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Moving a hard drive with OA key to new motherboard, new retail key?
Hi
I've been reading threads here for about a couple of hours but haven't found anyone with my exact problem. I hope this is not a common question that will get me flamed.
Here's all the background, please bear with me, I want to be as complete as possible...
I've got a customers Acer laptop with a bad motherboard, it won't boot.
The hard drive has Windows 7 Home premium OA.
Now I know from reading that that version of 7 is tied to the MB it was first installed on and I'm OK with that. I'm not whining about having to buy a new OS or trying to find a way to make it work on a new board without paying for it.
The laptop is loaded with thousands of dollars worth of industrial software to diagnose large factory machines. The software is designed to run only on Windows 7. There is no upgrade available for windows 8, just a fresh version at $6000.
I went out and bought another Acer laptop almost exactly the same, the hardware is identical except for a slightly slower graphics chip.
The new laptop had windows 8 but since it was the demo model at Staples it has now been upgraded to 10.
I want to try to put the HDD from the failed laptop into the new one, I did it once already and it boots but it came up with a screen talking about versions or mismatches or something and I powered down without entering anything, I didn't want to do any damage.
So now I know that it won't transfer on it's current licence but the tutorial by Kari assumes you still have a working computer to do sysprep with on the drive before you put it onto the new MB. I don't have any way of doing sysprep because the only MB that this hard drive would boot on has failed.
I've already ordered a retail copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. This will give me a good transferable key.
I could use the new DVD and a fresh drive from Staples and load a clean install but then I'll have hours and hours of software loading and configuration to do and if you think talking Microsoft into allowing you to install a package twice is tough you should try Rockwell International/Allen Bradley.
Here's the question:
Is there any way - without the original motherboard - to get the OEM drive to accept a new retail key on a new motherboard?
Thanks
JayArr