Hi,
I know it is probably not a good idea, but is it possible to move my Win7 system HDD from old PC (which is dying) to new PC, which has better processor, RAM etc?
I am thinking that if I uninstalled all hardware before shutting down the system, then putting the drive into new PC it might work.
Just really looking for all your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.
Thanks,
Paul.
It might. Depends how different the hardware is.
Paragon and others make apps. to enable an o/s boot on new hardware.
Licensing is another hurdle.
If you have a Retail license, phone activation to MS should be fine.
Clean install would be best.
Clean Install Windows 7
Custom Windows Installations - Windows 7
Just make sure you Backup your data first.
Windows Easy Transfer - Transfer To & From Computers
I move HD's to other machines regularly and most times it will start up, swap out all of the drivers, request a couple of restarts, then work fine.
Another method is to save a WIn7 backup image of your HD, then reimage to same-size or larger HD in a new machine which has been deleted and is unallocated space. Sometimes free Macrium Reflect will work at this when Win7 Backup imaging will not.
Thanks guys.
When new PC arrives I will let you how I got on.
New PC arrived.
New Motherboard, with quad core CPU.
Completely different MB, CPU, Memory, Chipset etc from previous PC.
New DVD drive, kept Mouse, Keyboard & Monitor, and Hard Drives 2 SATA & 1 IDE).
Was going to just put new HDDs in and boot, but decided to use the Paragon P2P Adjust Utility to boot from it's CD and then it added necessary drivers, and Windows 7 booted straight away. I just needed to add some other (minor) drivers, and the system has been performing excellently for a week now.
So, if anyone wishes to move their Windows 7 HDD, it can be done, and very smoothly.
All of those drivers are in your System32/Driverstore and are swapped out when you attempt to boot Win7 on the new hardware anyway.
Glad it worked for you.
[Edit- Claim based on p2p not having found any drivers yet that are not in Installer on about a dozen uses on different machines. In addition, about 30 or more installs moved to/from different hardware have started without needing p2p, while on the two which would not start p2p couldn't find the drivers. Will keep testing it, tho.]
Last edited by gregrocker; 14 Jun 2010 at 15:55.
Not necessarily, Greg.
It depends how different the hardware is, and what drivers are needed.
Vista and 7 are both fairly adaptable, but it really depends.
Looks like the OP added some drivers also.
The new version of p2p will tell you what additional drivers you may need and will inject them for you in addition to opening up the o/s registry so it behaves as if it has just been installed.
I had to add some drivers not in 7, or at least not found by it.
Used drivers from Motherboard website.
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