can this be done? moving a hdd with out formatting

i am almost done buliding my new computer and i was wondering if i can take my 40gig hdd out of my old pc and put it in the new one with out formating? if i dont have too what do i do so this can be done do i go into device manger and just delete everything while under safe mode thin shut down and move it to the new one and start up and let it find everything? because it is a pain to update all my software, games and stuff on dialup and that would make it easy and not take 2 or 3 weeks to get it done

a big thanks for any help

 

It's kinda doable. It's tricky though, and you have a good chance of it not working. It depends how diffrent the two systems are. Also, windows 98se usually hands a switch like this with a lot of complaints but it will ultimately work. Where as the newer OS's like XP will quite often just fail out right.

In either case, it's a bad idea to do it. Even if you do get it going you're just asking for problems, and it will most likely provide you with them.

Ultimately it would most likely be quicker to fully reinstall windows, and save yourself a lot of problems.

 

ok thanks but i know it can be done because a friend of mine sent me a hdd one time because my old one was fried and when i got the new one from him i just stuck it in the new computer and started it up it loaded with no problem i did not even know he did that untell after i started up the pc and windows loaded i thought i was going to have to go through the setup and all that but windows was already on it and does having 98se make it easyer ? because thats what i have

 

It usually works better with windows 98, at least in my experience. The newer versions of windows are more integrated into the HW it's installed with and is much harder to move. So ultimatly if you really want to do it, you most likely can if you're using 98. It's just a bad idea, that usually causes problems.

 

If you've got a working CD-RW, or can borrow one, I'd just save your stuff to a CD, using Winzip compression if you need to, and then format the HD. If you need more compression than Winzip can dish out, someone here might have an idea, or I've got something that'll work, even if it's a bit tedious.

 

i am going to format it i done ziped everything up useing winrar and burned it all a friend of mine is sending me his old copy of XP pro with sp1 because he went and bought xp pro with sp2 lol so i guess problem is fixed and hey i just saved me a mess load of money by him doing that for me