Trying to copy one hdd to another

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Phoenix-9-7

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Nov 8, 2015
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Hey guys, this is my first post on this site. I am fairly new to the world of computers as i've just started going to school in this field (it has sparked my love for computers lol). Anyways, my problem is that I cannot transfer files from my one hdd to the other. I am using a software called Macrium Reflect (it was free) to copy the files from my 1 tb hdd in my working laptop to a 500 gb hard drive mounted on my docking station connected via usb. Basically the 500 gb was from my old laptop that had windows 7 in it that gotten a virus so i thought the computer was useless. but now i have learned that i can save it by deleting everything on it and copying my working computer to it and re installing it into the old laptop and it should boot. There is only about 50gb of files but the software says that i have insufficient space to copy. i was told that it shouldn't matter the size as long as the files don't exceed the capacity. I don't know what to do so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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What you are doing won't work. You can't copy the Windows from your PC to your Laptop.

Few things


1) This only work when the Motherboards are the same or similar hardware or in other cases, which you can't do with a laptop, make dissimilar machines clone to another. I have done it before but it is never the same.

2) You are copying your version of windows over with it, which if it ever does startup on the laptop will require a new Key since it is already activated on your PC.

What you need to do is find what version of windows your PC came with, and find the OEM install disk. If it a Dell they are usually easy to find and I can even give you download links to them. They will automaticlly activate if it is on a dell that came with that version of windows or an older version of windows (Ie installing windows 7 on a Dell that came with windows 8 so long as you use a Dell Install disk).

Now most OEM's put recovery partitions on their PC's/Laptop so you can do a Factory restore (NOT A SYSTEM RESTORE! TWO DIFFERENT THINGS!). This will turn the PC back into a brand new PC when it was first bought.

So the real question is 1) What kind of laptop is it exactly and 2) have you deleted any partitions on the 500GB? If you have then any possible recovery partition is long gone now and you have to order a Disk from the OEM.
 
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Phoenix-9-7

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Nov 8, 2015
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The working laptop is an hp pavillion g7, currently running windows 10. I haven't deleted anything from my 500 GB hdd, that hard drive came out of an acer laptop, which had windows 7. I have already reset the acer laptop like new to delete the virus that it had but i haven't used it since then as its painfully slow to start up etc. i thought it would be easier to just copy this laptop set up and just re install the 500 gb hdd into the acer laptop and let it boot. both laptops have recovery partitions, no disks. So basically what you're saying is that this won't work because they are different? I am also trying to put together my first pc. I bought an ASRock z97 anniversary mobo. Would i be able to copy the laptop hdd and boot it on the new pc? and then enter the key that i get? or will i have to buy the os disk still? Thanks for the help btw!
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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Yea when coping a disk to another disk for a PC It will next to never work unless it is the same motherboard but even then if you change the motherboard you will have to most likely call up microsoft and have your key reactivated. The thing is because those are OEM keys they won't let you activate them on a non OEM PC.

And how old is he acer laptop? It could be that the hard drive is failing on why it is slow or maybe just needs a RAM upgrade, but if it is running just as slow now with a fresh recovery of windows 7 it won't be much faster with windows 10 or a hard drive image from another PC.

ANd yea just buy a new copy of windows for the new machine. Can't do what you want to do and even if you could one of the two won't be active and most likely even if you use the key off the laptop is is activated on the laptop so it won't activate for the PC.

 
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