Moving SSD/OS from one machine to another

[DBissett]

Can I do that without problems? We have an older computer I want to replace with a basic new build probably using an i3. We have a second computer, i5 based, with a good 128 gig SSD that holds the OS which I would like to use in the new computer and replace in the i5 with a larger one. So, can I simply move the existing SSD to the new computer and expect it to run without a problem? Thanks.

 

[crashtech]

Not always. Sometimes it is amazingly smooth, and sometimes it will fail utterly. Your best chance of success comes from using Sysprep, found in the Windows\System32\Sysprep directory. When the "Generalize" box is checked, this tool enables a very basic set of drivers and re-discovers all hardware upon the next boot, as well as prompting creation of a new user profile and necessitating the re-activation of Windows, which you'll have to do anyway. I'm not going to get into the licensing part of it, but some OE versions of Windows won't allow this to happen, nor will they allow any other method without a new key.

 

[inachu]

Aleratec has a hard drive to hard drive cloan tool that requires no pc in the middle.

This is the easiest way to do it but crashtech way might be the safer route.

 

[DBissett]

I hadn't thought about licensing/re-activation issues. The existing SSD uses an OEM version of Wn8.1 so maybe that would be an obstacle. Would this work any better......to install the new SSD in the i5 machine, clone everything from the old SSD to the new one, remove the old one and put it in the new machine, reformat it and install a cloned version of everything on the old computer to that SSD?

 

[crashtech]

It's always best to do any playing around with a cloned image in any case, since if there is an intractable problem you can go back to where you were.