[SOLVED] Use old hdd in new pc. Old hdd has windows 10 installed already. I'm upgrading from i3 to ryzen 3. How do I make it work. Will I encounter problems?

[Sufyan_riz]

Please help!I want to use old hdd in new pc. Old hdd has windows 10 installed already. I'm upgrading from i3 to ryzen 3. How do I make it work. Will I encounter problems?

 

[USAFRet]

Please help!I want to use old hdd in new pc. Old hdd has windows 10 installed already. I'm upgrading from i3 to ryzen 3. How do I make it work. Will I encounter problems?

99% chance you will need to do a full wipe and reinstall when the drive is in the new hardware.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Also, this (assuming Windows 10):
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

 

[Sufyan_riz]

99% chance you will need to do a full wipe and reinstall when the drive is in the new hardware.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Also, this (assuming Windows 10):
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

I have tons of photos in there(2x1TB HDD), How do i do this while keeping all my memory? Can't I just throw in an ssd then install windows 10 completely new. wold this work? Thanks for replying

 

[USAFRet]

A whole new drive of course would work.

 

[Juan_Bijero]

I have tons of photos in there(2x1TB HDD), How do i do this while keeping all my memory? Can't I just throw in an ssd then install windows 10 completely new. wold this work? Thanks for replying

I transfer all my important documents, photos, etc to a large USB thumb drive. It is amazing how cheap they are and can be locked up in a drawer or safe without taking up valuable space. As for using the old Windows drive as a new back up drive, it will still have extra partitions from the Windows 10 installation that will not go away with a simple format. If you move your important files over to a USB thumb drive, you can then remove all the hidden partitions using the diskpart command. (Diskpart will remove everything, so make sure that everything has been moved over before). If you don't know how to do that, there are plenty of tutorials online.