Moving OEM Windows 7 to a new system.

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Ronaldspiers

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Sep 25, 2013
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Hello all. This question may be very trivial and sound stupid but I am curious none-the-less.

I have nearly saved up enough to start buying the components for my new rig. And to give my current one a bit of new life i installed an SSD and put windows 7 on it.
It ended up being a nightmare to be honest, with windows errors and activation key not working. SO anyway, I would like to bypass the re-installation of windows 7 again when I get my new computer and wondered if the following idea would work.

I have 2 drives my ssd and a 1TB HDD. If i back them up to an external hard drive, build the pc then boot it up. Is there anyway for me to restore the SSD back up and have windows 7 running again in trial mode and use a new product key?

Or will I be required to boot from the windows 7 disc and reinstall from scratch? It would just save a lot of hassle in the long run if i could just restore windows and enter a new product key.
 
Solution
ThatVietGuy
Doing it your way is difficult because Windows 7 is tied to the original motherboard it was first installed on, not to mention all the drivers for the motherboard are on that SSD as well. As soon as you start up W7 will throw a fit and the drivers might screw with the new system as well.

The hassle isn't worth it and it's easier to just reinstall W7.

Do you have the OEM version or Retail version? If you have problems with the OEM version, you can call the automated line to activate if it doesn't work the first time.

And what errors did you run into the last time?
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ThatVietGuy

ThatVietGuy

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Nov 6, 2007
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Doing it your way is difficult because Windows 7 is tied to the original motherboard it was first installed on, not to mention all the drivers for the motherboard are on that SSD as well. As soon as you start up W7 will throw a fit and the drivers might screw with the new system as well.

The hassle isn't worth it and it's easier to just reinstall W7.

Do you have the OEM version or Retail version? If you have problems with the OEM version, you can call the automated line to activate if it doesn't work the first time.

And what errors did you run into the last time?
 
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Solution
ex_bubblehead

ex_bubblehead

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Aug 24, 2012
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Microsoft licensing does not allow the transfer of an OEM copy of Windows from one computer to another. If you in fact own a retail copy you may transfer the license to a new computer as long as it is removed from the old one. Licensing issues aside, taking a drive from one system and placing it in another (unless both are identical) will not work as the low level drivers needed to boot the system are bound tightly to the hardware they are originally installed on. You will have to do a repair installation at a minimum, followed by reactivation, and reapplying all Windows updates.
 
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Ronaldspiers

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Sep 25, 2013
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Yeah its an OEM copy. I bought this PC a few years ago and it had windows preinstalled.

Yeah I had to phone their help line to get them to activate it properly. The issues were just not being able to put the activation key in, then after i installed windows onto the SSD the computer wouldnt recognise the SSD as a boot drive. So I booted with the disc again and it reinstalled the whole thing. Like i had never tried it in the first place.

Thanks guys, I guess Im gonna need to reinstall it. :p.

One last question if you dont mind, what would be the best way to back up two separate drives onto one single external backup? I only just learned about partitions so would I partition say, a 2 TB external HDD into 2 separate sections then backup the SSD and my 1TB HDD onto the different partitions?

 
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