Windows 7: Is there any hope in moving Win7 HDD to a new home?

Hello all,

I have been searching for a few days for a solution to this disaster that I should blame "hummm" for. anyway, I know there are tons of threads/tutorials about moving A Windows 7 hdd to new hardware, however, I did not find a single solution that helped me (tried most, no luck).

So here is what I want to do exactly:
1) I have a laptop that has NON-OEM Win7x32 on it that need to move to a tower.
2) Custom built PC with NON-OEM win7x64 that I'm planning on upgrading its Mobo and CPU.

Any NEWER solutions are welcome. Clean install is NOT AN OPTION.

Thank you.

ok, why is clean install not an option? Do you not have the registration key you need to use to register? If that is the only reason not to use a clean install, see this topic.

Other than that, ghost imaging your PC and then restoring it on the new computer might work.

When you say "tried most, no luck", it would help if you listed what you have tried. No one wants to take the time to write up a method you could try only to have you tell us that you did it already.

Incidentally, did you try changing all drivers, -and I mean all-, to generic/legacy versions in device manager? This worked for me once when I moved an XP installation into a completely new system. Of course there was a lot of cleaning up to do afterward but those are the burdens we bear! :P

Forum rules prohibit members from helping people bypass software licensing requirements, which is pretty obvious in your case.

I suggest you buy a legit copy of Windows 7 and do a clean install. If you don't have the money for software you don't have the money to upgrade. That is not an option.

It is entirely possible to have Windows legitimately without having the install disc. My old XP was from the system's original installation, where I was never provided with an install disc, and swapping it over to a newer build necessitated my driver method.

inb4 "your XP was obviously not legit" because, seriously you guys; we're just going to hop on the pirate bandwagon the second we catch a scent without even being told the full situation?

Simple get an Imaging program that supports moving the OS from one computer to another. something like Acronis True Image with the Plus pack. Image the notebook drive then Restore to the desktop drive using the Universal Restore option.

Sorry oxy, just following my gut on this one. Let the OP explain his problem more clearly if that is the case. I'd be happy to be wrong.

Edit: when the typical solutions to upgrade hardware do not work then clean install is the only viable option. You only need a product key to do this. You can download an ISO if you don't have a disk.

OP stated the install of Win 7 on the notebook is a NON OEM version. In other words a Retail version. No problem moving that around from one computer to another. So I'm not sure why you bothered to post as you have not read the OP first post.

If it's Retail why not just say its Retail? Saying its NON OEM could also mean its just not a Preinstalled OEM version. That's the way I read it, but we'll just have to wait for the OP to clarify the situation.

I think you will have a bit of a wait. it would appear that he was using a compter at about 3 o /clock this morning!