Hard Drive Switching...

[MilkMan859]

I have read two similair but did not quite answer the question I am looking for. My motherboard in my Hp a1130n went out. I purchased a new motherboard but it is an atx so i purchased a new case as well. I was just going to put everything from the no longer working computer into the new case that has a new motherboard. Then I got enough money to build a new machine. The hard drive from the Hp has all my music,videos.etc on it. I need to keep those. I have another computer i use for gaming. I would like to make that my new computer for music and every. I then wanted to sell the hp component computer to someone else. I want to put the music hardrive in my old gaming computer and the old gaming computer into my new gaming computer. I am basically trying to swap hard drives. I have read that this can happen and i have read that this cant happen. I do not want to purchase a new copy of windows and reformat or copy or ghost. I would if possible I would like just swap hardrives. A thread by savage something said that it worked for him. The post Can i? said it can not work. I need to know if it can or if it can not. First thread sorry if confusing.

 

[raybay]

You will have a very difficult time without a reformat and a reinstall.
Put the drive into another desktop jumpered as a slave, then drag and drop the files to the desktop drive, or burn them to disk. You may need to use recovery software for some programs, email files, etc., depending on what you use.
Then you will need a copy of windows or a windows recovery disk to reformat and perhaps re-partition the drive, then install Windows.
Part of the problem is the protective way that Microsoft blocks Windows when the hardware changes. The other part of the problem is that using a Recovery Disk set is not the same as using a full, unrestricted version of Windows which will often allow you to repair the disk to restore it to full use in a new computer... but that is costly.

 

[MilkMan859]

Switching Harddrives

Is there any harm in trying and if it works then great but if nothing happens then nothing hurt? Also all i am really worried about is my music. I can reinstall games and all that. I have about 90 gigs of music that i would need to keep. I dont have a real depth of knowlege on hardware and software and compatability and all that so I am just basing this off another post by payo and savage and someone else. They said it worked. The changes would not be that drastic interms of software if I just remove everything but the windows drivers then would i have a better shot? If there is no shot then what is the easiest way to keep and use files?Thanks for help