Migrating Windows to Slower HDD?

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CurtisUpshall

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May 5, 2014
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I'm building a new PC, and the one I'm using is an Acer Micro ATX machine. I intend on selling the PC to a friend who doesn't need the big and fast hard drive in the Acer machine. What I wanted to do was buy a WD Blue drive and migrate Windows off of its Seagate 1TB drive to it. Will there be any problems with the WIndows licensing or driver incompatibility, or can Windows be migrated to any drive so long as it's still in the same machine? Some insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
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wildfire707
It will send the key it already has to Microsoft over the internet with an updated hardware checksum. As long as you don't plan to keep running the old drive with the same product key, you should be fine. The worst case is that it will tell you that it could not reactivate and to call Microsoft or get a new product key. As this is the same computer, you just have to call the provided telephone number, give an explanation, and verify that you are using the product legally.
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wildfire707

wildfire707

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Dec 29, 2011
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The OS will want to reactivate (changing hard disks counts as a major hardware change), but there should not be a problem. All of the drivers will be the same.

As far as actually performing the disk copy, you may encounter problems using free tools (as the new disk needs to have at least as much space on it as the old one to do a simple copy using something like gparted) - but commercial tools like Acronis True Image can do it just fine.
 
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CurtisUpshall

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What happens when it tries to reactivate? I was not given a product key or disk when I got the machine. The sticker has a product key on it though. I'll be moving enough off the disk on to an external backup drive so that it will fit on the 500GB Blue drive.
 
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wildfire707

wildfire707

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Dec 29, 2011
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It will send the key it already has to Microsoft over the internet with an updated hardware checksum. As long as you don't plan to keep running the old drive with the same product key, you should be fine. The worst case is that it will tell you that it could not reactivate and to call Microsoft or get a new product key. As this is the same computer, you just have to call the provided telephone number, give an explanation, and verify that you are using the product legally.
 
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CurtisUpshall

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May 5, 2014
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Ok, thanks for the response. I'll be wiping the Seagate and using it in conjunction with an SSD in the new build. Thanks again.
 
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