Hardware Can WIN10 OS on hard drive be moved to another PC

DirkyDanglar

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A bit of advice please,
My Dell desktop PC has now given up on me, the hard drive is fine it contains all my programs, data and my WIN10 operating system updated from WIN7. I am just about to order a new PC without an operating system my query is:

Can I place my original hard drive in the new PC and start using my system as before or will I have to re-install WIN7 activate it and then upgrade it to WIN10? If I have to do this what about all my other programs on the drive I know I will be able to access all the data but finding various activation codes may be a problem.
Cheers DD
 
you can plug it in and most likely windows will update itself so you can go to home screen.
From there your better off saving all the files you want on an external or moving to another hdd then doing a full reinstall fresh so you can then access your files from the external hdd and get tgings back to how there were if you get me?
 
I don't believe you can simply swap HDD into a new different PC as the drivers for sound/cpu/etc will have changed. I know on older Windows you couldn't do that as Win (once installed) expects that hardware and you would get BSODs. Not sure about Win10 though.

Also, Win10 upgrade from Win7 is a digital licence and is locked to that hardware although minor hardware changes are allowed, what you're proposing wouldn't be minor as every hardware will have changed except HDD.

Legitimate owners, I believe, can query this with M$ but as for whether you would get anywhere I don't know as that depends on whether it was OEM or paid-for.
 
Agree with above. Different hardware so you will have issues with drivers. It may not even boot, and blue screen.

The licence is locked to your hardware, so reusing the Win10 licence might be an issue
 
I thought there may be a problem with the WIN10 side of things however will I still be able to do a new install with my original WIN7?
Cheers DD

Agree with above. Different hardware so you will have issues with drivers. It may not even boot, and blue screen.

The licence is locked to your hardware, so reusing the Win10 licence might be an issue
 
Not sure. You may have problems activating, because it has already used your Windows 7 key to do the upgrade. It might be ok. Try it and see
 
Funnily enough I just did something very similar. As an experiment, I installed 10 on an ancient laptop, just to see how it would run. Not good- it was slow & clunky. So I took the drive out & popped it into a much younger laptop. On first boot (in the newer machine) I got a message 'updating' for about 30 seconds then it ran like a dream. I did have to manually install a couple of drivers, but all quite painless.
But this is a "pre-activated" copy of 10 (not legit) so can't comment on legitimate activation.
 
if memory servers me correctly what you install windows on your computer it does some sort of a scan of your hardware which then generators your activation code so if any hardware is changed there number would or should be useless.
 
After recovery you need a tool like "Acronis Universal Restore" (part of Acronis True Image) to reset the drivers otherwise you maybe only have reboots at the new system. And Windows (and Office) must be reactivated online or by phone.
 
I paid £10 for a dodgy Win 7 technet license several years back which went through the free Win 10 upgrade fine.

Last week I bought new cpu, mobo and ram. Used Win 10 USB tool to create and install fresh copy of Win 10, and when activating I just put in my original Win 7 license key and new Win 10 install activated fine.
 
I also did it on the early releases of windows 10. It is subject to some reinstalling and updating of the hardware drivers though.
 
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