Reusing an old HDD/OS?

[Garrekt]

I am building a new PC in a few days, upgrading from a prebuilt I bought around 5 years back. I'm pretty confident in my ability to complete the build due to much research but I have one major question. I didn't buy a new OS or HDD with my new components with the intention of just reusing my current 2TB HDD. Will I have any trouble with booting due to the copy of Windows being from a prebuilt PC? I read that then license is exclusive to the motherboard the OS was installed with. If this is a case will I be able to simply get a new key or should I be able to boot just fine?

Edit:Would it be safer to just wipe my HDD before installing(backing any important files up of course) and buy a Windows 7 Key for cheap, but it on a flashdrive, then boot from that then upgrade to Windows 10 for free when finished?

 

[Hellfire13]

its always a gud idea to do a clean installation...

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Garrekt.

You are correct about the license of the OS. However this wouldn't be possible even if you had installed a retail copy of Windows, as the OS would have been configured for the hardware of your previous system and you can't just transfer the drive from one computer to another and expect it to boot to Windows properly. This would've been possible if the motherboards were the same model or at least pretty similar models. In all other cases this is most likely to fail.
So the bottom line is this - unfortunately you won't be able to use the OS from your prebuilt computer and you'd have to make a fresh install of Windows for you new build.

Just do what you planned on doing all along. Backup the data, wipe the drive, buy Windows 7 (if that's what you prefer) and upgrade to 10. Note that Microsoft have announced that July 29 will be the last day for users to upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD