Can I Swap My Hd To Another Pc?

[Obiwan]

I wonder what will happen if i take my harddrive (40Gb) with Win7 on it and put it in another computer. Will it still work or must I do a clean install?

My former mainboard was Asrock and the other computer is an Asus mainboard...

[britmaveric]

Depends on drivers!

[Obiwan]

I thought about uninstalling as many devices as possible before swapping, then Windows can install the new ones without getting confused...

[webfact]

Deep inside your Win7 are the drivers stored which are essential to run on your current motherboard.

Even if this computer runs with an identical motherboard I doubt a HDD switch will work.

You mention a 40GB HDD. Do you want to switch a notebook drive?

Suggestion: Image your harddisk with hardware independent software i.e. Shadowprotect or True Image to a new drive.

The home edition of True Image is not hardware independent and will only work on your computer.

Edited February 20, 2009 by webfact

[NanLaew]

^ Correct, the last version of Windows that supported 'hot-swap' of hard drives was 98. All versions since have hardware dependent configurations embedded during the o/s installation and if it can't see the same hardware, the boot crashes; instant BBSOD!!!. If the new motherboard is identical, it will work, if it's a different motherboard with the same chipsets, it may just get far enough to boot and allow the user to install whatever new drivers are required. But if the manufacturer, model and chipsets are different, it won't work.

That last solution sounds like the best option but keep in mind that if Win7 is anything like Vista, any files saved by any individual users in their respective 'My Documents' folders will not be accessible on the new machine unless you 'take ownership' of those files from bottom of the directory tree to the top, not root on down. That can take ages and is a pain in the arse. My recommendation is BEFORE you make a copy, backup or image of the old drive, move any and all files in any and all 'My Documents' folders into a new root directory, call it 000 or aaa so it's at the top of the pile, and you should be able to access them without this 'take ownership' rigmarole. Note the 'take ownership' procedure is not the same as simply changing the permissions on these directories.

The more they try and make these o/s dummy-proof, the harder it gets to do the simplest of things.

Edited February 21, 2009 by NanLaew

[NanLaew]

I thought about uninstalling as many devices as possible before swapping, then Windows can install the new ones without getting confused...

The problem with that is you will eventually uninstall a device that your existing hardware needs just to stay alive. The support for the chipsets is the clincher. Those are embedded in the o/s during the installation and if you pull any one of them out, chances are you will have a quick brick.

[Deke]

I've managed to accomplish this before by installing the harddisk and then reinstalling Windows (XP) in "upgrade" mode so that it doesn't overwrite the other programs and data.

[NanLaew]

^ I will keep that in mind for future system upgrades.

[mdechgan]

Swapping hdds will not work. You will get the microsoft blue screen of death while booting. There is a chance if the chipset is the same or similar brand like VIA or Intel or Nvidia with similar drivers. Yo will need to do a new install. It doesn't have to be a clean install but a repair install or upgrade is fine. However most techs recommend to do a clean install if a mainboard is changed just to clear out the old drivers and install the new drivers. A computer must have something like 100 drivers.

[Obiwan]

I guess enough warnings here not even to try this and save a lot of work. Thanks!

[Gary A]

I upgraded the main board, power supply, CPU, RAM and used my original hard drive. I had Windows XP Pro on the hard drive. It worked fine except it wouldn't authenticate with my original code. A call to MS took care of that. I would expect Windows 7 to be the same after it is released.

[phaethon]

I just brought a HD over from the UK with VistaHE on it and plonked it into a new HP Presario desktop (it came from a similar UK model about 2 years old) bought at Fortune Town. Took a while to go through all the found new hardware nonsense, but worked fine afterwards. The only pauses later in the process were 1) Norton Antivirus refused to reactivate until I emailed them, explained and they reset it. and 2) MS Office2007 had to be reactivated (no problem).

As with most things Microsoft, all you can really do is try it and see.

[JimShortz]

I did this recently: switching a hard drive from one machine with an Asus board and a P4 processor to another with a different Asus board, P4 processor, different video card, etc. I was astonished that it worked! The hard drive had a fully updated (sp3) Win Xp installation and lots of software installed. It took ages to finish booting up the first time as it sorted out the drivers. It got so i could open control panel and I went to look at the device drivers section. This was covered in exclamation marks (indicating problems), but the system just went ahead and fixed them ALL one by one, as I watched, without me doing a dam_n thing! It actually made me think that Microsoft might be good at something after all...

[lassebasse]

I wonder what will happen if i take my harddrive (40Gb) with Win7 on it and put it in another computer. Will it still work or must I do a clean install?

My former mainboard was Asrock and the other computer is an Asus mainboard...

I have just done a simular transfer. No problem except that you need to know how to install all the drivers that are reguired by your new mainboard.

[Toxane]

I wonder what will happen if i take my harddrive (40Gb) with Win7 on it and put it in another computer. Will it still work or must I do a clean install?

My former mainboard was Asrock and the other computer is an Asus mainboard...

