Transferring Old Hard Drive to New Computer

[xFlarp]

So basically I am building a new pc and I dont have the money right now to buy a ssd will I be able to use my old hard drive from my old computer on my new computer? Also I need to keep all the storage on the hard drive there is very important things on it.

 

[jsmithepa]

You can transfer all day long, but if you are asking, OS must be install from fresh, and if you had only a single C: partition, recommend backup to else where first. Data on D: can leave it.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the TH community, xFlarp!

It's recommended to do a backup of the files somewhere else as well. Having, at least, two copies of it stored on different drives/storage devices is the best way to prevent any potential data loss, especially when you will be transferring the HDD to a different system.
You'd be able to use it, however, you'd need to reformat it anyway due to the old OS files and software which will be uselessly taking up space. You'd also need a new genuine Windows operating system. The HDD is just a storage carrier for the system files, but the OS itself communicates with the motherboard. For further information, refer to MS support. This is where the backup copy of your important files from the HDD come in handy - Once you install the new OS on the HDD and reformat it completely, you'd be able to copy back your files onto it.

Hope this was helpful. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD