new build by new builder

kayliss1011 · 6 Aug 2011 at 14:29

hi never built before can someone tell me if i move over my old HDD will it just plug and play with windows and all my old programs installed?

stulid · 6 Aug 2011 at 14:31

Two things could happen.

1) The PC throws a fit and you get a crashing BSOD,
2) It boots fine and recognizes the new hardware and will prompt for drivers for the new hardware.

chrisarm · 6 Aug 2011 at 16:53

It depends what type of HDD connection it has, if it is quite old then it is probably IDE (quite long oblong with 2 rows of holes) or a newer one which would be SATA (looks like 2 L-shapes on there sides) Most new motherboards especially the new intel boards don't support IDE, I'd see what type you have and if it is IDE then you'd probably be better off getting a cheap external 3.5" case (seen them about for about a tenner) for the hard drive so you can plug it in Via USB instead. The only thing is it would be pretty rubbish to use as a main drive this way.

If it is SATA then as Stulid said, if it worked ok before then should be ok now.

kayliss1011 · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:14

yes its a sata drive my old system isn't that old q6600 i just thought i would like to upgrade to an i5 and have a go at building my own

Davefran · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:22

I'll be doing a similar upgrade next week, Q6700 to i5 2500K.
But I'm going for a fresh install, there's something satisfying about a new clean windows installation ;-)