Need Help Completely Transfering Windows from Old Laptop

Hello, the other day my laptop got fried from a power surge that ran through my DMX chain into the USB ports of my laptop. The machine won't turn on, but the hard drive is fine, I connected to the new laptop through an enclosure to test it.

I got a new laptop from a friend that I put my hard drive from my old machine into, as expected, Windows couldn't start so I launched the repair tool which I let do it's thing, and then it restarted. Sadly, this didn't change anything, Windows still couldn't start and I was back to where I started.

Just to get the new laptop running, and make sure everything was working, I did a clean install of Windows on another hard drive that I popped into it. Windows is running fine besides some small driver things that I fixed.

What I'm asking is how can I make Windows from the old machine run on the new machine? Whether it be transferring it to another drive or installing some drivers on the old drive.

Thanks in advanced.

- Nolan

You say "I did a clean install of Windows on another hard drive that I popped into it. Windows is running fine..."

I assume that's not good enough and you instead want to put the installation off the old hard drive into the new machine.

And I assume the "new laptop" is in fact the one you got from your friend and it already had a Windows installation of some type on it.

You theoretically could use cloning or imaging to get the old install onto the new hard drive in the new machine. You'd probably run into driver problems that you may be able to overcome, particularly if you were to use something like Paragon Adaptive Restore.

But-------

You'd still probably run into licensing and activation issues. Laptop licenses are typically OEM and tied to one machine.

Did the installation on your old laptop come with that laptop? If so, it's presumably an OEM version and authorized only on the original laptop (motherboard)--not authorized when placed into a new laptop.

You can of course do a clean install and activate with the Product Key found on the sticker on the new laptop.

That's my take, unless I am misunderstanding you or unless you have a non-OEM Windows license.

ignatzatsonic said:

You say "I did a clean install of Windows on another hard drive that I popped into it. Windows is running fine..."

I assume that's not good enough and you instead want to put the installation off the old hard drive into the new machine.

And I assume the "new laptop" is in fact the one you got from your friend and it already had a Windows installation of some type on it.

You theoretically could use cloning or imaging to get the old install onto the new hard drive in the new machine. You'd probably run into driver problems that you may be able to overcome, particularly if you were to use something like Paragon Adaptive Restore.

But-------

You'd still probably run into licensing and activation issues. Laptop licenses are typically OEM and tied to one machine.

Did the installation on your old laptop come with that laptop? If so, it's presumably an OEM version and authorized only on the original laptop (motherboard)--not authorized when placed into a new laptop.

You can of course do a clean install and activate with the Product Key found on the sticker on the new laptop.

That's my take, unless I am misunderstanding you or unless you have a non-OEM Windows license.

The new laptop didn't have a hard drive in it. That's why I put an extra one I had laying around into it and installed Windows on it, just to make sure everything was working.

My old laptop originally had Vista on it and I did a fresh install of 7 a while back.

The new laptop is authorized to have a clean install of whatever OS it originally had when sold to the original purchaser. That can be activated by the Product Key on the old laptop.

If the Win 7 you bought for your old machine is a retail version, not OEM, then that old machine install should be authorized on the new laptop, assuming you can get by the driver and installation issues.

If the new laptop has no Product Key, you'd have to either use your retail Windows 7 from the old machine or buy another license.

Unless I'm still confused.

ignatzatsonic said:

The new laptop is authorized to have a clean install of whatever OS it originally had when sold to the original purchaser. That can be activated by the Product Key on the old laptop.

If the Win 7 you bought for your old machine is a retail version, not OEM, then that old machine install should be authorized on the new laptop, assuming you can get by the driver and installation issues.

If the new laptop has no Product Key, you'd have to either use your retail Windows 7 from the old machine or buy another license.

Unless I'm still confused.

I don't think you're understanding what I'm trying to do. What I want to do is put my old hard drive in the new laptop and have Windows run exactly the way it did, like it was still in the old laptop, but on the new one.

Fresh installs of Windows aren't an issue at this point, I'm running a brand new install of 7 on the new laptop right now, it's what I'm posting to this thread with.

I'm also not looking to just transfer over files, I'll do it as a last resort but it's not ideal. I want to the exact install of Windows from the old laptop on to the new one.

see comments in bold

Catalpa said:

I don't think you're understanding what I'm trying to do. What I want to do is put my old hard drive in the new laptop and have Windows run exactly the way it did, like it was still in the old laptop, but on the new one.


