Windows 7 - question when swapping hard drives to a new pc.

So i just ordered a new lenovo desktop (intel core i7 with 12gb ram) which im upgrading it from an hp pavilion desktop (intel core 2 duo with 4gb ram). and what im wondering is, if my hp hard drive (500gb sata) will work perfectly on the new lenovo desktop as the main bootable hd with windows 7 pro sp1 32 bit? or do i have to start from scratch?.

I try similar stuff with 2 laptops. i use a dell inspiron 1525 to reinstall windows 7 (intel core 2 duo) and put that hd on an acer aspire (intel core i5), and everything went fine. i just have to install the drivers again and the activation.
so it will work the same way as for the desktops i mention before?.. i hope yeah cuz then it will be a pain in the a_ _ to reinstall eveything again.. =)

What is your objective? Stated in as few words as possible.

As you might surmise, your objective is not clear.

Please do not suggest solutions, just state the objective.

I'm trying to give you an accurate and concise answer.

You want to put the old drive (which contains an OS and installed apps) into the new PC to avoid having to reinstall your applications onto the new PC's hard drive--which presumably will have an OS on it when it arrives?

Sounds like you will also be dealing with a new motherboard and chipset that probably won't make nice with the Windows installation on the old hard drive.

It's always worth a try - the OP did say that he did this once before and it worked fine after installing new drivers. It's always a 50-50 chance of it either working or horribly crashing and burning.

Recommend you have a safe backup of your system (at least your important personal data), but otherwise - go for it.

Let us know if you succeed.

I'll go with Corazon on this.

I actually did this the other day, a friend of mine's laptop was exhibiting all the signs of a dying hard drive. It turned out to just be a completely buggered Windows install.

So, I took his hard drive, installed it into my desktop, did a "clean all" and reinstalled Windows. After I plugged it back into his laptop it just installed all the necessary drivers and got on with it, so it's certainly possible.

Take backups first though, for gods sake.

+1 on Corazon's and SeveredSolo's advice.

Go for the gold!

yeah, i just want to put the old drive on it so i dont have to deal again by reinstalling everything. well i will keep you guys update it when i receive my lenovo desktop (probably by the 16th of october).

yeppp i will take that advice. thats what technicians do.

yepp i have my backup ready just in case.. yeah i will keep you guys update it when i succeed swapping the hard drives.

I'm at a loss as to why you'd consider this anyway. You have 12 GB of system memory in the new system, and you'd be running an OS that would only make use of 25-30% of it. If you had a specific reason to need 12 GB of system memory, you'd already be aware that you'd need Windows 7 x64 to address and use all of it. That being said, you will need to do a clean install.

Besides, with that kind of power, why not do a clean install? If you plan ahead and use common sense, you can get a clean install down to about 2 hours.