Windows 7 - Hard drive not recognized in installer

Ok so i have like 6 laptops i wanted a bigger hard drive in my main laptop so i used clonezilla to clone the drive. Then a couple days later i am trying to put the old smaller drive in a different laptop but it will not come up in the installer. I have tried it in three different laptops same thing wont come up. but it does recognize in bios and if i plug it up in windows it does pop up and i am able to use it. Anyone have any ideas why it wont come up under the installer?

well chances are the version of windows is an OEM copy, which upon installing checks and saves all your hardware, so plugging it into another computer will not work.

theres some headroom for upgrading, but not different motherboards, that will require a new install.

Also you cant run 2 copies of the same license at the same time.