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can i re-use hard drive with windows already installed?
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can i re-use hard drive with windows already installed?Posted:

Fugazi
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i have a question about building a new computer. so currently i have a decent pc, i want to build a better one pretty soon, but keep some of the parts that i currently have. Can i use the same hard drive that already has windows installed along with all my games for the new ones and not have to buy windows again and re download everything? or will i have to wipe it before installing it onto a new pc? i havent ever built one, but am confident that i will be able to. i have done a lot of research. thanks for all the help.
#2. Posted:
Oversight
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Yes of course

You can use the old HDD as long as it will fit in the drive bay of the new case.
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Yes, you can use the same HDD and not wipe it. It will work with everything on it from the old computer.
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Crustyy
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It will work yes, You will need to reactivate windows though. If you contact microsoft they will be able to give you a key to do so or if its torrented just reactivate it the same way you did before.

It is a sata hard drive?

Personally i would recommend you back up your important files and do a fresh install of windows and install all the latest drivers for your new parts.
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Gary
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If you are planning on using the windows partition as your OS it won't work, I've tried this several times in the past and have had no luck using a preinstalled OS on a new motherboard. You will have to reinstall the OS so back up your files. You can however use the harddrive just not for its windows installation.
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Potion wrote If you are planning on using the windows partition as your OS it won't work, I've tried this several times in the past and have had no luck using a preinstalled OS on a new motherboard. You will have to reinstall the OS so back up your files. You can however use the harddrive just not for its windows installation.


I took my 500gb hard drive out of my old i7 920 pc and was able to boot of the windows that was installed on it
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You can sometimes move a HDD from one PC to a new one and windows will work, other times it will kick up a fuss and refuse to boot (happened to me). It is always best to start fresh tho and even better to buy an SSD and install the OS to that for much better speeds.
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If you have an OEM version of Windows on your PC, I'm fairly certain it gets locked to that motherboard, not the HDD, so moving the HDD to a new system would mean having to re-activate it. I'm not 100% sure though, so it'd be worth double checking. You can get Linux for free anyway, or Windows for free by other means. Or, you can buy a legitimate copy of Windows on the cheap from Reddit, or sites like G2A.

You mentioned that you haven't built a PC before so I'm assuming you currently have a pre-built, and the majority of the time with pre-builts, you can't just throw the HDD in another system and run Windows. Also, if it's a pre-built, there's a good chance re-using components isn't even worth it(especially case and PSU).
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