Have you considered the licensing issue?

You haven't said anything about the nature of the license on the old hard drive other than that it is "Windows 7"----not enough info.

There are several varieties. Some would be legit in your circumstances and others wouldn't.


I'm also not looking to just transfer over files, I'll do it as a last resort but it's not ideal. I want to the exact install of Windows from the old laptop on to the new one.

You want the "exact install" but you don't want to do a clean install. You want to transfer the old hard drive as it now exists. It now exists with a license of some type. You haven't said what type of license that is.

What you might be able to do is one thing. What is within Microsoft's rules is another. Worst case scenario, you put the old hard drive in the new machine and fight whatever obstacles you face---driver problems, activation issues, Windows Update issues, etc.


Good luck. Maybe someone else has another idea.

ignatzatsonic said:

see comments in bold

Catalpa said:

I don't think you're understanding what I'm trying to do. What I want to do is put my old hard drive in the new laptop and have Windows run exactly the way it did, like it was still in the old laptop, but on the new one.


Have you considered the licensing issue?

You haven't said anything about the nature of the license on the old hard drive other than that it is "Windows 7"----not enough info.

There are several varieties. Some would be legit in your circumstances and others wouldn't.


I'm also not looking to just transfer over files, I'll do it as a last resort but it's not ideal. I want to the exact install of Windows from the old laptop on to the new one.

You want the "exact install" but you don't want to do a clean install. You want to transfer the old hard drive as it now exists. It now exists with a license of some type. You haven't said what type of license that is.

What you might be able to do is one thing. What is within Microsoft's rules is another. Worst case scenario, you put the old hard drive in the new machine and fight whatever obstacles you face---driver problems, activation issues, Windows Update issues, etc.


Good luck. Maybe someone else has another idea.

The license on the old hard drive is a retail license.

I've already put the old hard drive in the new machine, that was the first thing I tried. It gave me the "starting windows" screen and as soon as it would've gone to the "log on" screen the screen went black.(I hope that makes sense) Then the computer restarted and brought me to the "Windows failed to start" screen and it gave me 2 options, "Launch repair tool", and "start windows normally". When I launched the repair tool it ran normally and finished but when I restarted nothing had changed.

What I think is happening is that the driver difference is so steep that Windows simply can't boot. What do you think?

Catalpa said:

What I think is happening is that the driver difference is so steep that Windows simply can't boot. What do you think?

Windows 7 is more tolerant of new hardware than previous versions, but I'm not surprised at the failure.

Look into Paragon Adaptive Restore.

Or I think certain versions of Macrium Reflect have a capability similar to Paragon.

Or investigate Sysprep:

System Preparation Tool - Use to Customize Windows

ignatzatsonic said:

Catalpa said:

What I think is happening is that the driver difference is so steep that Windows simply can't boot. What do you think?

Windows 7 is more tolerant of new hardware than previous versions, but I'm not surprised at the failure.

Look into Paragon Adaptive Restore.

Or I think certain versions of Macrium Reflect have a capability similar to Paragon.

Or investigate Sysprep:

System Preparation Tool - Use to Customize Windows

I did a Google search about Paragon Adaptive Restore, it got me to a thread on this forum about doing exactly what I needed to do, I don't know why I didn't find it my first few searches.

It had me download an older version of Adaptive Restore, burn it to a CD, and then boot from that CD. I went through the whole process and everything is working great. My Windows install is exactly how I left it and running on the new laptop fine. The only downfall is the fact that my old machine was 32-bit and the new one is 64-bit. Oh well, just something I have to deal with.

Here's the thread in case your interested: Make Windows 7 bootable after motherboard swap

Now I gotta get some sleep, it's been a long few hours.

Yes, you can use PAR freeware which we have used here for years to adjust to the hardware changes. Simply boot the disk after moving the HD and P2P Adjust Win7 to boot.

Download from OneDrive http://1drv.ms/1piXwd9, rightclick to burn to CD with Windows Image Burner. boot to P2PAdjust.

When it starts up it will change out most of the drivers in a cascade you can observe by clicking the driver animation in the System Tray. Heed the reboots. Then immediately enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) to run all Important and Optional Windows Updates which will provide many missing and newer drivers. Again heed Updates reboots and keep Checking For Updates until there are no more. You want everything except the Bingware because patches will make your hardware and software work better.

If it won't start confirm the Active partition to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times from the disk.