re using hard drive

[insertURL]

i have a 1tb caviar green WD hard drive that came with my hp from 2012. the hard drive still works as i tested it on an older HP. i am currently using Dban on the hard drive so i can use it in my new build. will i be able to use it without crashing or not booting up at all. oh i also dont have the windows 7 disk(or the key) that came with the PC and the hard drive has windows 7.

 

[thx1138v2]

If you run DBan on the hard drive it will wipe everything on the drive including Windows 7. So there will be no Windows 7 on it when DBan completes.

If you are going to use it as a secondary drive with another drive as the boot drive then, yes, it will be useable.

If, however, you were going to use Windows 7 from that drive to boot the new machine then, no, it will not work because Win7 won't be there any more and you have no disk or key to reinstall it.

Even if you don't wipe the drive it may or may not work since you don't have the disk or a key because the new mobo will probably need new drivers from the disk. With the key you could download an image and burn an install disk but since you don't have that either you'll be out of luck.

 

[Paperdoc]

There is a good chance that HDD is OK to use. I suggest you do two things to get more confidence.

1. Zero-fill that HDD. I believe DBAN has that ability. I'm sure WD's Data Lifeguard utility package (see below) does. A Zero Fill writes all zeroes to EVERY Sector of the HDD. With modern drives, what that does is trigger an internal self-diagnostic process that will detect any Sectors that have failed or even look like they are weak, and replace them from a stock of spare good Sectors. This takes many hours, but when it is finished, the HDD has NO Bad Sectors (unless it has real problems and runs out of spare good ones).

Download from the WD website their free diagnostic utility package, Data Lifeguard. Personally I prefer the "for DOS" version you burn to a bootable CD that you can use even if your machine has NO working HDD and can't boot. But in OP's case - has a machine with Windows working just fine on one HDD - you can use the "for Windows" version. Install and run from your C: drive.

There are three important tests on its main menu once you specify which HDD you want to test. The first happens automatically - it will read the SMART data from the HDD and display that. Pay attention to info on the count of faulty Sectors that have been replaced already. This sort of self-repair happens in the background all the time. But there is a limit to how many spare good sectors are available, and when this limit is approached, the drive puts out a SMART message as a warning that things are getting to the worry stage. As long as you're NOT seeing a warning message because of lots of Bad Sector replacements already done, do not worry there. Now, run the Short Test of the HDD. If that shows you no problems, run the Long Test to be absolutely sure. Guess what - it take a long time, so be patient. If your old HDD passes all of these tests, you can be quite confident that it is in good shape and reliable enough to use normally. Moreover, because of the Zero Fill operation is is completely empty of all previous data, just like a brand new HDD. You will have to Initialize or Create a New Simple Volume to get it ready for re-use by Windows.