New
#1
What happens to old disc licence after new install?
This might sound like a silly question but - if I put a new hard drive in my laptop and do a clean install with a retail Windows 7 disc I have, and then activate it (hopefully) with the OEM product code of the laptop, will the old disc with all the software and files on, become inactive if I then needed to put it back (ie if for some reason my laptop didn't run well with the new drive)?
I'm asking because I need to put a bigger drive in and have decided to do a clean install because cloning didn't work well, and it's a Sony Vaio and refused to let me install a system image onto a new drive. So it wouldn't surprise me if the new drive runs too hot or has some issue.
If that happened to be the case and I have then activated the new drive with the OEM product key, does that mean if I put the old drive back in, the Windows software will be invalid? Just confused myself!
What I can't work out is how I could have two copies of Windows on two drives with the same product code - which presumably isn't allowed - and so one of them must then become inactive I guess. I wouldn't want to risk my old drive becoming inactive before finding out if I have any issues with the new drive/install.