Old hard drive and OS in new system

[genelite]

Hello, I currently have a hard drive that came with my dell vostro 200. The OS windows vista is installed onto that and the hard drive has not been modified at all. i want to use this hard drive in my new build. What exactly do I have to do to it for this to work? Can i just hook it up to the new motherboard and components and everything will work just as it did before except with new hardware or do I have to do some formatting? I am very new to this as you can tell. any help is appreciated. thank you.

 

[chugot9218]

Nope you will have to do a brand new install, there are MOBO specific attributes that get written to your Windows install.

 

[daship]

You need to format it and install a new OS. Your old dell OS will not work.

 

[genelite]

i have a download of windows 8 ready but i dont know what exactly to do. do i burn this install onto a dvd or put it on a usb and then install it? what is the process? thank you

 

[daship]

DvD and install but if you don't have a legal Key you will be dead in the water real fast.

 

[genelite]

I am a student and i have a free copy of windows 8, its legal lol. thanks though i will do that