i have a 500gb hdd, im building a new pc and want to use the old hdd and just have to buy a ssd for booting.
it has a os on it from the last machine i owned, do i need to reset or clear the drive before putting it in the new build? or how do i go about that?
You can put it in without formatting it. Just make sure you set the SSD as the first device in the hard drive boot order. You can format the disk later once you've install your OS. It's probably a good idea to install your OS with just the SSD installed to make sure the boot manager gets installed there, then connect the old disk after.
@Dexter_Kane but i shouldnt have any issues with my computer detecting the old drive because of the OS being on it, right?
No it doesn't matter. As long as it's not set to the boot device.