Transferring a hard drive from old to new

This may be a dumb question..and i swear I'm not trolling...
But if I take my old Sata II hard drive and put it in the new PC I'm getting today which also has Sata II, will it just be like i was using it in the PC I'm on now and all of my files will just stay with it? Or will I have to format it and lose all my files?
*I don't have an external hard drive btw*

 

Welcome to Major Geeks!

If you place the old drive in the new PC as a secondary drive, you should be able to access files (pics, music, documents, etc.) from it. You will not, however, be able to use it as a primary (boot) drive or run most licensed programs (such as MS-Office) from it that were set up on the old PC.

What I would suggest:

* Install the old drive as a secondary drive in the new PC.

* On the new drive, make new folders titled "Old Documents", "Old Pictures", "Old Music", etc.

* Find the old files on the old drive and copy them to the folders on the new PC.

Once you are sure they have been copied correctly, reformat the old drive and set up the old drive for Windows Backup.

Hope this helps.

 

Question Answered. Case Closed. Court Adjourned . I love you
Thank You :wave

 

In addition to all that gman said, because the old hard drive is setup with the drivers for the hardware in the old computer, it is likely none of the new hardware devices will be recognized if moved into the boot location of the new computer - meaning it may not boot at all. Also, if the Windows license used on the old computer is an OEM license (and the vast majority of Windows licenses are OEM) then it would be illegal to use that license on the new computer. Remember, we don't buy the software, we buy a license to use it. And we agreed to abide by the license agreement when we first decided to continue using the software. And part of the agreement with OEM software is that it is not transferable to new computers - it is tied to the "O"riginal "E"quipment.

So I second the recommended course of action provided by gman as your best option technically, but legally too.