moving old hdd to new comp build

i have a old dell hdd and i have a new comp build and was wondering if i transfer it to new comp if the os would stay on it or if i could somehow delete everything on it and do a fresh install of windows all from that new computer. btw it would be set as master because i have no other hdd.

 

Yes and no, mostly no, and that is if your new system even supports your old hard disk drive type...
I have read this on numerous occasions-
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

Got Root ?

 

Transfering the operating system almost never works. Windows will likely just BSOD.
I assume, seeing you say it's an older drive, that it's IDE. So as long as your new motherboard supports IDE (has IDE connectors) the drive itself should be fine to swap over. But you will need to do a reinstall so make sure first that your windows disk is still readable (happened to me once ) and you have your product key.

 

Agreed with above posts......sometimes (not very often but sometimes) you can go asus to asus or msi to msi but Dell are in a world of thier own, I don't know any Dell boards that will interchange OS's let alone to a different manufacturer.

 

This info may help: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

 

ok thanks for all the help, but i don't have the product key because the computer is 5 years old and xp was preinstalled. But i have a legite vista installation disk can i do anything with that?

 

If the computer will support it, then you can install vista.

 

ok when I install vista will it wipe the hdd of all the previous files?

 

Yes.

 

Ok Sweet thank you for all your help.

 

No problem. Enjoy!

 

I just built a new system and transferred everything from my old hard drive to the new one.
I burned a copy of EaseUs then installed both drives in the new comp and it worked.

The only thing that is strange is that the new 160gb drive only reads like it is the old 40gb.

I'm currently looking into correcting that.

 

Have a look at using gparted to increase the size of the partition.

 

Don't vista save your old OS file (if you have XP) to a seperate set of files when you install Vista?Or is that if you just do the upgrade?Could you make a new partiton and then Boot to vista and it read the "other" partiton? Never tried so if what i say sounds Noobish...sorry. I always wipe everything after I copy all needed data first.

 

Hello,

If you run the upgrade, then Vista will move your windows files to a folder called windows.old on the same partition, and your program files to programfiles.old, again on the same partition. Vista also removes or edits the starup options, so once you upgrade to vista, your old operating system will become inaccessible.

If you do a clean install, all of your old files will be erased from the partition.