Various Drive Cloning Questions

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CraftKing7777

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This may be a little confusing to understand so if you have any questions please just ask and I will explain my situation to the best of my abilities. Here we go:

I have an HP laptop with a Windows 8.1 installation on it. I have a formatted SSD. I will soon be building a new PC. I want to fresh install the OS on the SSD, just the OS nothing else. Is this possible or will I have to clone everything. About the whole cloning thing, how would I go about this? Just copy and paste everything from one drive to another? Is there a special software that does it better than Windows File Explorer? Is there something special about HP Laptop or Laptops in general OS that will make it not work on a full size PC? Will I have to buy a new OS install disk? If I had to clone everything and drivers came with it how would I clear them all out? Sorry for all the questions. Don't forget to ask me anything that isn't explained thoroughly enough.

Thanks! :)
 
Solution
USAFRet


The license activation, and the activation server farm at the mothership...they know. License key ABC123 is tied to motherboard of serial number XYZ. They check.
That license key is specifically licensed to that original motherboard/system.

Even if it were not (in the case of a Retail Windows license, which it isn't), you can only use that license on one PC at a time.
So then the laptop would be left without a license. 1 license, 1 PC.
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Going to a new SSD:

2 options:
Clone the entire existing drive. This requires that the SSD be larger then the total used space on the current drive.
Basically, this just makes an exact copy of your current drive on a different drive. New drive has to be larger than old drive used space.

or

Clean install. This requires that you know your current license key, and have the relevant install media. This also requires that you reinstall all your applications.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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There is nothing special about 2.5" sata drives, either hard drive or ssd which are installed in a laptop.

When you do a clean install, windows will erase and prep the drive suitably.

If you wanted to convert a laptop hard drive to a ssd, then cloning, or a bit for bit copy would be one way to go.
Samsung and Intel offer free apps for this.

The license on a laptop is not transferrable to anything else. You will need to buy a copy of windows for your desktop.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Additionally:

You cannot use a license from that laptop on a new desktop
You cannot use the license from that laptop on another laptop
You cannot do a 'clone' from a laptop to a desktop, no matter what the license situation is.
You cannot use a license on 2 different PC at the same time.

Now....what are you actually trying to do?
It seems you have (or will have) 2 devices. A laptop and a new desktop, correct?
You need to purchase an OS for that desktop.
 
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CraftKing7777

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So if I'm understanding this correctly your saying moving the OS from my laptop to my Desktop isn't possible right? If it isn't why not? I don't care if it has any of the HP features. How would the OS know its on another PC?

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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The license activation, and the activation server farm at the mothership...they know. License key ABC123 is tied to motherboard of serial number XYZ. They check.
That license key is specifically licensed to that original motherboard/system.

Even if it were not (in the case of a Retail Windows license, which it isn't), you can only use that license on one PC at a time.
So then the laptop would be left without a license. 1 license, 1 PC.
 
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Solution
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CraftKing7777

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Okay so ill have to buy another license. Thanks!

 
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