[SOLVED] Using old HDD with Windows and files to just store files

[Tenceto]

Hi everyone!

I've just finished building a new PC and everything works fine. I'm using an SSD to boot Windows 10. The thing is that I wanted to use my old PC's HDD in the new build, to store files and some programs.

My old HDD is the one that has everything I've stored for the last 10 years: photos, videos, documents, applications and, of course, Windows as well. My question is: can I just connect it to the new PC and delete everything related to the OS? Could that have a negative impact on the files I want to preserve?

For instance, if I delete System32 (or any other folder that is not present in My Documents or Program Files), would that affect the disk's integrity? I want to know if it is necessary to make a backup of those things and copy-paste them manually instead of just plugging in the old disk and deleting what won't be needed anymore.

Thanks in advance!

 

[USAFRet]

Better to find all the stuff you want to KEEP, move that elsewhere, and then wipe the whole drive.
Much easier and safer.

 

[Tenceto]

Better to find all the stuff you want to KEEP, move that elsewhere, and then wipe the whole drive.
Much easier and safer.

Alright, I'll go that way then. Thanks!

May I ask, just out of curiosity, what is the unsafe thing of the approach I originally thought of?

 

[USAFRet]

Alright, I'll go that way then. Thanks!

May I ask, just out of curiosity, what is the unsafe thing of the approach I originally thought of?

"Windows" is much more than what you generally see. There are partitions and folders hidden from normal view.
Much easier and safer to extract the data you wish to keep, rather than trying to 'delete' everything else.