New
#1
How can I migrate to a new pc without losing everything?
Basically years back I got an HP desktop that came with Windows 7 installed. Basically I want to stick my hard drive into a new computer and dump the old crap. Problem is I'm pretty sure that won't work either because the copy of windows is tied to the motherboard that I no longer have use for or some other reasons and even though I have the hard drive backed up reinstalling all the games and programs on it is something I would rather avoid since I don't have the discs to some of them anymore and they're out of print or difficult to find and the new computer doesn't have a disc drive anyway. Somehow I neglected that part without realizing it. So I'm stumped. Should I get a retail version of 7 and replace the preinstalled one or will that not make things any easier? I know if I just copy stuff over to another drive there's going to be registry problems and such but I thought it was possible to move to new computers without having to start all over from scratch.
In fact on that one of my biggest concerns was if my current hard drive did fail I would lose everything in a similar way but restoring that onto the old computer would probably be easier than a new one. But I think I'm probably in over my head on all this.