Putting ssd from old computer into new computer

[jarlmaster]

Looks like I'm getting a new laptop and I want to take out the ssd I have in my old one (core i3-2330m so sandy bridge chipset) into the new computer (core i5-6200u so skylake chipset). I know Windows 10 is awfully forgiving when it comes to upgrading and often has the necessary drivers so I am wondering if I can just take the ssd out of the old system and plop it in the new one. I have heard that sysprep doesn't work because I upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7. I just don't know what to do. Do I try to sysprep? Or just forgo that step and move the ssd to the new system? I can easily reactivate windows and all so that won't be a problem.

 

[bassfisher6522]

No....as the old drive has all the drivers from the old system. In order to use it in the new laptop you would need to wipe it and then do a clean install of widnows.

 

[jarlmaster]

Well I can do one of two things. I can wipe the drivers and manually install drivers for the new chipset (which I believe are already installed) or I can use sysprep which removes the old drivers and sets things up as a fresh windows install.

---------- Post added at 08:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:24 PM ----------

I think I'll just go ahead and sysprep the drive.

 

[bassfisher6522]

You will need to wipe the drive and do a clean install of the OS.....doing anything else will be asking for problems later on.

---------- Post added at 09:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 PM ----------

You can do how ever you like.....but the recommended way is to wipe the drive and do clean install.

 

[jarlmaster]

I REALLY don't want to do a clean install. I have heard good things about sysprep and that Microsoft put a lot of time into making it work well. Just have to do a few regedits and it should be fine. It's ridiculous that they don't make swapping drives easier. A lot of people upgrade their mobo/cpu before they upgrade a drive. Imaging and cloning is a chore too.

 

[crazyman143]

Take an image backup of your SSD in it's current state and then give it a try. I have found that, like you said it often times will work. There are also some backup tools out there that will modify the OS to work on new hardware but I haven't found a good free one and often they aren't needed.

 

[cb600fshornet]

Sometimes this works, 9 times out of 10 you get a blue screen and it falls over in a heap.

When Windows installs, there is a Hardware Abstraction Layer which seems to be specific to the chipset. When you put the HDD in a new PC without reinstalling, the blue screen are not normally simple driver issues, but they tend to be related to the HAL. I do seem to remember using a tool (not sysprep) to modify the HAL in order to allow the PC to boot, but it never worked particularly well after booting anyway.

 

[jarlmaster]

Why do companies make this so difficult? What benefit does locking the hard drive to a specific chipset have? In an era where a significant subset of the PC market is comprised of people who have built their own computer, this sort of thing is ridiculous. You should be able to swap drives willy nilly to whatever system you want and it should work just fine.

 

[Trotter]

OEM vs Retail.

 

[Dngrsone]

Sometimes this works, 9 times out of 10 you get a blue screen and it falls over in a heap.

When Windows installs, there is a Hardware Abstraction Layer which seems to be specific to the chipset. When you put the HDD in a new PC without reinstalling, the blue screen are not normally simple driver issues, but they tend to be related to the HAL. I do seem to remember using a tool (not sysprep) to modify the HAL in order to allow the PC to boot, but it never worked particularly well after booting anyway.

This.

I recall, many moons ago, a friend managed to uninstall the hardware drivers while booted in the old system, shut down and then moved the drive to the new machine, and he managed to get a boot and Win automatically installed the appropriate drivers for the new hardware.

However, this was several version of Windows ago (heh, before SSDs for sure). Your best bet would be to install fresh.

I'd say, try sysprep, but be ready to perform a clean install if things don't work out right...