Building a gaming desktop

[TheRundownRabbit]

Ithink I'll hold of on those for the first few months, and a new HDD as well, I can make do with the 1TB 3.5'' Im currently using at the moment, at least until the end of the year

That's also an option. Moving on to an SSD at a later point is usually really simple - mine (a Samsung 840 EVO) came with a cloning utility - I had to put the SSD in, install the software and pretty much just go "Yeah, copy my C:/ on there" and let it run - when it was finished, I could boot from the SSD from now on.

I forgot to ask, is anything weird going to happen when I put my old HDD in the new computer? Is there anything I'm going to have to do?

You might need to reinstall Windows. Sometimes odd stuff may happen, since you're basically changing the entire hardware around it. Sometimes it works, though. So...yeah - I guess you could just try and and see for yourself - if it boots, it's usually a good sign - just see if stuff is still working. If not - either doesn't boot or stuff is not working, then most likely it'd need to be reinstalled.

There used to be an "upgrade" option when installing back in the Windows XP days - it was way faster and easier than a full reinstallation - it would just re-copy the Windows files and leave everything else. I don't know if newer Windows-es still have it - I've not installed them that many times, so I can't remember if there was that option or not.

so just plug it in and see if it works? How would go about reinstalling my OS? The computer I'm currently using is a laptop, so I'm just double checking that everything won't go nuts if I decide to put my HDD in a desktop

 

[DoPo]

How would go about reinstalling my OS?

It's not that hard, actually. Here are few steps - they should also apply for any version of Windows (I've not installed Windows 8 yet, but so I'd expect the same to apply):

Prerequisites

- You need a Windows CD[footnote]Well, actually, you can also use an USB drive. You'll need to google the instructions on how to do it with one - it's a matter of taking the Windows installation CD and making it into a bootable USB. It's not hard, but CD is just simpler. As long as you can boot the installation from the USB drive, the instructions are practically the same[/footnote]. I suppose it would go without saying but still worth mentioning.
- You also need a product key to activate it. You would have one with the laptop but I don't know if it'd be applicable
- a lot of laptops come with a product key that is usable for the laptop itself. You may need to buy a new license.
- Time and something to kill it. All in all it probably takes me about an hour to install but it's boring. I usually get a book or something. Linux has the installations in the bag, however - it allows you to use the operating system while you're installing it - it's awesome!
- (optional) one thing that could save you some time after installation is if you can avoid setting various things back to what you like them. There is the Windows Easy Transfer tool you can use - it allows you to export your user profile and then import it in a different place (which would be after you install Windows) - it takes a couple of minutes in total and restores various settings and stuff. Open it and choose An external hard disk or USB flash drive - then choose This is my old computer and you'll be able to export the settings to a file on your hard drive (or USB or whatever). After reinstalling, you can do the same but choose This is my new computer and it would ask you for the file you created before - wait, restart when prompted and BAM - wallpapers, themes, settings, everything is back.

Installation

1. Make a backup of everything you need from your C: drive! This is very important - full reinstallation completely blitzes C: so everything you have there would be gone. You can happily move the data to any other drive - D:, E: - whatever, they won't be touched. You'd need to reinstall all your software, too but that's usually easy.
2. Put the Windows CD in the drive and then reboot the machine. It should ask you to boot from the CD - the message is usually "Press any key to boot from CD", so do that. A quick note - if that DOESN'T happen, then I've got instructions at the bottom for what to do.
3. The Windows CD will start up and present you with a simple-ish wizard. Choose to do a full install and then to install on C:. A note or you can try the Upgrade option, if it's available - in that case, that's pretty much everything you need to do - the rest of the steps are for the full installation.
4. Follow the rest of the instructions - you'll need to pick a computer name (doesn't matter what it is), username, password (if you're going to be importing your profile - these would be overriden by the old profile anyway), as well as what your regional settings are. As you're in the USA (according to your profile), you probably don't need to change anything, otherwise you'll be able to change your keyboard layout and the format of time/date/money/etc.
5. Wait. It takes ~30-40 minutes to install, I believe. This is where I read a book or something.
6. After the installation finishes, you'll be presented with a couple more things where you can just press "Next" few times.
7. You'll now be able to login - do so and start restoring stuff you need - data, software, and so on. If you have your old profile, you can do that, too.

