Need help with hard drive

f22 · 2 Apr 2006 at 16:22

Hey, ive built a basic pc for my brother and i was gonna put a hard drive in, that i had lying aroud for awhile out of my last pc. I was wondering if there is a way of getting rid of all the stuff thats on it without formatting the drive?
I want it so theres just windows on it as if its just been installed ?
Cheers.

xpcpu · 2 Apr 2006 at 18:26

you will need to format the drive and install a fresh copy of windows if the drive is from another pc.

iraiguana · 2 Apr 2006 at 22:35

^^ what he said, windows would otherwise be vastly affected, generally getting errors and all sorts of buggy stuff. is easiest to get a fres install on a newly built computer to keep it at its best.

Monstermunch · 2 Apr 2006 at 23:43

Basically, the way to think is that if the HDD has to host a new motherboard either in a new PC or an upgrade you HAVE to format it.

The OS that's installed on it contains all the registry and bios settings for the other mobo and coul cause real problems.

Albaba · 3 Apr 2006 at 09:06

You could just put it in and then go about removing drivers etc then putting all the new drivers on. This would undoubtably cause problems with the system in the future though. Also by the time you have spent messing on with the system cleaning it up etc you would have been able to install a fresh copy of windows. Format is always best in that situation

Albaba

squiffy · 3 Apr 2006 at 13:34

Format and reinstall. If it were Windows 3.11 you could do what you're saying.

You will need Windows corporate edition otherwise it'll do that hardware change keycode thing when it's redetecting.

div0 · 3 Apr 2006 at 14:06

/edit

*re-read post after making long-winded reply

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xirokx · 3 Apr 2006 at 16:14

agreed fresh install best way forward