I know you can't with xp, but with win7, if you buy a new pc, can you put your win7 disk from your old computer into your new one & boot from it & have it automatically install any new drivers it needs for the new pc?
can a disk with win7 on it be moved to another pc?
- Thread starter jackpearson
- Start date
You mean like to repair?
Are you sure you aren't talking about the CD that comes from the manufacturer that has all your drivers on it?
You should just be able to go to the manufacturers website and find your model to download the applicable drivers for the current operating system.
If your old W7 disk is an OEM model, you're not supposed to be able to use it on a different motherboard. If it's a "retail" version, you can uninstall it from your old computer and used it on the new.
The drivers on disk which came with your old computer were for the motherboard on the old computer.
With a new computer comes a new motherboard. It should have a driver disk. Or, like Algo said.. go to the website of the maker of your new motherboard, find your motherboard model, and download the appropriate drivers.
Yes it works just fine I did it a week ago or so. It automagically installed all the drivers and such. I think I had to reboot once or twice but it worked fine.
In many cases you can. W7 has a large number of built-in drivers so it's fairly likely your "new" system will have components recognized by the drivers on your existing HD. You'll likely have to reboot a few times before it has it all figured out.
One of the few things that doesn't carry over (different kernel) is UMA vs SMP systems (at least in my experience). Some installations also have problems recognizing different number of CPUs (cores).
Allan
It depends on the differences in the hardware, IMHO what you are proposing is generally not a good idea, especially if the new PC uses newer system components (e.g. latest Intel chipsets).
Also even if it does work you will need to re-activate Windows 7 because it will see the hardware has changed....
If you are going to try this I would recommend cloning the drive first and then trying to boot the clone in the new PC so you will still have the original drive (that you can place back in the old PC) in case it doesn't work out.
BTW, you can do this in XP as well - same issues as with Win 7, if this differences are too great you may not be able to get it to boot to the point where you can fix any remaining driver issues but it is possible.
Also even if it does work you will need to re-activate Windows 7 because it will see the hardware has changed....
If you are going to try this I would recommend cloning the drive first and then trying to boot the clone in the new PC so you will still have the original drive (that you can place back in the old PC) in case it doesn't work out.
BTW, you can do this in XP as well - same issues as with Win 7, if this differences are too great you may not be able to get it to boot to the point where you can fix any remaining driver issues but it is possible.
Acronis Universal Restore or Paragon P2P Adjust OS features should do the job.