[SOLVED] Transfering hard drives to new PC

[joshjj25]

This might be a dumb question. So I have a fully working gaming PC with windows 10 right now. I recently got a rtx 2080 so I wanted to upgrade my CPU and motherboard too. I want to keep everything I have on my PC without having to download anything again. Can I just plug my SSD and HDD into my new PC without problems or will i have to reinstall everything again? I didnt know if I hook up my harddrive with windows 10 to the new pc would it say I need that code? Thanks

 

[Paul NZ]

Depends what the old and the new system is

If the old is AMD and the new is Intel then nope. Do a clean install. Otherwise, you've got a 50/50 chance of it crashing

 

[joshjj25]

They both will be intel, so I need to clean install it again? Will I need to buy windows again too?

 

[Paul NZ]

They may use different chipsets, have different hardware, and drivers so it may still crash

Depends if it activates or not. I have no idea

 

[Dugimodo]

Windows used to make it impossible to do this, windows 10 however is much better at it and it often works. It is a risk though, even if it works it could end up being buggy and either way you may have activation issues if you have OEM windows which is tied to your old motherboard with the licence.

If you use an online login for your windows it should be tied to your MS account which can make transferring it easier by logging in to the same account on the new machine and using the activation troubleshooter.

A clean install is the safest and best overall option, and should be done with only a single drive connected before adding others. If you have steam or blizzard games they can be copied across or left on another hard drive and will save a lot of downloading.

For steam you just reinstall it then create a new library in the same location as your existing steam folder and when you "install" a game it will find all the local files and use them instead of downloading. For Blizzard you can usually just run the game from wherever and it will automatically reinstall the launcher and point it to the game folder - at least that wrks for WoW and diablo 3, haven't got any others myself.

One final comment - you don't have to activate windows to use it, it works just fine unactivated.

 

[joshjj25]

OK so my SSD has a couple games on it and my windows on it and my HDD just has games. So the best way is just to move all the important files off my SSD and do a fresh install of windows on it? Then can i just move my HDD over to the new PC without problems if it just has games on it and some random files?

 

[karenjoly]

Each occasion like this is sui generis. If you use the current drive nobody knows the outcome . You tell us how successful the current drive is.

A change in board will require you to contact MS to activate the current licence on the new system unless your email account is linked to a MS account, but maybe even then.

 

[USAFRet]

For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html


For the actual booting up...prepare for a full wipe and reinstall.
Win 10 is better than previous versions, but by no means a guarantee.

Basically, there are 3 possibilities:
1. It boots up just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It boots up, but you're chasing little issues for weeks.

I've seen all three.

Prepare for a full wipe and reinstall.
Be glad if you don't need it. But if you're prepared, you'll be glad if you do.