Transferring Windows 7 from Laptop to new Desktop

[andrewboon]

Hi everyone I just have two quick questions

I am building a brand new PC from scratch and I do not want to spend 100$ on a brand new operating system when I have one from my laptop. My laptop is really crappy, but the hard drive is still in excellent condition. It has Windows 7 on it and I was wondering if I could somehow transfer the Windows 7 from that hard drive to my new desktop hard drive.


Also is it possible to just use my laptop hard drive in my new desktop instead of getting a brand new hard drive? It would be much easier than doing what I said in the above paragraph, because I have a bunch of important files on my laptop hard drive.

If none of the above is possible, does anyone have a suggestion with how to transfer my files from my laptop to my desktop? I also have a Windows Vista disk I can use to install to my new desktop if nothing works.

Thank you for the help!

 

[IAntDemo]

The only way of really getting other harddrives to work on other machines is by having the same make, such as owning a dell laptop and another dell laptop and taking the HDD out and putting it into the dell it will work, but taking a harddrive out of a dell and putting it into a compaq will make a blue screen error which in your case will happen since it's from laptop to desktop..

So no.. not really, but yes you can give it a shot, nobody said it won't work it's just it shouldn't work...

Have you heard of a USB PEN drive.. it's a little device that can save info on and transfer to other computers:

4Gb USB Pen Drive Flash Memory Stick SANDISK CRUZER | eBay

Something like the above..

You can get windows 7 but it's against the law to use a cracked version, I would suggest this, your laptop harddrive is a small 3.5inch HDD, which hopefully is sata.. order a usb pendrive and save everything from the pen drive and store it on a friends computer or family members, just for your own confirmation that it's secure, and then use your old harddrive and use a windows disk in the new machine, it is all possible but only with the correct equipment.

 

[lhuser]

Sometimes it works, sometimes, it doesn't. It has to deal with the chipset you have and what hard drive controller being used and to what mode.

Should that fail, do what InventD45 suggested and use that...Vista disk.

 

[Indigo]

Short answer: No.

Slightly longer answer: If it's an OEM system, Microsoft won't transfer the license from an OEM to a custom build

Long Answer: If you're lucky, and you call Microsoft and tell them what you're doing, I've heard cases where they allow it, but it's rare. I've never done it myself.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 don't care too much about what hardware they're mated with, I've successfully moved a hard drive to another PC and booted it up fine after it finished installing the drivers. (windows 7)