[SOLVED] Transfer Hard Drives

[EzRa_KurLz]

I'm getting a new PC soon and was wondering if it's possible to just swap my current hard drives to my new PC, my hard drives just have my games and other files on them, no trying to swap the os, so I don't have to download all my games again.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm getting a new PC soon and was wondering if it's possible to just swap my current hard drives to my new PC, my hard drives just have my games and other files on them, no trying to swap the os, so I don't have to download all my games again.

If you're thinking of moving the old OS drive to the new system and simply booting up....rethink this concept.

So...give us some details on the old and new system, and what you're actually tryng to do.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

should work fine.
just make sure no system partitions are located on these drives.
if they were connected when you installed the former OS then there is likely still Recovery or other system partitions on them.
if so, you should be able to just delete them and reallocate that space.

it's always much easier to just re-scan game files with their host distributor(Steam, Epic, GOG, etc) than totally reinstalling everything again.
any required registry entries or engine drivers should just be reinstalled after the game data has been re-scanned.
good reason to always keep game data on a separate drive.

one thing you may want to do if you haven't already and it's not too late;
backup all of your game user data from 'C:\User' folders & 'C:\ProgramData' folders.
many of the game save and options data can be buried deep within these folders.

 

[USAFRet]

should work fine.

With knowing ZERO details...how can you say 'should work fine;' ?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

how can you ay 'should work fine;' ?

no trying to swap the os

if there is no operating system involved in the drive relocation there should be no issue.

 

[EzRa_KurLz]

should work fine.
just make sure no system partitions are located on these drives.
if they were connected when you installed the former OS then there is likely still Recovery or other system partitions on them.
if so, you should be able to just delete them and reallocate that space.

it's always much easier to just re-scan game files with their host distributor(Steam, Epic, GOG, etc) than totally reinstalling everything again.
any required registry entries or engine drivers should just be reinstalled after the game data has been re-scanned.
good reason to always keep game data on a separate drive.

one thing you may want to do if you haven't already and it's not too late;
backup all of your game user data from 'C:\User' folders & 'C:\ProgramData' folders.
many of the game save and options data can be buried deep within these folders.

Thanks, I had the os installed with one hard drive in it, my os is on my ssd which I'm not planning on taking out. Thanks for the advice and I'll go ahead and take a look about the recovery partitions all I really have on my hard drives are just games and some other files like mods and stuff but that's about it.

 

[DSzymborski]

Steam games tend to transfer well (though you'll have to install Steam on the new PC and then point Steam to them, which takes five minutes). Other services less so, and straight-up installed applications much worse.

 

[EzRa_KurLz]

Steam games tend to transfer well (though you'll have to install Steam on the new PC and then point Steam to them, which takes five minutes). Other services less so, and straight-up installed applications much worse.

Thanks I'll keep that mind, appreciate the advice

 

[EzRa_KurLz]

If you're thinking of moving the old OS drive to the new system and simply booting up....rethink this concept.

So...give us some details on the old and new system, and what you're actually tryng to do.

Nah as I said in the post I'm not planning on moving my os, I have it installed in an ssd which I'm not taking out, I just want to transfer my hard drives that have my games and other files on them

 

[DSzymborski]

Uplay games tend to also be relatively easy. Not as easy as Steam, but when you install Uplay and login, you can verify the game files one game at a time. Origin and Epic tend to be far jankier.

I wouldn't count on any other applications being moved. Games on services are integrated through Windows through the parent platform, so that can be cleaner. Applications directly use Windows resources and directories, so that's basically a no-go not worth making an effort for.

 

[Jhonson12]

Many of them have lots of doubts about this. I also had this issue like Disk Read Error but later I searched this in google and I got some tips, I think it may help you. Click the Windows button on your keyboard and type Windows Easy Transfer then Click Next to continue. Next select the USB drive as the target, then select No for This is My New Computer.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Many of them have lots of doubts about this...
Click the Windows button on your keyboard and type Windows Easy Transfer

doubts about what?
OP is not trying to transfer their Windows installation or their User account to a new system.