Moving Windows 7 Upgrade to a new computer

Hello all, new to these forums. I have a few questions I would like to ask, some I have had loosely answered before. But just want to be 100% before spending any money.

First off. I am going to be buying/building a new computer soon, as my current 6yr old rig is starting to show it's age quite badly and without spending silly money on it, it's not very upgradeable. My question is this; With my current PC, it came with a system restore disc which has Windows XP. I bought the Windows 7 Upgrade disc and done the custom installation where it formats my drive and put on 7. It has been working ok, registered properly.

What I want to, when I get my new computer, is move this hard drive (which is about 3 months old) to my new setup. I have heard that sometimes you can just attach the hard drive to the new PC and it will work, sometimes you have to do it all over again with the installation. Now, I have no problem with lots of drive formatting as, all my docments are my external hard drive, along with software setup files.

I have a Windows XP disc with a key, as well as the System restore disc for this PC, so I am assuming, I format this hard drive (if moving it to a new Motherboard doesn't work) install Windows XP with the key, then install the Windows 7 Upgrade disc again. I did speak to Microsoft on the phone and when I gave them my key for Windows 7, they said I had the Full version of Home Premium not an upgrade copy, although it quite clearly says on the box that is an upgrade.

Also, the new computer I will be buying should hopefully accept 64 bit Windows, can you go from Windows XP 32 bit > Custom install to Windows 7 64 bit?

The lady at Microsoft said, so long as I uninstall Windows 7 from my current PC, I can then reinstall and register it on my new one.

Just out of curiousity, how does it know that it's been uninstalled from one PC when I put it on the other PC? Does it just stop updating itself on the first PC as it has been installed on the second? Not that it matters, as the Hard drive will be installed in the new one anyway, so this PC won't have Windows anything on it.

Apologies if my questions are bit all over the place, just want to be sure that my copy of Windows will go on my new computer with any issues or me having to pay anymore out for another copy.

Many thanks. :)

Have read of the Warning in this tutorial:
Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

If you do not have a valid qualifying previous version of Windows, then you are violating the terms of Microsoft's Windows 7 End User License Agreement and could get your product key number invalidated by Microsoft. Plus, it is considered illegal.

theog said:

Have read of the Warning in this tutorial:
Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

If you do not have a valid qualifying previous version of Windows, then you are violating the terms of Microsoft's Windows 7 End User License Agreement and could get your product key number invalidated by Microsoft. Plus, it is considered illegal.

I do have one, I got it before I bought this machine as before it, I had a PC with Windows 98 and was going to upgrade it, but then my dad bought me this PC for my birthday on year, so didn't get round to upgrading the Win 98 PC.

NoelDP said:

Gareth1982 said:

First off. I am going to be buying/building a new computer soon, as my current 6yr old rig is starting to show it's age quite badly and without spending silly money on it, it's not very upgradeable.


What I want to, when I get my new computer, is move this hard drive (which is about 3 months old) to my new setup. I have heard that sometimes you can just attach the hard drive to the new PC and it will work, sometimes you have to do it all over again with the installation.

I have a Windows XP disc with a key, as well as the System restore disc for this PC, so I am assuming, I format this hard drive (if moving it to a new Motherboard doesn't work) install Windows XP with the key, then install the Windows 7 Upgrade disc again.

The lady at Microsoft said, so long as I uninstall Windows 7 from my current PC, I can then reinstall and register it on my new one.

Just out of curiousity, how does it know that it's been uninstalled from one PC when I put it on the other PC? Does it just stop updating itself on the first PC as it has been installed on the second?


Many thanks. :)

I've tried to winnow your post down a little :)
Lets start from the beginning.
Your current PC is Win 7 32-bit - installed using an Upgrade pack, on top of Windows XP.
What type of XP disk is it? - an OEM System Builder, or OEM Recovery disk? - or is it a Full Retail or Upgrade pack?

Assuming that it's a Retail pack XP, then you have no problems moving the whole lot to your new PC - note that you MUST keep the XP disks, etc. with the NEW PC for proof-of-license purposes. The Old PC will have no OS installed.

If the original XP on the old PC is OEM, then it cannot legally be moved to the new one under any circumstances - and therefore the New PC would have no base license from which to upgrade.
Note that the Activation helpline people are notorious for incorrectly identifying the difference between Upgrade and Full license Keys - believe your package!

Assuming that you have the XP as Retail - avoid a lot of hassle, and use the double-install method to apply Win7 directly, in either 32-bit or 64-bit flavour to a clean hard drive. There's a tutorial about it in these forums Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version , or look here - Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media
This avoids any lingering problems and reduces the hassle of attempting an XP install on SATA drives, with new hardware.

MS doesn't know htat the old PC has been uninstalled - but Validation will fail on the old PC once teh new one is activated. Activation on the new PC will almost certainly have to be done over the phone, speaking to an operator.

1) My current PC has a emachines system restore version of Windows XP, I have installed Windows 7 on top of this. I know that I cannot use this Version of XP on the new Machine as it's only designed to be used on the emachines PC since it has the drivers for this machine only.

2) I have Windows XP with a key as well, this I haven't used as explained in the above post of me getting this emachines PC before I had chance of upgrading my old Windows 98 to XP. So if I use that Disc on my new machine with my current hard drive after formatting it, I should be able to put Windows 7 on it.

3) The new machine won't have a hard drive, as I am buying a Bare Bundle and will be using my current Hard drive in it, since it seems silly buying a new Hard drive when this one is only 3 or so month old.

If like you said, I need to speak to a customer service advisor, then I shall explain to them what I am doing, i.e upgrading my computer. My other option before buying a new PC/Bare bundle, was that I was going to just upgrade the motherboard in mine, but since it's working out cheaper and probably easier to get the Bare Bundle, I am doing that instead. So I guess in a round-a-bout way, it's no different really in the sense that it's all going to be new components.

Thank you for your advice. :) (P.S shame there is the thumbs up emoticon)

I would backup your DATA & use the Clean install method:
Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version