At one point during the installation you'll be asked for a product key. I can't remember if it's the beginning or the end. At any rate - do so when asked. Or...not. You could, actually, skip that part - at least in Windows 7, you get a sort of trial period for 30 days of full functionality. After the grace period ends, you won't be able to update Windows and you'll continually be prompted for activation. You could, actually, extend the grace period at that point to about 3-4 months in total[footnote]Open the Start menu, type in cmd and then make sure to right-click and seled "Run as Administrator" - then just type in slmgr /rearm and wait (takes a few seconds but you get a confirmation) then restart. It's a built in Windows utility that resets the grace period back to 30 days. You can do that 2-3 times in total if you type in slmgr /dlv it would tell you how much time and how many rearms you have left.[/footnote]. It's an option, if you plan on getting a product key at a later date. I think this should still work with Windows 8, but I've not tried it.


Finally - what to do if your computer doesn't want to boot from the CD

Now, a small "gotcha" here - the CD may not be booted from, depending on your BIOS setup. Here is how to check it - when you restart, there would be a message saying what key to press to get into BIOS - it's usually something like Delete or F12. Once you do that, you'll be presented with a bunch of settings. Annoyingly, most bioses aren't the same so I can't give you simple instructions, however, there would be a menu somewhere labelled "Boot options" or "Boot priority" or something along those lines. If you go there, you'd get a simple list where you can choose which device to boot from first - basically BIOS will try to look for boot files in those devides - you'd have a choice of usually CD, HDD, Floppy (I've still seen this around), Network, and sometimes even USB device. Make sure you put CD before HDD and you'll be fine - that means that if you don't have a CD in the drive, you'll still start as normal.

This is a bit wordy but really, I've not had much problems with reinstalling Windows - it's been pretty straight forward, really.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

How would go about reinstalling my OS?

It's not that hard, actually. Here are few steps - they should also apply for any version of Windows (I've not installed Windows 8 yet, but so I'd expect the same to apply):

Prerequisites

- You need a Windows CD[footnote]Well, actually, you can also use an USB drive. You'll need to google the instructions on how to do it with one - it's a matter of taking the Windows installation CD and making it into a bootable USB. It's not hard, but CD is just simpler. As long as you can boot the installation from the USB drive, the instructions are practically the same[/footnote]. I suppose it would go without saying but still worth mentioning.
- You also need a product key to activate it. You would have one with the laptop but I don't know if it'd be applicable
- a lot of laptops come with a product key that is usable for the laptop itself. You may need to buy a new license.
- Time and something to kill it. All in all it probably takes me about an hour to install but it's boring. I usually get a book or something. Linux has the installations in the bag, however - it allows you to use the operating system while you're installing it - it's awesome!
- (optional) one thing that could save you some time after installation is if you can avoid setting various things back to what you like them. There is the Windows Easy Transfer tool you can use - it allows you to export your user profile and then import it in a different place (which would be after you install Windows) - it takes a couple of minutes in total and restores various settings and stuff. Open it and choose An external hard disk or USB flash drive - then choose This is my old computer and you'll be able to export the settings to a file on your hard drive (or USB or whatever). After reinstalling, you can do the same but choose This is my new computer and it would ask you for the file you created before - wait, restart when prompted and BAM - wallpapers, themes, settings, everything is back.

