A Quick Question

Soldato
Joined
7 Jan 2003
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Gold Coast, Australia
My computer has died and I am thinking its the motherboard which isn't too much of an issue as I planned on building a Ivy Bridge setup this week anyway!

The question I have is, I have data stored on my SSD that I need on my new system such as email data file, documents etc.

What is the best way for me to retain this for my new build? If I install windows on the hard drive again for my new drive will it keep all my old install files and documents?
 
when you put your new PC together, simply DO NOT have any HDD/SSDs that have valuable data connected to the MB or powered on to avoid accidentally formatting the drive when installing windows. once windows is installed, just reconnect the drive(s) and access the data you need. you may need to assign a drive letter to the missing drives in disk management, under admin tools in control panel.
 
when you put your new PC together, simply DO NOT have any HDD/SSDs that have valuable data connected to the MB or powered on to avoid accidentally formatting the drive when installing windows. once windows is installed, just reconnect the drive(s) and access the data you need. you may need to assign a drive letter to the missing drives in disk management, under admin tools in control panel.

The problem is my SSD is my current boot drive and I need information off that, my other two mechanical drives are backup which are both almost full.

So I don't think what you suggested is feasible??!
 
No. It will still be there because you have put in new motherboard etc you just need to re-enter your product key since it thinks its a different PC after a certain amount of parts are changed.
 
Hi there,

Personally, I would get a HDD SATA dock or use a HDD sata 2.5in enclosure (like this) - so you can temporarily slot in the SSD and copy over the data you need to a different computer.

If you have access to another desktop then you could simply plug in the SSD via SATA (plus the power connection) and use the drive as a secondary hard drive - again allowing you to save your data.

Then when the data is safe, do a standard windows install/format with the new motherboard.
 
No. It will still be there because you have put in new motherboard etc you just need to re-enter your product key since it thinks its a different PC after a certain amount of parts are changed.

I am pretty sure in most cases a hard drive will not boot an OS installed on a completely different system.

Hi there,

Personally, I would get a HDD SATA dock or use a HDD sata 2.5in enclosure (like this) - so you can temporarily slot in the SSD and copy over the data you need to a different computer.

If you have access to another desktop then you could simply plug in the SSD via SATA (plus the power connection) and use the drive as a secondary hard drive - again allowing you to save your data.

Then when the data is safe, do a standard windows install/format with the new motherboard.

Ahh thats a thought i should be able to do that in my partners computer and back it up to a USB stick!
 
Well when I rebuilt the rig Im using now I was using WinXp and it just required a product key to be re-entered and I completely changed the system minus the HDD and it worked fine. Not sure if Win7 has changed that however.
 
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