Using an old HDD

WoundingFormula

Prominent
Feb 15, 2017
2
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510
My old (2008 old) gaming pc has started to die on me. The graphics card is dead already. I decided since the system is so old I'd just buy all new stuff and build a new more up to date gaming computer. I've purchased a new case, CPU, graphics card, mobo and ram. My question is, will I still be able to hook up my old HDD from my old system that is fairly new (was replaced 3 years ago when the original died) without any issues? The old HDD has windows 7 on it that was ready for windows 10 upgrade before the gpu died on me and stopped working.
 
Solution
Yes you technically can use your old HDD. You will need to reactivate you windows installation though since that was registered to your previous hardware.

Now whether you should use your old HDD as a primary storage is another question. Depending on the speed and health of your old HDD, it may end up bottlenecking the performance of your new system. Generally for building a new performance system nowadays, the safe bet is to have a ~240GB SSD (~$100) for boot and a ~2TB HDD for storage (~$70).
Yes you technically can use your old HDD. You will need to reactivate you windows installation though since that was registered to your previous hardware.

Now whether you should use your old HDD as a primary storage is another question. Depending on the speed and health of your old HDD, it may end up bottlenecking the performance of your new system. Generally for building a new performance system nowadays, the safe bet is to have a ~240GB SSD (~$100) for boot and a ~2TB HDD for storage (~$70).
 
Solution
Thank you for the quick reply. I guess what I'm trying to do is be cheap. I already ordered a new HDD to go into the system but want all the stuff off my old one. I guess what I should ask is that my goal in my mind is taking the old hdd and putting it into the system. Upgrade it to windows 10, transfer everything including the OS from the old hdd to the new one and be done without having to purchase the OS again using the new hdd as the primary drive afterwards and the old one as just a secondary storage
 
Take a look at this link for reactivating windows.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

Essentially, the relatively painless way to do it is to already have your Microsoft account linked with the digital license. If you haven't done that, with your current PC dead, that might be a problem. I believe you should still be able to reactivate your license on the new hardware by going through Microsoft Customer Support but it'll be a more tedious process.