Transferring an internal drive without data loss.

I’m about to build a new system running XP64 and would like to know if it is possible to transfer an internal (SATA) drive, which is purely used as storage from my old system running XP 32 without having to reformat it and retaining access to the already written data which is quite a considerable amount (approx 750 Gb) and would be exceedingly tedious to burn to DVD.

I should emphasize I will be installing the system on a different drive, not this one which is purely for the purpose of data storage.

Is this something only possible with an external drive, or can it be done with an internal drive? Could it be done between two systems running identical OS’s but not between an XP32 and an XP64 system? Is there some kind of application I need to perform this task?

Or am I worrying about nothing and will it be as simple as plug and play between the two systems?

 

Simply hook up your old hard drive to the new computer internally. There is nothing special you have to do except tell the BIOS which hard drive you want to boot off of.

Also, if the older hard drive you are putting into the new computer had windows on it, you may run into problems with permissions. Hopefully that won't occur.

 

If you are going to install the OS on another HD then your info will be accessible on the new PC but if you have any applications on the disk from the 32bit they will not run on the 64bit.
I run 2 PCs with 4 different OSs and all my data is stored on External hard drives but is available to any of the OS but as i said 32bit apps will not run on 64bit.