Whole system change while keeping HDD, is it required to format ?

[salawow]

Hello !

I just built my new computer and I'm giving my old one to my father. I kept my HDD, so my father will also keep his old HDD. Question is, do i absolutely have to format his HDD, or can i just switch it from a computer to another ? I would really like to skip all the backupping/reinstalling.

His current spec (i don't have it on hand but as i can remember)):

Core 2 duo 5000(ish) (dual core)
Nvidia gt 210 (or something like that)
some mini itx motherboard
500gb HDD with windows 7 on it.(can't remember if it's Sata or IDE, does it matter ?)

My old computer i will give him:

Q9550
Radeon HD6850
Asus P5Q pro turbo

So, can i just switch his HDD from one to another and voila ?

 

[USAFRet]

I would really like to skip all the backupping/reinstalling.

So would we all.
Unlikely, though.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

If the chipset on both motherboards are the same, it could work, all you'd need to do is to reinstall video drivers, so you could give it a try after finding out what chipset that mini ITX mobo has on it.

Yes, it does matter if it's SATA or IDE, if both were configured in BIOS as "IDE" when OS got installed shouldn't be a problem, but if the sata was set as "sata" or "AHCI" 100% the IDE won't work.

 

[salawow]

Alright, i will check about the chipset and try all that.

Thanks for the answers