Can I switch hard drives?

[Tricen]

So my friend gave me his old tower, which is better than mine, and I want to start using it. Can I just pop out the hdds and switch them without worry? I tried looking it up and I came across a sys prep procedure, but I kept getting a failed error. I looked for remedies but nogo. Any advice?

[Kohan]

It depends upon the OS you're using. In ye olden days, this was not wise, as the OS would most likely not have the majority of drivers that you needed, and would therefore not handle the transition well. Nowadays, with how common most chipsets (e.g., sound) are, and considering that every GPU is going to work with generic drivers before you install legitimate ones, you will probably be fine. You should still uninstall any drivers unrelated to the hardware of the other machine first, and I would also recommend backing up your most precious things in case of Complete and Total Disaster, but everything will likely be fine.

Now, does this mean that this method is recommended? Not really. A fresh install is always better, and it is entirely possible that you will put it in, start the computer, and have a Windows install that refuses to start. I would know how to fix that, but I don't know if you would.

Basically, keep both computers by each other, and be ready to either experience everything being fine (presuming you're on Windows 7 or higher), or completely non-functional, requiring a wipe. In the latter case, your HDD will be fine, and you can just put it back in your old computer and back things up conventionally, and then get on with the formatting.

[hey]

This is a really terrible idea. Even if it works, it'll be more hassle than just reinstalling everything.

[Tricen]

Really? So what is the best way to go about this? Restore both pcs and just re download all my stuff I want on the new pc? I don't have the discs or anything for that, or do I not need them anymore?

[Salodin]

Personally, I would wipe his hard drive and reinstall. Afterwards, I would connect your HDD and move over any files you really want to keep (pictures, movies, etc), then format that same hard drive (to free up space from the OS and what not) and keep for storage by moving everything back to it. Now you have two hard drives, and are a very happy man.

[orinthia]

It was actually with old versions of windows (like 95/98-ish) that you could near swap them between very different systems without much worry and no system prep (as crashy as they were, they could be swapped like that). Newer versions needed to be system preped since they were too tied with system drivers to ever fully boot in the first place.

System preping should be ok since that was how systems were deployed in mass for corps/schools. An in-place upgrade can do the same work, but you'd need the install disc for the windows version that's currently on the system (win7 sp1 disc if win7 sp1 is unstalled, etc). And then it's finicky if it ever lets you do it at all.

Are the systems' bios setup differently? iow: were they both set to use UEFI or not? If different, make sure they match. Also, never mentioned what version you're using and if they were OEM (like dell, hp, etc) or were put together from parts.

[Prim]

Salodin's way seems the most efficient (and safest) for what you want to do. As for your programs you don't have discs for anymore- yea just redownload them. If you're talking about games and are worried about losing data, save files are often transferrable. Create a folder on the new HDD for your various saves and copy/paste them over individually; then reinstall and copy/paste back.

[Gulkeeva]

I've done this a few times, as I have a ton of programs, and just did not want to reinstall and download gigs of patches etc etc for windows 7.

Few things will happen! (mot likely)

1. If you can even boot to windows first time after the swap, it will search and try to install default... everything drivers for its new PC (motherboard/videocard/sound etc etc etc). This can take time, can install the wrong stuff.

2. 50% chance your windows X will request to be reactivated, and depending on how many times you've done this, it may require you to phone MS and talk to some machine to get a number to unlock the machine even.

3. Ensure your BIOS settings are set to even allow the swap. For example if your hardrive is set to AHCI, and the other PC isn't or visa versa, soon as you boot up, you will just get a bluescreen. Some PC's do auto detect, others manually set drive information, be sure to set it to auto to detect the right drive(s).

4. Hope for a miracle shit doesn't hit the fan, strange things can happen.

5. Doing this without wiping is pretty much not the optimal way to do things, but sometimes your lucky and nothing goes wrong (kinda why I've done it a few times), and its much faster then reinstalling everything potentially taking a day of downloading,restarting, patching and reinstalling.

[Shuichi]

If you are so inclined, you can use a program called Acronis. It allows you to clone and restore a HDD backup image to a different set of hardware using the Universal Restore feature. I use it at work. it's pretty handy.

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/smb/pro...l-restore.html