Very old hard drive in a new computer

[arizonaTears]

I'm building my new PC tomorrow, and I was thinking I might take the hard drive from an old system (one of those HP mini towers) with windows xp and everything. Firstly I want to know if this is possible, and if it is, I want to know the correct way to boot up. I have a USB drive with windows 7 on it. I just don't want to mess anything up.

 

[delellod123]

the old drive with an OS installed will boot up instantly to a Blue Screen. New hardware will make this not work. You would need to format the old drive first, or create a new partition, in which case, the old partition could not be booted into because it is set up for different hardware. You could still read files off of it though, when in windows (using the new partition).

That said, hard drives are prone to fail over time. May want to invest in a new one, maybe an SSD for super speed. best investment you could make for a faster PC experience.

 

[arizonaTears]

Well, my end goal is definitely to buy a new hard drive. However, I'm a student and I was given a strict budget to build my new system and the HD put me over. To be honest I don't know when I'll have the cash to get a new one. Now, if I boot without a hard drive and install win 7 from my USB, then put the hard drive in, will I face problems? Will it revert back to XP?

 

[delellod123]

you cannot install windows without a hard drive. Where would it install to?