Ok to swap hard drive to test pc?

seven · 11 Jan 2014

Is it ok to swap a hard drive from an Acer laptop to a Gateway? Just to to test if the Gateway's problem is the hard drive? Will that cause problems? Will it ruin the hard drive to try?

matts6887 · 11 Jan 2014

I dont see why not. There should not be any issues that come to mind; other than just making the connections on both systems are the same. Other than that; it should a-ok to do a swap.

linnemeyerhere · 11 Jan 2014

What are you testing for the hard drive to spin up and be read? You could check that externally with a drive dock or usb cable. As far as getting the lappy to boot without new drivers you'll likely hit a snag to boot into windows !

matts6887 · 11 Jan 2014

linnemeyerhere said:

What are you testing for the hard drive to spin up and be read? You could check that externally with a drive dock or usb cable. As far as getting the lappy to boot without new drivers you'll likely hit a snag to boot into windows !

True this as far as getting the laptop to boot into windows. Without the drivers installed; the drive will not function in windows as the driver is what tells the hard drive "how to work/operate".

badger906 · 12 Jan 2014

also some oem versions of windows dont allow significant hardware changes such as the mobo which will cause booting issues.

Britton30 · 12 Jan 2014

What problems are you testing for?
You may invalidate the w7 from the Acer by putting it in a Gateway

seven · 13 Jan 2014

I wanted to see if the Gateway wouldn't boot because of a bad hard drive. I put the Acer drive in it and it booted up and actually Windows looked pretty good. So the answer is yes it told me what I needed to know.
Also I put the drive back in the Acer and Windows is ok. I think the Acer has a bad graphics card. I hope to get a hard drive for the Gateway and it should work .
I've heard if you inform Microsoft you can move your copy of Windows to another computer as long as it's only on one pc. But I'll probably just buy another Windows disc.