using hdd with win 7 on a new pc

xreggiex

New member
Local time
6:55 PM
Messages
1
hi i stumbled upon this forums when googling for windows 7 forums.. and i have a question to ask regarding installation of windows 7.

right now i have windows 7 home premium upgraded from windows vista home premium. i have both retail copies of the vista and the 7 upgrade discs. i'm using the 32bit edition currently.

soon, i will be getting a new custom built pc, so i wanna know if can i just use and put my current HDD drive with the win 7 in it on the new pc..? if that's possible, thats great!

but if its not possible, then can i install the windows vista and the windows 7 upgrade again and use the same cd key for this new fresh install? or will it fail to activate my key since i have already activated and using it for my current pc..?

any help on the above questions will be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance!
 

My Computer My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium
while yes putting the hdd into the new machine will work most of the time this isn't recommended as all of the hardware is different, and it's troublesome to make sure you correct the drivers. you may upgrade using your current key ONLY if both versions of windows have been removed from the old computer. activation will sometimes require a call to microsoft. you may not run windows vista on another pc after you have used it's key to activate an upgrade edition.
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition
CPU
Intel Core i7 Extreme 3.33GHz
Motherboard
EVGA X-58 SLI Classified
Memory
12GB DDR3
Graphics Card(s)
2x EVGA 285 2GB in SLI
Sound Card
Creative Labs X-Fi ExtremeGamer
Monitor(s) Displays
30" Viewsonic
Hard Drives
2x1TB Western Digital 7200RPM in RAID 0/1TB WD My Book External HDD
PSU
Thermaltake 1000w supporting quad SLI
Case
Thermaltake Armor Full Tower
Cooling
Thermaltake V1 CPU+DIY Liquid cooling
I have moved Win7 to other machines many times with success.

It changes out all of the drivers upon startup and has no performance issues experienced thus far.

It's certainly worth a try as the worst that can happen is you need to clean reinstall.
 
Last edited:
Also if you are changing RAM types (say from DDR2 to DDR3) you will need to do a fresh install. Another thing to keep in mind is if your new PC can run 64 bit if you are not running it already.

-Bill
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom Built
OS
Windows 7 Enterprise x64
CPU
i7-5820K
Motherboard
Asus X99 A
Memory
16GB DDR4
Graphics Card(s)
ASUS 2GB Nvidia 960GTX OC'd
Monitor(s) Displays
24"
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
Samsung 1TB 840 SSD
Western Digital 1TB Black Drive
Seagate 2TB NAS Drive
PSU
Antec Earthwatts 650w
Case
Antec DF-85
hi i stumbled upon this forums when googling for windows 7 forums.. and i have a question to ask regarding installation of windows 7.

right now i have windows 7 home premium upgraded from windows vista home premium. i have both retail copies of the vista and the 7 upgrade discs. i'm using the 32bit edition currently.

soon, i will be getting a new custom built pc, so i wanna know if can i just use and put my current HDD drive with the win 7 in it on the new pc..? if that's possible, thats great!

but if its not possible, then can i install the windows vista and the windows 7 upgrade again and use the same cd key for this new fresh install? or will it fail to activate my key since i have already activated and using it for my current pc..?

any help on the above questions will be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance!
Actually if both computers are not too different i.e. mobo, memory, PCI cards etc. etc. it is possible to transfer you might just need to re-activate your product. A call to Microsoft will take care of that – won’t spend 10 mins. on a call.

Aside from that you might need to just update or reload drivers either way it is possible. Good luck ;)
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Bo's "Kitchen" - Custom
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
CPU
Intel Core2 Quad
Motherboard
i7 extreme
Memory
4gb ddr2 1066
Graphics Card(s)
8800GTS
Sound Card
Realtec
Monitor(s) Displays
Sony HD
Hard Drives
1 TB Western Digital
Cooling
Thermaltake Spin-Q Universal CPU Cooler
Back
Top