How To Transfer a Hard Drive To a New Computer

In this article, we’ll discuss how to transfer a hard drive to a new computer, without reinstalling anything.

There are several different situations when you’d want to transfer a hard drive to a new computer, but the two primary cases are:

You want to clone a hard drive from your current (working) computer, to a new computer
Your old computer is broken, and you need to recover everything from the hard drive to a replacement computer

In both cases, the goal is of course to transfer your programs, profiles, settings, accounts, documents, pictures, music, passwords, favorites and, of course, all files.

We will be doing the transfer using automatic hard drive transfer software, which means that you don’t need technical knowledge to do this; it is mostly automated.

Can I just put a hard drive into a new computer?

Of course, the first question that comes to mind is – can’t I just pop the old hard drive into a new computer and turn it on? Unfortunately, the answer is almost always “no”. Sure, if the new PC is identical to the old one (same exact model, same hardware), then this would typically work. However, even small differences in hardware would often affect functionality, and in most cases, your computer simply won’t boot up off the old drive.

From Old Hard Drive to New Computer

So if we can’t just stick the old drive into a new computer, how do we actually transfer? The answer is simple: we keep the Windows that is already installed on the new computer, and transfer the contents of that old drive to it.
This is a more sophisticated version of the old “cloning” approach, only instead of just overwriting everything on the new computer (which would make it stop working), we transfer everything that matters from the old drive – and leave the actual operating system on the new computer intact.
End result – your new computer has your programs, profiles, settings and all files, and works just like the old one (while you still enjoy all the benefits of the new system).
The beauty of this approach is that you can transfer to a completely different computer, different manufacturer, different Windows version – and still keep all of your stuff from the old hard drive. For example, you can recover from a Windows 10 HP Desktop hard drive, to a Windows 11 Lenovo laptop.

Already have the old hard drive connected to the new computer, and ready to recover programs and files from it?
Great! You just need to run Zinstall Migration Kit Pro, and it will recover everything from the drive, even programs.

Get Migration Kit Pro

Transferring to new computer

So how do we perform the actual transfer?
It depends on what exactly you are transferring from.

If your old computer is still functional, and the old hard drive is still inside – then you don’t even need to take it out. You can transfer directly from one computer to another.
Click here for a detailed tutorial on transfer from one computer to another

On the other hand, if your old computer is broken, and you need to transfer directly from its hard drive to another computer, the process is different.
Let’s see how it’s done.

Get the hard drive out of the broken computer and connect to replacement PC

The first step in transferring programs and data from a hard drive to another computer, is to gain access to that hard drive.

First, take the old drive out of the broken PC:

Disconnect the machine from power, and if it is a laptop – remove the battery.
In a desktop computer, open the case, and you will see the drive on the front side.
In a laptop computer, you will probably see a dedicated flap for accessing the hard drive, which you can open by removing a few screws.
Disconnect the hard drive from the cables that go into it, and take it out.

Now that you have the hard drive, you need to connect it to the new computer. There are several ways to do this:

You can use a USB hard drive enclosure, which is a special “box”-like device that you slide the old drive into. The enclosure then connects to the new computer via a simple USB.
You can also use a USB hard drive adapter, which is a cable-like device, connecting to the hard drive on one end and to a USB in the new computer on the other.
If the new computer is a desktop, you can also connect the old drive as a secondary internal drive, just as the one already in the new computer.

Once the old drive is connected to the new computer, in any of the ways above, you should be able to view the old files. At that point, you can proceed to the transfer stage.

How to Transfer From a Hard Drive To a New Computer

Once the hard drive is connected to the new computer, all you need to do is run the transfer software – Zinstall Migration Kit Pro.

On the new computer, run Zinstall Migration Kit Pro (you can get it here: Zinstall Migration Kit Pro)
It will automatically detect the old hard drive. Confirm the selection, and press Next.
If you want to only transfer some of the programs, or some of the files, use the Advanced menu to select which ones you want. If you want to just transfer everything from the hard drive to the new computer, simply click Next to continue.
You will be presented with a quick summary of what’s about to be recovery – press “Go” to start the process.

That’s it – once the recovery process is complete, you’ll have your apps and files rescued from the hard drive to the new computer!

Ready to transfer from old hard drive to new computer?

Get Migration Kit Pro Here