OK to Add my Old SSD?

[derekdonahue9]

Hey guys,

I bought an SSD for my laptop years ago and want to put it in my Inspiron XPS 8900. What I'm concerned about is the old SSD had stuff on it before my laptop died of natural causes and I was wondering if I added it to my XPS if there would be compatibility issues? Ideally, I would like to be able to access the old files from that SSD while losing nothing from my current XPS's HD. If it doesn't work out, would I be able to uninstall the SSD and my XPS be back to normal?

 

[Tanyac]

Compatibility issues - I would not think so. It's just a SATA drive.

Once you connect power and a SATA cable, whatever was on the drive should be accessible like data on any other drive.

Plugging in the SSD would not damage the data on your other drive.

You don't "uninstall" SSDs per se. You just disconnect the power and SATA cables.

 

[sizzling]

You will need to check the boot sequence otherwise it my try to boot from the old laptop Windows install. Apart from that it should just work as described above.

 

[derekdonahue9]

You will need to check the boot sequence otherwise it my try to boot from the old laptop Windows install. Apart from that it should just work as described above.

What happens if it tries to boot from the old laptop Windows install? What should I do to prevent any issues with that?

 

[sizzling]

No major issues, it will just try to run the laptops Windows and not your desktops. It might even boot but it may also fail. If it does boot it may be unstable.

If it does try to run the laptops Windows just reboot, change the boot sequence and try again.