Solved Transferring Win7 from old hard drive to new one, on newly built pc.

[Fruito]

I have decided to build a new pc completely from scratch (specs fownd below). My problems starts when I realised I needed to transfer win7 to the new hard drive as i dont fancy paying for a new os. So I have a few questions, that I'm hoping you can help me with.
Firstly what programs are on offer to do the cloning process and are they free, bearing in mind the hard drive I am buying is WD (western digital).
Secondly is it possible to to simply just transfer just win7 OS and nothing else,therefore clean hard drive, only containing os.
Thirdly, ideally i would like to transfer the os and and certain things, for instance can you pick and choose what is cloned onto the new hard drive, so for instance a clean hard drive but only containing my installed games, since I dont really want to re-download all my games again if it can be avoided. But I dont want the other stuff iIdont need to be transfered.
And finally Im am a complete novice as far as cloning hard drives, so is the processs simply or are there a few things i should know.

Sorry if a forum about this topic is already out there.

Thanks,
Tom

Specs
Case: CoolerMaster Haf 922
Motherboard: Asrock Extreme 4 Gen 3
CPU: Intel i5 2500k
Graphics Card: HD 6970
PSU: Corsair TX650
Hard Drive: WD 7,200rpm 1TB 600GB/s (Still deciding but most likely.
RAM: G Skill Ripjaws X 8GB 1600Mhz

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

You can download the trial version of Acronis True Image and use that if you feel so inclined.

Acronis True Image Home 2012

Although I'm fairly certain that some hard drive manufacturer's also include a version of Acronis as part of their backup software - just check before you buy.

Check this tutorial too: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

 

[Fruito]

Thanks for the swift reply but is it possible to pick and choose what is cloned, with these programs? Or is it simply clone all or none?

 

[seavixen32]

I've never had need to clone a drive so I can't say for certainty, but I would think it's the whole drive/partition or nothing.

Check here for further information on Acronis: Cloning Software from Acronis

Of course, you can just install Windows on the new hard drive if you wish, you'll just need to activate it afterwards.

Providing you have a retail licence you can use the operating system on your new computer providing you have removed it from the old one.

 

[Corazon]

Cloning is not advisable in this case - your new PC has completely different hardware, and if you clone your existing system to it it is likely to fail to boot completely.

Since you'd rather install the OS fresh anyway, that's the best thing to do. You don't need to purchase it again, you already have a key for your existing Windows - from what I understand you just need to de-activate your current Windows system so you can activate the new OS once it's installed.

 

[Mark Phelps]

Acronis, EASEUS, and Macrium Reflect all provide products that will allow you to "restore" a Win7 backup to different hardware. I believe the Free version of EASEUS ToDo will do that but I think the other two require you to purchase the product. Macrium Reflect's product is known as Redeploy.

 

[Corazon]

Good point! I'd totally forgotten about these options. Doh.

 

[Fruito]

thanks for all the info guys, been alot of help. From your advice i have decided to only have win7 transferred and not to clone the drives. But i should of mentioned my current pc, with win7 on it, is a pre built pc with win7 already installed when i bought it. So my question now is, is it still possible to de-activate it and re activate it, since i didnt buy win7 on its own. And if so where would i find what my license key is and how would i got about deactivating it and reactiveing it. Thanks, Tom

 

[essenbe]

If you will right click on computer and select properties and look at the numbers in the lower left corner. If the numbers have OEM in them then you will have to buy a new installation. An OEM version is tied to the hardware it was installed on and won't activate on a new computer.

 

[Fruito]

Sigh, got to fork out £70 for a new copy of win7, just what i didnt want to do. My Code has:
XXXXX-OEM-XXXXXXX-XXXXX, thanks for all your help guys, i guess I shall mark as solved, unless theres anything else i need to know?

 

[Fruito]

Just realised the £70 verions are upgrades versions , got to have pre installed windows. Full versions like £100, anyone know how to get it any cheaper? I noticed theres a dicount for student but can only seem to find discounts on upgrade version. Also is it possible to do a copy then wipe the drivers of this current pc so its fine for the new pc, will the current win7 oem version work that way?

 

[essenbe]

I'm afraid not. The number is tied to the hardware of the other computer. But, don't feel alone we have all been there before. I have quite a few Installation disks around that can't be activated on another computer. If I was smart I would have just paid for the retail version and wouldn't have those disks laying around. It would have been cheaper in the long run. Next one will be a retail version.

 

[Fruito]

Well ok thanks for all the help, guess ill have to spend £100 on it, seems such a waste but i guess it has to be done.

I have managed to find windows 7 for £40, a download version with licence key, says its the full version, standard licence. I was wondering how you go about installing it and since it says full verion, that means its not an upgrade, does it not?