Adding / opening a hard drive with an OS on it

If I have a new computer and a slot where I can put another drive, ideally I'd like to be able to mount the one from an old computer and transfer the files / folders to the new one.
I know the new one will boot from it's existing drive but can I do this as the old one will also have an OS on it and will I be able to see the files etc. and transfer them over?

If I can I'd do that and then reformat the old one and use it as extra storage.

The old computer's died, otherwise I'd just attach an external drive and copy it across and the reformat.

There's no reason your computer should have any problem - it should continue to boot from the existing drive. If, for some odd reason there is a problem, you can simply remove the older drive and get an HD enclosure to reformat.

And yes, you should be able to see and access all files on the older drive when you install it. It's possible you'll have to take ownership, but that's simple enough to do if necessary.

As long as the old drive wasn't encrypted with Bitlocker, there won't be any problems copying files from the old drive to the new install.

DJNelson said:

As long as the old drive wasn't encrypted with Bitlocker, there won't be any problems copying files from the old drive to the new install.

Click to expand...

It's for a friend, his computer's so old the dinosaurs were roaming the earth, I don't think Bitlocker had been invented when he bought it

Sorry, but I completely disagree with the other posters. You will have a permissions issue accessing the files under the user on the old drive. You will have to take ownership of the files. The only way permissions do not come into play is when files are copied to external media first and then copied again from external media into your new user account. DO NOT MOVE. In your case permissions will keep you from doing that either.

Where permissions may be a problem, I use a Live Linux distro on usb for copying files to external media . Linux doesn't care about permissions. It's quick and easy.

no, you shouldn't.. unless its encrypted. if its just an admin account, you can just open the directories and take the files from them.