Computer Hard Drive Swap

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TrevsAudio
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Computer Hard Drive Swap

Post by TrevsAudio »

Hey Guys
Bought a refurbished Dell computer. It has a 500 gig SATA hard drive with Win 10 home installed.
Can I just swap this with the hard drive from my old computer (also a Dell)? This drive is an SSD with Win 10 Pro installed : not to mention all my software and Mixcraft projects.
Thanks for your input
EDIT : Both are Dell Optiplex but the new has a faster CPU and more RAM
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Trevor
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Dell 3050 SSF i3, 32gig RAM; MX 8, 9 and 10.5 Pro; Win 11 Pro
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ste_p0270
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Re: Computer Hard Drive Swap

Post by ste_p0270 »

Hi Trevlyns,

You may have to re-activate the licence for Win 10 Pro when you drop it into the new PC. Only other issues may be
loading and configuring of devices and drivers.
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outteh
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Re: Computer Hard Drive Swap

Post by outteh »

If you’re thinking you can use the hard drive from the Dell as the primary hard drive in a new computer, you’re going to run into all sorts of problems and may even damage the hard drive. The Dell drive configured Windows 10 to operate the Dell computer, not any other brand, so drivers, motherboard configs, system settings and BIOS are different. You can install it as a second drive and then move all your stuff off it onto the primary drive of your new computer. Drives are pretty cheap these days, especially SSDs. :D

On another note Windows is digitally signed for licensing these days and is tied to a specific computer.
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TrevsAudio
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Re: Computer Hard Drive Swap

Post by TrevsAudio »

Thanks for the response guys.
Yep I guess I'd better not mess with things. Maybe just reinstall everything from scratch :roll:
Old Dudes Rock!
Trevor
OFC™ Founding Member
Dell 3050 SSF i3, 32gig RAM; MX 8, 9 and 10.5 Pro; Win 11 Pro
Focusrite 2i2; Sennheiser HD650 cans

Sample Projects: https://soundcloud.com/trevs_audio
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@trevsaudio
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Sturdy
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Re: Computer Hard Drive Swap

Post by Sturdy »

If you have anything ilok, probably disable any license activations before trying to swap the drive and later enable them on new machine.

edit: and agree with above comment - don't change the system drive - best to keep whatever the new pc has for the system drive (c:\). There's lots of hardware specific drivers on that drive and OS might be tied to the hardware. But you can use your extra drive as a data drive (but not a boot drive). There used to be jumpers on the drive itself to set, but I don't think modern drives have that option, so not sure what modern process is, unless maybe selected in bios?
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TrevsAudio
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Re: Computer Hard Drive Swap

Post by TrevsAudio »

UPDATE:
Hey guys!
Just to let you know, I removed the SATA drive from the new comp (Win 10 Home) and replaced it with the drive from my old comp SSD with Win 10 Pro. It booted up first time and everything was in place just as I'd left it :D
Both comps were same make and model, except the new one has a faster processor and double the RAM.
Old Dudes Rock!
Trevor
OFC™ Founding Member
Dell 3050 SSF i3, 32gig RAM; MX 8, 9 and 10.5 Pro; Win 11 Pro
Focusrite 2i2; Sennheiser HD650 cans

Sample Projects: https://soundcloud.com/trevs_audio
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@trevsaudio
hpharley90
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Re: Computer Hard Drive Swap

Post by hpharley90 »

trevlyns wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 1:53 pm UPDATE:
Hey guys!
Just to let you know, I removed the SATA drive from the new comp (Win 10 Home) and replaced it with the drive from my old comp SSD with Win 10 Pro. It booted up first time and everything was in place just as I'd left it :D
Both comps were same make and model, except the new one has a faster processor and double the RAM.
nice...glad it worked out,,
10.5 Pro studio build 596
Dell XPS i7-10700 2.9Ghz
48 GB RAM
Windows 10
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