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Solved: Can I swap out a working hard drive and put it in another pc?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by geno368, Jan 6, 2015.

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  1. geno368

    geno368 Thread Starter

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    I have two pc's with sata drives. both of then are running windows 7 home premium. I want to install Windows 8 on one machine and then use pc mover to move all my programs and files to that windows 8 os pc. Shouldn't either drive work in each machine?
     
    geno368, Jan 6, 2015
    #1
  3. KomputerKid

    KomputerKid

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    Without knowing the specs on the computers there's no way we can know for sure. Can you please give us a little more info?
     
    KomputerKid, Jan 6, 2015
    #2
  4. dustyjay

    dustyjay

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    If you are moving the system drive from one computer to another, unless the second computer has identical hardware, the system will not boot with windows 7 originally installed on the other machine. Second if the Installation of windows is an OEM such as from a dell or hp or any other bigbox system, it is illegal to use that installation on any other system. If you however want to add the drive as a second drive so that you can retrieve files and such then it should work just fine.
     
    dustyjay, Jan 6, 2015
    #3
  5. geno368

    geno368 Thread Starter

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    Thank you for the replies...
    One of them is a gateway which from the factory had vista 64 bit with 6 gb ram. I bought a windows 7 retail and updated it. The other one is an acer aspire which also had Vista but it is now a windows 7 32 bit with 2gb ram.
    I wonder if I could just add the second drive on the gateway as a slave and put Windows 8.1 on it
     
    geno368, Jan 7, 2015
    #4
  6. valis

    valis Moderator

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    truth told, if that gateway came with Vista installed, no way it is going to run 8.1......
     
    valis, Jan 7, 2015
    #5
  7. geno368

    geno368 Thread Starter

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    Thanks,Valis....why wouldn't it run it?
     
    geno368, Jan 7, 2015
    #6
  8. valis

    valis Moderator

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    when vista was released, 8.1 wasn't even thought of yet. As a result, the hardware that 8.1 will use (as well as drivers) simply didn't exist back then. It would be like taking a 2015 formula 1 engine and tossing it in a Model T.
     
    valis, Jan 7, 2015
    #7
  9. geno368

    geno368 Thread Starter

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    lol...thanks Valis
     
    geno368, Jan 8, 2015
    #8
  10. KomputerKid

    KomputerKid

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    But you'd sure have one FAST computer lol
     
    KomputerKid, Jan 8, 2015
    #9
  11. geno368

    geno368 Thread Starter

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    Valis, I do have a Dell Latitude E6500 laptop which originally had Vista business and I bought Windows 8 for it last year. I did the 8.1 update and it is running fine. It that because it is a laptop?
     
    geno368, Jan 9, 2015
    #10
  12. valis

    valis Moderator

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    technically it shouldn't work, as according to Dell there are no W8/8.1 drivers for it....you may run into some hardware issues.
     
    valis, Jan 12, 2015
    #11
  13. crjdriver

    crjdriver Moderator

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    The other issue you have is the fact that you are dealing with big box systems ie dell, gateway whatever. The oem windows lic is valid with the original hardware only ie you cannot take a drive with windows and move it to another system. You can however install the drive and clean install whatever os you want. Before installing win8, make sure it is a supported os for your system. If there are no win8 drivers, then you are a beta tester; might work and it might not work.
     
    crjdriver, Jan 12, 2015
    #12
  14. geno368

    geno368 Thread Starter

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    Thanks very much for the insight and info...
     
    geno368, Jan 12, 2015
    #13

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