You can do that without running into any problems. All you have to do is set the driver for the chipset / IDE / SATA prior to move the HD to another box. I'm not allowed to post links here, but you can kick on Google with these keywords: windows change motherboard ide driver

I would backup any important data/profiles and restore it on the new PC on a clean OS install.

[Daffy D]

A year or so ago I had an upgraded Motherboard installed by the local computer guy. Before I gave him the computer I took out my working hard drive with all my programs on it and put in an old drive that had just the operating system, XP Pro.

When I went to collect the computer he fired it up to show it was working and when I got back home I put in my working drive and it worked fine, no problems at all.

(Since then I have got more knowledge and confident and next time will upgrade the MB myself )

[OldenAtwoody]

I wonder what will happen if i take my harddrive (40Gb) with Win7 on it and put it in another computer. Will it still work or must I do a clean install?

My former mainboard was Asrock and the other computer is an Asus mainboard...

Arrrgh.

Yes, it will probably work. Don't throw away the old PC until you test this drive in the new machine.

1. What operating system are you using? XP or Vista? Anything older and you need to update the software, too. (This is for the benefit of OTHER readers who may not be using "Win 7", i.e. pirated, bastard copy of Vista.)

2. What kind of drive is it? IDE or SATA. (Hopefully not SCSI!) Your drive is probably an IDE hard drive, so make sure the new board supports it (IDE). Some new boards support both SATA and IDE hard drives. FYI – mine does and given the choice, I would not run both at the same time. It's "problematic", and I'm a geek. Get my drift?.

3. Once the PC boots, a couple of things may/will happen.

a. You will need new video drivers for the new machine so you may have to start Windows in SAFE Mode. Solution is to remove the old video drivers and be ready to install the new ones. You may have to run in VGA mode until you sort it all out.

b. Windows will very likely require you to "re-activate" on-line with a legal serial number because the hardware has changed significantly. (Love that Bill Gates!)

4. Forty GB is a ridiculously small size now. Buy a copy of Acronis (or similar) hard disk cloning software. Clone your existing drive to a larger one, perhaps a 500 Gb, or 750 Gb IDE HD. If the new board supports IDE, then clone BEFORE you disassemble anything. Buy a 500 Gb IDE drive, install as drive 1 (actually #2 to humans – your original drive is considered Drive 0 to a PC). Clone then swap in the OLD machine to see if it works ok. (Don't forget to set the jumpers properly. Read the book, eh?) Save the 40, and retire it. Don't use it as a second drive.

If it works, then put the 500 in the new machine. Test carefully.

Note: Why such a big drive? Windows needs a large amount of space to run, creating Swap Files, etc. A forty Gb is choking it to death. Drives are cheap. A 500 is what, 2,500 Baht. Upgrade!

5. One of the issues you are facing is whether to upgrade to newer technology. The current transition is from IDE to SATA drives. Buying a motherboard that supports SATA will also be supporting faster RAM memory, etc. for future upgrades. And the future comes fast.

6. Don't be such a cheap bastard. Buy as much memory as you can shoehorn into that new board (4 Gb?) and speed up your life.

7. I assume the new board has on-board video. Spend $30 and buy a video card with 512Mb or 1 Gb of memory. Your PC CPU will thank you. It's like taking off the parking brake when you drive… things run smoother.

Final word - All of the above is NOT for laptops swaps, desk machines only.

Edited February 22, 2009 by OldenAtwoody

[SKORPiO]

When you will install your HD in new PC, just do a repair installation. I went through 3 systems with my XP and I guess win7 wont be much different. Start your PC with win7 cd and choose "repair". Strongly advise to clone your HD before attempting any startup in new pc.

regards, Bartek.

[Jimbob1]

Have a look at Acronis Echo and Migrate ..... will detect hardware from a stored image onto another similar machine ...

[NanLaew]

To the OP, earlier advice, including my own (which was based mostly on Win2000 and XPSP1 experience) seems to be redundant according to later posts by users working with newer o/s. Maybe MS have made their 'find new hardware' routines that run in the background more self-supporting and the mobo manufacturers are also doing something different to make hardware upgrades with existing HD's more sustainable.

I would clone the hard drive first and then go ahead and suck-it-and-see in a new PC. Please post your results too!

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

There is exactly two possibilities: It ,may work - or it may not.

I have been through such scenarios plenty of times with XP and also Vista. Some were system upgrades where i was able to uninstall stuff before swapping, others were "dead board" and no chance of uninstalling before swapping.

I've had cases where Windows (XP as well as Vista) would boot right up, rummage around for a while installing drivers and ask for additional ones, but i also had cases where every attempt to boot would yield the BSOD, even "safe mode".

And it doesn't seem to matter whether the new mainboard had a similar or completely different chipset - some work, some don't.

What might be worth a try is to check all installed drivers if they are generic Microsoft ones - and replace those which are not with such generic ones. Because i got the least headaches from machines where "everything worked" right after Windows' installation, without touching the MoBo driver CD. After swapping a MoBo in such a system usually the only non-working things are USB ports or on-board devices such as LAN or Graphic (will run in VGA mode), and often Windows will install the needed drivers all by itself upon first boot, except maybe the graphics one.

Kind regards......

Thanh