I have a 1tb ssd from my old pc that died (electrical issue) that I want to add to new pc with Windows 10 currently the operating system. The question I have is would it cause any issues to just install it and then format the thing? Most of what is on it is also on new I just want the extra storage.
EDIT Below response based on assumption you're going to swap it out with the new drive
Should work perfectly, and why format it? Do you want a clean new installation? Just swap it over. and as soon as the internet is connected the new drivers will be updated.
If you want to remove the old drivers ...
Device Manger > View menu > Show hidden devices
- expand a category
- all redundant drivers will be greyed out
- right click > Uninstall device (and uninstall drivers if prompted)
- repeat ad nauseum for each redundant driver/device
Alternatively, image old > restore to new. Macrium Reflect (freeware version from Majorgeeks) and/or AOMEI Backupper
If the SSD from the old dead PC had Windows on it you should delete all partitions, not only format the Windows partition.
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the old SSD drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the old SSD drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
exit (to exit diskpart)
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