Installation

1. Make a backup of everything you need from your C: drive! This is very important - full reinstallation completely blitzes C: so everything you have there would be gone. You can happily move the data to any other drive - D:, E: - whatever, they won't be touched. You'd need to reinstall all your software, too but that's usually easy.
2. Put the Windows CD in the drive and then reboot the machine. It should ask you to boot from the CD - the message is usually "Press any key to boot from CD", so do that. A quick note - if that DOESN'T happen, then I've got instructions at the bottom for what to do.
3. The Windows CD will start up and present you with a simple-ish wizard. Choose to do a full install and then to install on C:. A note or you can try the Upgrade option, if it's available - in that case, that's pretty much everything you need to do - the rest of the steps are for the full installation.
4. Follow the rest of the instructions - you'll need to pick a computer name (doesn't matter what it is), username, password (if you're going to be importing your profile - these would be overriden by the old profile anyway), as well as what your regional settings are. As you're in the USA (according to your profile), you probably don't need to change anything, otherwise you'll be able to change your keyboard layout and the format of time/date/money/etc.
5. Wait. It takes ~30-40 minutes to install, I believe. This is where I read a book or something.
6. After the installation finishes, you'll be presented with a couple more things where you can just press "Next" few times.
7. You'll now be able to login - do so and start restoring stuff you need - data, software, and so on. If you have your old profile, you can do that, too.

At one point during the installation you'll be asked for a product key. I can't remember if it's the beginning or the end. At any rate - do so when asked. Or...not. You could, actually, skip that part - at least in Windows 7, you get a sort of trial period for 30 days of full functionality. After the grace period ends, you won't be able to update Windows and you'll continually be prompted for activation. You could, actually, extend the grace period at that point to about 3-4 months in total[footnote]Open the Start menu, type in cmd and then make sure to right-click and seled "Run as Administrator" - then just type in slmgr /rearm and wait (takes a few seconds but you get a confirmation) then restart. It's a built in Windows utility that resets the grace period back to 30 days. You can do that 2-3 times in total if you type in slmgr /dlv it would tell you how much time and how many rearms you have left.[/footnote]. It's an option, if you plan on getting a product key at a later date. I think this should still work with Windows 8, but I've not tried it.


Finally - what to do if your computer doesn't want to boot from the CD

Now, a small "gotcha" here - the CD may not be booted from, depending on your BIOS setup. Here is how to check it - when you restart, there would be a message saying what key to press to get into BIOS - it's usually something like Delete or F12. Once you do that, you'll be presented with a bunch of settings. Annoyingly, most bioses aren't the same so I can't give you simple instructions, however, there would be a menu somewhere labelled "Boot options" or "Boot priority" or something along those lines. If you go there, you'd get a simple list where you can choose which device to boot from first - basically BIOS will try to look for boot files in those devides - you'd have a choice of usually CD, HDD, Floppy (I've still seen this around), Network, and sometimes even USB device. Make sure you put CD before HDD and you'll be fine - that means that if you don't have a CD in the drive, you'll still start as normal.

This is a bit wordy but really, I've not had much problems with reinstalling Windows - it's been pretty straight forward, really.

does it have to be the windows CD that came with my computer specifically, and is there anyway to view to the view the product key from my computer?

 

[DoPo]

does it have to be the windows CD that came with my computer specifically

This is a tricky thing to answer, so: maybe but probably not. It depends on what license you've got. In essence, you should be able to use any Windows CD, however, some OEM versions may be tied to a specific machine (or, more likely, series of machines). How tightly that is, is another matter - it may be that you can use the CD and it comes with a product key, but it's not going to be valid on other machines. I think that's the most common one, and I've not seen anything more strict than this but there may be something.

Or you may have gotten a "standard" Windows CD with the laptop - that has a license that is not bound to a machine. Well, more or less. Let's say, it should work for you, and not bog down in details.

Some laptops only get a "recovery CD" which isn't actually a Windows installation disc. Umm, whether or not you'll be able to use that I don't know - I've got a very strong suspicion the answer would be "No", but surprises happen.

However, there is nothing stopping you from using a different CD. The first laptop I got had Windows Vista on it and on top of that, it only had a recovery disc. One (well, several) that I had to burn myself, in fact. They were supposed to be used for a factory reset, essentially, however I eventually got Windows 7 on there using a completely different CD.

is there anyway to view to the view the product key from my computer?

