Buying used pc, options for upgrading to Windows 7

drummerJ99

Honorable
Aug 18, 2014
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Looking at buying a used HP PAVILION ELITE M9400F for around $100. Is that a good deal? Need something only to run Photoshop Elements and read in raw photos quicker then my old emachines pc which takes a good 3-4 minutes them now. I've been told the 8gb ram will make this process much faster, as my current pc only has 2 gb.

The one downside is that the used pc has Vista my emachines has 7. How hard would it be to put my hard drive with 7 into the new pc to get windows 7 and keep all my programs and files? Or is my better bet to add my current hard drive as a backup instead as the boot drive?

Thanks,
Jeffrey
 
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How hard would it be to put my hard drive with 7 into the new pc to get windows 7 and keep all my programs and files?

Impossible to do that. Windows 7 will not run on a PC which has completely different motherboard to that which was present when that copy of Windows 7 was installed.

Moreover. it would be illegal to do it even if it did work. The Windows 7 on your emachines PC is a factory pre-installed OEM version. OEM installations cannot be transferred to any other computer. That's one of the licence restrictions imposed by Microsoft.

As for 8GB RAM, a good idea as long as you remember it's only possible with 64-bit Windows.
32-bit Windows can address only 3.2 GB approximately.

plywrlw

Admirable
Have you considered just putting more RAM into your eMachine? The money saved could go to an SSD which would blow your mind at how fast Photoshop will load/run if you used it as a scratch disk....would have to know what your eMachine is to decide the best course though!
 

avarice

Distinguished
May 10, 2006
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Chances are the windows 7 is OEM and non-transferable. Worth a try - but it likely won't work.

I can't quite tell if the PSU is a standard size - or if it custom sized (as is typical for many DELL/HP/Emachine/Ect.)

From an upgrade perspective - my first suggestion would be a new quality PSU (if standard sized) - should be less than $100.

Next would be a SSD and windows 7. I would suggest around 120GB to 250GB SSD for the OS and other programs. You can keep the existing drive as a data drive if you like. The SSD should run you about $200 - and windows 7 around $100.

when you get to the point of transfering - you should be able to use the windows transfer utility. It won't transfer programs but it will move photos, and other docuements/personal files.

you will need to re-install your programs onto the new box with the keys from the previous. You can get keys and such using Belarc Advisor.
 
How hard would it be to put my hard drive with 7 into the new pc to get windows 7 and keep all my programs and files?

Impossible to do that. Windows 7 will not run on a PC which has completely different motherboard to that which was present when that copy of Windows 7 was installed.

Moreover. it would be illegal to do it even if it did work. The Windows 7 on your emachines PC is a factory pre-installed OEM version. OEM installations cannot be transferred to any other computer. That's one of the licence restrictions imposed by Microsoft.

As for 8GB RAM, a good idea as long as you remember it's only possible with 64-bit Windows.
32-bit Windows can address only 3.2 GB approximately.
 
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