Can you do a hard drive swap to a new tower, and windows still boot and function?

Drew125 · Nov 10, 2015

I am working on someones computer, there tower wont turn on at all. I have not looked at the computer yet. From what they described either the power supply or the mother board is gone. If the motherboard is gone, can i take her hard drive and put in it in another tower and windows still work? Without reinstalled windows. They have windows Vista installed, factory image. The other tower is an HP Pro Desk 600 G1. There computer now is an e-machine or a dell.

Tolik_ · Nov 10, 2015

Yes, it should work, you would have to install correct drives on it. Also if she is running windows 10 Microsoft would deactivate her windows do to hardware change. She would need to call Microsoft and activate windows again.

USAFRet · Nov 10, 2015

can i take her hard drive and put in it in another tower and windows still work? Without reinstalled windows.

Highly doubtful.
I've had little success in moving a drive with included OS to a whole different system.
In one case, even almost identical Compaq laptops. Does not boot.

Tolik_ · Nov 10, 2015

I just moved my ssd from my pc to laptop. No issues whats so ever

Drew125 · Nov 10, 2015

There should be no driver conflicts or cpu conflicts due to a hardware change then right. Other than installing new drivers.

Karsten75 · Nov 10, 2015

If you work on Personal computers, it will be advantageous for you to know the myriad licensing regulation surrounding Microsoft software.

Operating systems pre-loaded from companies like HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. are not transferable. You cannot within the terms of the license transfer them to another computer. For the terms of this discussion, "another computer" is defined by the motherboard. Many HP, Dell, Lenovo computers will activate based on a SLIC in the BIOS. THat means you can't even activate them on a different computer/motherboard.

OEM licenses can also not transfer to a different motherboard.

Retail licenses are not subject to these restrictions.

lodders · Nov 10, 2015

I have tried it with various HDD and it has never worked with Windows XP or Windows 7, unless the motherboards were literally identical.

Drew125 · Nov 10, 2015

Basically doing that violates the oem license. right

Tolik_ · Nov 10, 2015

With Windows 10 they allow it, but they will deactivate windows. It still works, with a message in the corner. Just call them up and they will re-activate your windows.r

USAFRet · Nov 10, 2015

Sigh.
Will it work? Probably not.
If you've never seen it fail, you simply haven't tried it enough times.

But you have nothing to lose by trying.

Drew125 · Nov 10, 2015

Last question. Would it be considered legal to transfer the windows install like this?

USAFRet · Nov 10, 2015

Drew125 :

If it works, doubtful it will activate normally. You'll have to ask MS to allow activation with a whole new system.

USAFRet · Nov 10, 2015

Tolik_ :

Seeing as the OP is talking about Vista, reference to Win 10 doesn't really matter.

And even if it were Win 10, an OEM Win 10, or Win 10 Upgraded from something else....the same. Only works with the original motherboard, unless you call MS and convince them why.

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Can you do a hard drive swap to a new tower, and windows still boot and function?

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