Question about a storage hard drive

[Senbonzakura]

Hi, I am new around here. I got myself a Hitachi 160GB SATA hard drive during black friday. I have been using it as a storage drive for my currect computer. I was wondering can I actually use this hard drive on a future computer that I might be getting? I basically want to use my stored files from this hard drive to my new computer. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Harvey]

There's no reason you can't install Windows on the drive as long as there's enough room on the drive for the OS. If you're running XP, it should be formatted in NTFS.

When you install it, be sure to tell the installation program not to format the drive so you don't lose the files that are already on it.

 

[Senbonzakura]

I won't be installing Windows XP on it. It is just a storage hard drive. No OS in it at all. This is why i'm asking because I tried using hte search feature and I keep finding posts about moving the OS Hard drive to another motherboard. I know for that you should definitely format. But, in my case I am just wondering can I just directly plug this storage drive into another computer that already has an OS installed to another hard drive.

 

[Harvey]

The long answer is, yes.

 

[Senbonzakura]

So I don't have to format anything right? And windows will immediately recognize the hard drive? Sorry for all the questions, kind of uninformed about these things. But so far thanks for all your replies.

 

[Harvey]

I do it all the time.

If you only want to plug it into another computer that recognizes SATA drives, you may want to get a moble rack for each computer. If you want to use it with a number of machines, you may want to get an external SATA to USB chassis. These items are available from a lot of sources. The links are for reference.

 

[Jiggz]

Originally posted by: Senbonzakura
So I don't have to format anything right? And windows will immediately recognize the hard drive? Sorry for all the questions, kind of uninformed about these things. But so far thanks for all your replies.

Yes, just plug it in any SATA port and it can be instantly recognized or may require to be initialized by XP but the data will still be there.

 

[pkme2]

I use mobile racks to transfer files from IDE to IDE machines and SATA to SATA rigs.

Its nice to just pop one in, remove and pop it into another computer.

Nothing special, just lock, unlock, and so on......