Question New PC build with Windows 7

[mjefferies]

I would like to build a new pc using a hard drive from a previous pc. Preferrably I would like to put together an AMD system using a Ryzen 3 or 5 processor.
I'm not sure if this can be done? I have done some searching at it seems the AM4 boards don't support windows 7. Is there a way around this?
I really need to salvage this drive as it contains over 7000 photos of a once in a lifetime Australian vacation, so what ever guidance I can get is appreciated.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Windows 7 can still be upgraded, for free, to Windows 10, and that would be advisable since ALL support for Windows 7 will end in January. And yes, there are an increasing number of platforms with no driver support for Windows 7. Whether any specific motherboard or component might be usable with it I can't say, but regardless, upgrading would be smart while you still can. It's fairly certain that as we get closer to the EOL of Windows 7 or after official support ends, that the offer of a free upgrade WILL also end so it's best to do it now.

Also, building a new system and trying to use a Windows installation from a previous platform is a bad idea and usually results in nothing but problems and frustration, so doing a clean install along with the new build is also a very good idea, almost a necessity.

It would be smart to simply purchase other media to transfer those photos to since they are valuable, and it's insanely foolish to have something so personally valuable only saved in a single location anyhow. It is never a question of IF a storage device will fail. The only question is WHEN, and when it does, it's too late. You'll never get that data back without spending thousands of dollars for recovery through a lab, and in many cases, not even then. But a new hard drive for the operating system, because if that drive has been around since the Windows 7 days then it is very old and likely to begin failing soon anyhow. Then buy another drive to store the photos on AND make a second backup of those photos on some other kind of device like a large USB flash drive, DVD discs or another storage drive, because even new drives can fail and if you only have those photos in one place, and that happens, they are gone. Period.

 

[mjefferies]

Ok thanks for the reply. If I build it as a brand new windows 10 machine, will I be able to recover the photos from the old drive? Is there a way to transfer them?

 

[Darkbreeze]

What you will need to do, is get storage medium to transfer the photos to, first. It will require either having a different drive for installing the operating system to and also probably another system of some kind to attach the drive to so you can transfer the images off of it to a permanent home.

How much space do the 7000 images take up? Capacity required for those pics in other words? It's possible you could simply get a couple of flash drives or SD cards and back them up to those, or an external USB hard drive.

More important might be, do you have the original Windows 7 license key in order to use for a clean install of Windows 10, because if not, then you will likely need to upgrade to Windows 10 using the current Windows installation on that drive, then attach your Windows 10 digital entitlement to a Microsoft account, and THEN do a clean install of Windows 10.

If you install Windows to the drive as it is now, then no, those images would be gone. You need to get the images off the drive FIRST, then install Windows.