Old hard drive in new system

  • Thread starter Thread starter acdc
  • Start date Start date
A

acdc

Thinking about replacing my old mb and cpu with new ones. Can I just plug
the hard drive back? Need to do something first? Or reformat and
reinstall?

TIA
 
Thinking about replacing my old mb and cpu with new ones. Can I just plug
the hard drive back? Need to do something first? Or reformat and
reinstall?

TIA
Click to expand...
Just depends. Lots of things factor in.
Sometimes it'll boot up to the old drive, sometimes not.
Can't hurt to try.
if not back up, back up etc....
 
Thinking about replacing my old mb and cpu with new ones. Can I just plug
the hard drive back? Need to do something first? Or reformat and
reinstall?

TIA
Click to expand...

I would be surprised if it works. If it does then I would be ready for
unexplained crashes.

In my experience this will be especially true if your upgrade is a big
one (eg PII 350 to P4) or is a change in Mobo (maker and or chipset)

Like Gothika says - give it a go.

The worst that will happen is that you will have to do a reinstall.
Just make sure you have all your critical files backed up before you
install the CPU and Mobo.

Good luck

Just out of curiosity what are you upgrading From and To?
 
acdc said:
Thinking about replacing my old mb and cpu with new ones. Can I just plug
the hard drive back? Need to do something first? Or reformat and
reinstall?

TIA
Click to expand...
There is a chance it will work with Win 98 and lower, but it is not
likely to work if your OS is XP due to the massive hardware changes. In
fact, it is almost a certainty it will not work.
 
acdc said:
Thinking about replacing my old mb and cpu with new ones. Can I just plug
the hard drive back? Need to do something first? Or reformat and
reinstall?

TIA
Click to expand...

Which OS, out of curiousity?

You'll likely have to boot from the cdrom and do a reinstall/repair of
the OS.
 
acdc said:
Thinking about replacing my old mb and cpu with new ones. Can I just plug
the hard drive back? Need to do something first? Or reformat and
reinstall?
Click to expand...

I'd back-up important data, then re-format the drive and re-install
the OS when the drive is attached to the new MB. It may seem like a
lot of work, but will make for a clean install and will make life
easier in the long run.

Jeff
 
You MUST reformat and do a clean install of XP if you want to avoid nasty
ongoing Registry errors, after replacing a motherboard.
 
Back
Top