Best Method Shifting Hard Drive from Old to New PC

[sub-80]

Good Day;

Built a new PC [New motherboard, New CPU, New CPU Cooler, New Ram] The rest are from the old pc [SSD/HDD, VGA and PSU].

Best method to transfer the SSD/HDD from old pc to new pc. Is it:

1. Connect to New PC and Delete old Drivers and install new Drivers.
2. Use some third party software.
3. Format the C drive and start fresh. [Most Games are in a secondary ssd, and I am pretty sure I can install most of the applications.]

Regards;

 

[lehtv]

You will have to reinstall Windows after changing the motherboard. So, take backups of what you need from C:, connect the drive to the new PC, start Windows installer and do clean install on C:.

If your Windows is 7 or 8.1, I recommend upgrading to 10 since it's free. You can download Windows 10 directly onto a USB stick from Microsoft. You should be able to use a valid 7 or 8.1 activation key to activate Windows 10 directly. If this doesn't work, just install Windows 7 or 8.1, then download and install the update to Windows 10 before doing anything else.

When you first boot to Windows, install motherboard drivers (chipset drivers first, reboot, then LAN, audio and if needed, USB). Then install antivirus and any other programs you need. Your games on the secondary SSD will also need to be reinstalled (in most cases).

 

[QuietDad]

One thing I try and I'm usually successful with is installing the drivers for the new Mobo on the old PC while it is still running. Ignore the "There's nothing like that here" messages as you do the install. Now when you swap the HD into the new PC, when it first boots, Windows can find the drivers for the new chipset and not fall back to generic drivers.

 

[dlerious]

take a look at sysprep and imagex from MS.

 

[vailr]

There's a bootable software "Paragon Hard Drive Manager 15" that includes a function to accomplish exactly such a transition.
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hdm-personal/

However, one should attempt first: make certain HD controller driver changes while booted into the old system, and then see if the old HD can boot with the new system hardware.
In the case where the old system hardware has completely failed, the Paragon software should still allow for full functionality on the new replacement hardware, if the old HD is still in working condition.
Without requiring a complete re-install of Windows and re-configuration of installed software, desktop icons, and etc.