Moving OS drive from one machine to another

A

ArnorBld

New Member
Hi all,

I have a two year old Vista64 machine (HP) that has been a disappointment. I need a more powerful machine with more memory (I'm maxed out at 8GB) etc.

Is it possible to take the drive (SATA) and put it into a new bare bone system without major issues with driver, etc. etc. making it not worthwhile to pursue? I have a lot of software on this machine (Office, Visual Studio, Adobe, etc. etc.) but not much data that isn't either on separate drives or on my network server. If I need to spend a week on upgrading drivers, etc. etc. I might as well get a machine with Win7-64 pre-installed and spend that week installing my software on a new drive;)

Best regards,
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion M8530f
    CPU
    AMD Phenom Quad Core
    Motherboard
    ASUS M2N78-LA, HP: Viola-GL8E
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    nVidia GeForce 8200
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 26", Hanns.G 25"
It will depend on what your running on the new system compared to the old one.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athalon 64 x2 4600+
    Memory
    1.00GB
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI RAEDON X1300
    Monitor(s) Displays
    compaq wf1907
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900 - 60Hz
    Hard Drives
    200gb
Hi,

I'm talking about taking a SATA drive with an installed OS (Vista-64) into another system. Obviously the new system will be different hardware, at least to some extent (CPU, Video, anything that is on the motherboard)

Best regards,

Arnor
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion M8530f
    CPU
    AMD Phenom Quad Core
    Motherboard
    ASUS M2N78-LA, HP: Viola-GL8E
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    nVidia GeForce 8200
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 26", Hanns.G 25"
No, it is illegal to put a oem copy of Vista on to a computer that it didn't come on.

Being an OEM, it might not even install as they sometimes put security crap into it.

If you don't care about all that, then it might work, with you hgaving to cleanup the old drivers.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
I'm NOT talking about installing the OS again, simply to take the drive from one computer to another. I could install a new OS on a new drive if I wanted to but the whole point of taking the drive as is with boot partition so that I wouldn't have to install the OS<g> I.e. I take the boot drive from computer A and put it into computer B as a boot drive. No copying or installing involved, just a physical moving of the drive.

Best regards,
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion M8530f
    CPU
    AMD Phenom Quad Core
    Motherboard
    ASUS M2N78-LA, HP: Viola-GL8E
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    nVidia GeForce 8200
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 26", Hanns.G 25"
Based on your System Specs - This will not be possible

Your version of windows is "Tied" To your Motherboard if the Drive is changed then you will have to Reactivate

You have an OEM Version of Windows - This cannot be Moved and if you do so you will be breaking your EULA Agreement when you First activated Windows on your System

___________________

If it did work (Small Chance) You will not be able to Activate Windows and will only have 30 Days to But a new Product key or Uninstall Windows

Final answer is Don't do it and either Buy a new PC or Build your own :)

Josh
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.10GHz
    Motherboard
    Foxconn H67MP-S/-V/H67MP
    Memory
    8.0GB DDR3 @ 665MHz (2GBx4)
    Graphics card(s)
    AMD HD Radeon 6870
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    SMB1930NW (1440x900@60Hz)
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    977GB Seagate ST31000524AS ATA Device (SATA) + 250GB WD iSCSI attached Drive
    Case
    Novatech Night
    Mouse
    Dell HID-compliant mouse
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
As Shadow said, Swapping drives is the same thing as reinstalling according to MS.

Theres some leniency but as you have a hp copy, it most likely won't work
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
ArnorBld said:
Hi all,

I have a two year old Vista64 machine (HP) that has been a disappointment. I need a more powerful machine with more memory (I'm maxed out at 8GB) etc.

Is it possible to take the drive (SATA) and put it into a new bare bone system without major issues with driver, etc. etc. making it not worthwhile to pursue?
-------------------------------
Technically you have to look at this as an UPGRADE, so you need to follow the instructions below.

I am Tech, and I say yes it is possible. I have done it with an XP Image on an Emachine OEM as an Upgrade. The key word here is UPGRADE. ..

Fact, changing motherboards will crash the existing image (OS) on your HD.
So there is a few steps to take to convert and KEEP YOUR programs installed working.
My situation was an OEM Emachine with a Image disk for recovery, that would work with that computer's hardware, however, the motherboard fried with a bad chip. Replacement of the same board model that is, wasn't possible, so an upgrade was in order. Upgrading is allowable by MS, as I was told by them that I replaced my NON working (emachines bios) with a working board (emachine older board) and the same key worked . I went that route cause the online store wanted me to buy a whole new board with a chasis and power supply and I ask, will it work, and they said they didn't know..

Emachines told me they had no replacement boards were available and to call Tiger Direct. That didn't work for me.

so I had the ORIG image on three cd's of the system.

On the disk, it has OEM MS software and other software that was installed and activated.
So how do you get it to work.?
That's easy, do an upgrade.
This is what I did.
You dump (restore) the image from the disk on the harddrive of the new motherboard aka replacement MD( IN my case it was an older model it all I could get.). The hardware didn't match. But ..no problem.

At this point this is where you are. If your Vista is OEM then you need the same BIOS name, not the same MB. And if this is RETAIL, then it doesn't matter on the change of board, but if you want to keep your programs in tact, you do this.
whatever your situation, this is what happens. You have the image on the drive already, so, as installed.... that is.. so now you put the drive on the new MB (working one) and you need your KEY and Vista disk to do an UPGRADE.
So I restored the image on the drive as original withn the new OEM board, with different hardware on the board (same type computer Emachines). Then ran the install to UPgrade the system cause the system will crash, or hang.

At this point you need, the key will be needed, and all the software install will remain in tact, windows will change out the drivers matching the new board... ..
and there you go, when the upgrade finishes, like an hour later, it boots, and MS works or whatever you have on there still works. Now this worked with XP, but I think it will work with VISTA..
Good Luck...
Click to expand...
 

My Computer

System One

Vista has locked itself hard to stop people from doing this. I've switched 3 mobo/cpu combos on 1 XP hard drive with no issues before too.

Vista/7 now requires you to phone activate every install.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
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