Swapping out hard drives

[TraumaRN]

So for my first post ever on Anand(even tho I read/check forums every day) I have a kinda noobish question, now come August I plan on buying and building my first system(using an A64 X2) But thats not important, what I'm wondering is I have my current almost 2 year old Dell, now when I buy and set up that new computer I should be able to take my old HDD out and put it into the new system right?

Essentially I have all my critical nursing school files, all my photography from the past 2 years or so, and various other things of course. So will it be just that easy or am I missing something along the way. Also I do plan on buying a 2nd hard drive, I wont have them in Raid, but I figure one HDD for OS and one for everything else.

Thanks goes out to those who help!

 

[airfoil]

Welcome to AT!

You should be able to use the drive in the new rig just fine.

Considering that you have some valuable stuff stored on this drive, you may want to consider backing up your data.

 

[bREwIn dOdgEr dUDe]

what the Foil said, definitely back-up... most hard drive mfrs. offer tools that you can use to transfer data, you could use symantec ghost too... my guess is that cuz you're using a dell, that when you bought it, dell probably jam packed it with stuff (you'd probably won't want to bring over a good portion of it to a new drive)... you can be selective with any transfer tool you choose... oh did i mention back-up...?

 

[TraumaRN]

Thanks to both of you for the quick responses, and yes I have the most valuable information backed up on CD's at the moment and yes Brewin my HDD is packed with all sorts of Dell crap I dont want

 

[rforum]

You will want to install Windows on the new drive first (don't connect your old drive until the new drive is up and running). The new drive will likely be much faster than your old one. Your new drive will then probably be your main C: drive. Now connect your old drive setting any jumpers if necessary. Now your old files should be available.

 

[Tarrant64]

Indeed be sure to backup everything. Granted what you want to do should be an easy thing, but ya never know. I hate it when I move something and everything just breaks.

If you just want to move it to the other computer and keep the same OS installation and what not, you will probably be prompted to reactivate your windows installation, and you will also need to install/reinstall drivers for stuff as well. Other than that, i see no problem with it.

And welcome.

 

[bob4432]

it should be that easy, just use the new drive like others have stated as the main drive. for the most part, manf like dell, compaq, ibm etc use regular hdds like maxtor, seagate and just either put their part number on it or their actual label. in the past dell did some stuff with p/s and their pinouts, but i am assuming you will not be using that.

not trying to discourage a x2 build, but they are going to be awfully expensive when they first come out. is there a certain reason you are doing the x2 vs a a64 or p4? i know this is off your topic and i have no idea of your computer knowledge, but i am a cheap guy and like to try to save others money as in the past i spent thousands just to learn the computer arena is not a good place for money, what you buy today may be worth 1/2 in 6-9 mos, and being a early x2 adopter, you are going to pay hard for them.

again, not trying to step on toes, just trying to save some peeps some $$$$

 

[TraumaRN]

Ahh you arent stepping on my toes and it's ok that it's off-topic. And I want an X2 for a few reasons, the first and foremost being multitasking. I'm the type that will sit in my college dorm/apartment and have 3 instances of Word open, a couple PDF's open, while listening to Winamp, while surfing the web, while burning a CD, etc etc. So it'll help me out in a major way in that instance as my current P4(an old P4 Northwood) loves to CHUG when I try and do that kinda stuff. I'm also a gamer at heart and while I know games arent multithreaded they soon will be.

And cost really isnt going to be much of an issue for me, yes I'm in college so usually that means I'm broke but seeing that I'm in nursing school, I'm holding down a decent job(think $12-13 dollars an hour) nearly full time in the summer and I can bust out the money that I need, moreover I'm taking a wise approach to this by buying certain parts early instead of buying things en masse, such as the case, PSU, new HDDs, etc, so then when August rolls around I can buy myself a mobo, RAM, and an X2(preferably the 4400+ as it seems the most bang for my buck.) And then put it all together around the time college starts back up.

Oh and last but not least I plan to reuse a few things too, like mouse and keyboard, moniter, my sound card(Audigy 2 ZS), speakers...you get the idea

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
Ahh you arent stepping on my toes and it's ok that it's off-topic. And I want an X2 for a few reasons, the first and foremost being multitasking. I'm the type that will sit in my college dorm/apartment and have 3 instances of Word open, a couple PDF's open, while listening to Winamp, while surfing the web, while burning a CD, etc etc. So it'll help me out in a major way in that instance as my current P4(an old P4 Northwood) loves to CHUG when I try and do that kinda stuff. I'm also a gamer at heart and while I know games arent multithreaded they soon will be.

And cost really isnt going to be much of an issue for me, yes I'm in college so usually that means I'm broke but seeing that I'm in nursing school, I'm holding down a decent job(think $12-13 dollars an hour) nearly full time in the summer and I can bust out the money that I need, moreover I'm taking a wise approach to this by buying certain parts early instead of buying things en masse, such as the case, PSU, new HDDs, etc, so then when August rolls around I can buy myself a mobo, RAM, and an X2(preferably the 4400+ as it seems the most bang for my buck.) And then put it all together around the time college starts back up.

Oh and last but not least I plan to reuse a few things too, like mouse and keyboard, moniter, my sound card(Audigy 2 ZS), speakers...you get the idea

just out of curiosity, what is your current northwood? and also, what gpu are you going with?