was fairly certain that it would work just fine I just didn't want to connect the drives and have windows go all "yeah you need to format this shit" and loose years of photos.

Thanks

 

[Mike Prior]

It will be fine.

Windows 10 will automatically install disk specific drivers and you will have access to them as before.

 

[ImTotallyTechy]

Actually, another question @bailojustin . Is there anything I need to do to my HDDs on my old computer before I disconnect from the mobo? Do I need to make sure the drive isnt encrypted or make sure that it goes into some recovery mode or something? Thanks.

 

[bailojustin]

Actually, another question @bailojustin . Is there anything I need to do to my HDDs on my old computer before I disconnect from the mobo? Do I need to make sure the drive isnt encrypted or make sure that it goes into some recovery mode or something? Thanks.

Make sure that you do not have a user profile on the HDD that you originally used to boot, if it has a profile it will ask for a password, other then that nope, you should be able to plug them right in and use them with no issues, you may even want to look into setting up a raid array with that many HHDs