Windows 10: Can a Win10 hard drive just be swapped into a new computer?

I had posted a few months ago about unexplained blue screens on an ASUS laptop of my wife's.

The problem was seemingly solved with a new SSD, then when the blue screens persisted, a clean install of Windows on that drive.

But after two months, the blue screens returned, and the shop discovered it was the controller on the motherboard, and recommended that getting a new computer would make more sense - the ASUS was four years old and had had other problems.

I'd like to have the shop simply swap in the "old" (two months old) drive from the ASUS into the Lenovo they ordered for us. 5% because it's a new drive, and 95% so I don't have to, for the second time in two months, install and configure the software on the machine.

The shop is saying that they'll "try" this, but that a clean install of Windows might be necessary anyway. Which of course would negate the primary reason for moving the drive, to save me from reinstalling and configuring.

What are some guidelines and considerations if one is asking what I'm asking? I realize that there will be different hardware on the new laptop, but I'm very much hoping that a drive swap (or clone the old drive to the new computer), and maybe some different drivers, will fix this.

:)

 

hard drive swap

If the new computer has the same version, Home or Pro, installed and activated you have no problems.

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We had a power serge and my wife's computer was fried. It did not get the hard drive and I had an exact model that was activated and I swapped her hard drive into it and she was up and running with no problems.

 

Win10 on new hard drive, how to activate

• Installed Win10 to new hard drive, but Win7 code does not work.
• Tried online (slui.exe 4) activation:
  • entered numeric codes online - which failed,
  • talked to 1st line tech who entered Win7 code - did not work,
  • transferred me to 2nd line tech and no one came on the phone line after 2.5 hours.

Win7 was pre-installed on HP computer with no media provided and HP support has no process to supply replacement media or ISO (last HP purchase). Tried to install Win7 to new drive using Recovery Disks I created, but it could not find system image.

Not willing to return to old hard drive as the new one has SSD and is at least 3 (7?) times faster.

QUESTION 1: Is my only option now to buy either Win7 or Win10?

QUESTION 2: Without activation, when will Win10 no longer boot? If 12 months, I can retry online activation later.

 

Swapping hard drives between two computers

Hi ugli,

You may swap hard drives with Windows if bot licenses were bought separately from computer. Likely you'll need to make phone activation after swap.

Preinstalled Windows are tied to computer so if at least one Windows is preinstalled (OEM) you need to swap just hard drives not Windows copies to be fully legal . So make a backup copy on each computer and restore them after disk swapping.