I've used Magical Jelly Beans [https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/] in the past and it worked. This article [http://www.howtogeek.com/206329/how-to-find-your-lost-windows-or-office-product-keys/] has some additional tips.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

does it have to be the windows CD that came with my computer specifically[/url]

This is a tricky thing to answer, so: maybe but probably not. It depends on what license you've got. In essence, you should be able to use any Windows CD, however, some OEM versions may be tied to a specific machine (or, more likely, series of machines). How tightly that is, is another matter - it may be that you can use the CD and it comes with a product key, but it's not going to be valid on other machines. I think that's the most common one, and I've not seen anything more strict than this but there may be something.

Or you may have gotten a "standard" Windows CD with the laptop - that has a license that is not bound to a machine. Well, more or less. Let's say, it should work for you, and not bog down in details.

Some laptops only get a "recovery CD" which isn't actually a Windows installation disc. Umm, whether or not you'll be able to use that I don't know - I've got a very strong suspicion the answer would be "No", but surprises happen.

However, there is nothing stopping you from using a different CD. The first laptop I got had Windows Vista on it and on top of that, it only had a recovery disc. One (well, several) that I had to burn myself, in fact. They were supposed to be used for a factory reset, essentially, however I eventually got Windows 7 on there using a completely different CD.

is there anyway to view to the view the product key from my computer?

I've used Magical Jelly Beans [https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/] in the past and it worked. This article [http://www.howtogeek.com/206329/how-to-find-your-lost-windows-or-office-product-keys/] has some additional tips.

this helps so much, and your other advice has been helpful as well, thank you so much

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

does it have to be the windows CD that came with my computer specifically

This is a tricky thing to answer, so: maybe but probably not. It depends on what license you've got. In essence, you should be able to use any Windows CD, however, some OEM versions may be tied to a specific machine (or, more likely, series of machines). How tightly that is, is another matter - it may be that you can use the CD and it comes with a product key, but it's not going to be valid on other machines. I think that's the most common one, and I've not seen anything more strict than this but there may be something.

Or you may have gotten a "standard" Windows CD with the laptop - that has a license that is not bound to a machine. Well, more or less. Let's say, it should work for you, and not bog down in details.

Some laptops only get a "recovery CD" which isn't actually a Windows installation disc. Umm, whether or not you'll be able to use that I don't know - I've got a very strong suspicion the answer would be "No", but surprises happen.

However, there is nothing stopping you from using a different CD. The first laptop I got had Windows Vista on it and on top of that, it only had a recovery disc. One (well, several) that I had to burn myself, in fact. They were supposed to be used for a factory reset, essentially, however I eventually got Windows 7 on there using a completely different CD.

With regards to this, im not sure if it is relevant, but I neglected to mention this is the second HDD i've used on this comp, it came with a stock 500GB but that went dodgy, so I transferred everything to the 1TB HDD im using now

 

[DoPo]

does it have to be the windows CD that came with my computer specifically

This is a tricky thing to answer, so: maybe but probably not. It depends on what license you've got. In essence, you should be able to use any Windows CD, however, some OEM versions may be tied to a specific machine (or, more likely, series of machines). How tightly that is, is another matter - it may be that you can use the CD and it comes with a product key, but it's not going to be valid on other machines. I think that's the most common one, and I've not seen anything more strict than this but there may be something.

Or you may have gotten a "standard" Windows CD with the laptop - that has a license that is not bound to a machine. Well, more or less. Let's say, it should work for you, and not bog down in details.

Some laptops only get a "recovery CD" which isn't actually a Windows installation disc. Umm, whether or not you'll be able to use that I don't know - I've got a very strong suspicion the answer would be "No", but surprises happen.

However, there is nothing stopping you from using a different CD. The first laptop I got had Windows Vista on it and on top of that, it only had a recovery disc. One (well, several) that I had to burn myself, in fact. They were supposed to be used for a factory reset, essentially, however I eventually got Windows 7 on there using a completely different CD.

With regards to this, im not sure if it is relevant, but I neglected to mention this is the second HDD i've used on this comp, it came with a stock 500GB but that went dodgy, so I transferred everything to the 1TB HDD im using now

I'm not sure if it's going to be relevant either. Most likely the answer is "no". In fact, I am pretty much sure that if it is relevant, it'd be only if you have a recovery disk, as opposed to a Windows installation one.