Solved Any guidance on sucessfully migrating from HP to Dell architecture?

[SIW2]

I am tempted to get something dell to play with. Can't decide if I should pick up a ex business 7050 or maybe something like a 7020/9020. Will see what pops up. I have just ordered an hp 8300 thing to muck around with. It is difficult to mod the bios on those oem prebuilds, so I might see if I can coax it to boot nvme disk from pcie slot.

 

[SIW2]

I have just tried ventoy on a b75 mobo. The ventoy menu will only respond to keyboard. After selecting one of the isos , it loads and then the mousework. Anybody else getting that?

I did it out of interest just now and popped the paragon RK14 bootcd_x64.iso on there. That works fine once it has loaded, with usb mouse working ok.

edit: I have just read that mouse never works in the ventoy menu. Apparently, that is the way it is.

https://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/422674-alternatives-paragon-adaptive-restore-post3463101.html#post3463101]paragon RK14

http://dl.paragon-software.com/free/rk14_free.exe

The linux iso can be copied out with 7-zip

 

[Mike Lynch]

More confusion on my part.

The power supply died.

I will need to order a new one before continuing.

 

[Mike Lynch]

I am back at it but still confused.

When I cloned the HP 8300's C: drive, I installed the cloned drive in the Dell 7010 USFF PC.

I then entered my Dell Product ID # from the Dell OS Disk I have.

Things appeared OK.

Then after a Restart following a Windows Update, MS said Windows needed to be Activated within three days.

That was a surprise but I pressed the activation now button for online activation and it failed.

I received a message to contact a MS Windows Activation Center via phone.

I did it and MS walked me through entering ID Numbers and eventually the PC was 'validated'.

It appears to be working OK but what happened?

 

[SIW2]

I then entered my Dell Product ID # from the Dell OS Disk I have.

Do keys come printed/stickered on dell os disks? Product ID is not the same thing as a key. That might have been the issue.

The usual way is to use the OEM.xrm-ms file and slp key. Or the coa key that is on a sticker on the machine.

 

[SIW2]

Those hp sff look like nice little machines. Here is video with various fun things that can be done with them - and the earlier 8200 version.

Improve your HP Elite Small Form Factor PC - YouTube