Win 7 and new HDD

Dresden

Celebrating Mediocrity
Veteran
I just purchased a pair of new hard drives and was wondering if it's possible to format my old hard drive, which contains my OS, and place it on my new HDD? I've heard a few different arguments about whether it is or isn't possible to do. I'm not too fond of the idea of running out and spending money on another copy of 7. I think I've had luck with MS' customer service before, with a similar issue, and they wound up giving me a new product key, only with Vista. And the experience is like pulling teeth.

Thanks!
 
If you have activation issues just tell MS you replaced your hard drive. It's no problem. Many of us have updated to SSDs since installing Win7.
 
you could just keep your original hdd and add the other 2 (unless its a laptop and theres no room)
If you cloned your hdd would that trigger ms activation ?
 
You won't have any problems. If you call MS at the absolute worse, assuming you have an OEM edition, they'll ask you if this is the only machine this version of Windows is installed on. Once you say yes, they give you the activation code. And done.

I've had to do this multiple times and don't think any phone call took more than 5-10 minutes in its entirety.

However, if all you're are changing is the HDD, then online activation should proceed without any issues whatsoever.

Regards,
SB
 
I would use some kind of free partition mirror software and just load your entire system partition on a new drive. Should work fine.
 
Yeah even an OEM version this should be fine. I'm sure if you replaced the motherboard, CPU etc. they'd classify that as a new computer and they might have an issue. Replace a hard drive? You're fine. If you have a retail version then you definitely have no problem.
 
Yeah even an OEM version this should be fine. I'm sure if you replaced the motherboard, CPU etc. they'd classify that as a new computer and they might have an issue. Replace a hard drive? You're fine. If you have a retail version then you definitely have no problem.

Nah. If you tell the operator that your motherboard died they will let you re-authorize.
 
Nah. If you tell the operator that your motherboard died they will let you re-authorize.

I've changed motherboard last week and W7 re-activated itself online without complains!
I was surprised myself :p

With W7 you have a number of 'free' hardware changes you can make before triggering activation process. It's a lot less painful than Vista or XP was in that regard.
 
I've changed motherboard last week and W7 re-activated itself online without complains!
I was surprised myself :p

With W7 you have a number of 'free' hardware changes you can make before triggering activation process. It's a lot less painful than Vista or XP was in that regard.

You're allowed to change certain hardware components X number of times within Y number of days (I think it's 3-6 months although it may be as much as a year) before having to actually phone in.

Some components you can change more often, some less often. And changing multiple pieces at the same time could trigger a phone in earlier. IE - if you change say half the components in your PC simultaneously.

It was the same in Vista but not XP.

Regards,
SB
 
You're allowed to change certain hardware components X number of times within Y number of days (I think it's 3-6 months although it may be as much as a year) before having to actually phone in.

Some components you can change more often, some less often. And changing multiple pieces at the same time could trigger a phone in earlier. IE - if you change say half the components in your PC simultaneously.

It was the same in Vista but not XP.

Regards,
SB

Yes, makes sense! Or though strangely enough after GFX upgrade from HD5870 to HD6970 I needed to phone in :LOL:. And this was long after installing W7 on my PC.

Anyway lately I've moved my old Vista Business from normal boot partition to Virtual Machine. Completely different computer from OS POV but Microsoft was good enough to reactivate it for me!
 
good for you!
I believe licensing (as in the words from the EULA) mandates a business version if you wish to run windows in a VM. I wonder if they would still have gone through with a home premium version. surely MS is lax with reactivations, so as not to piss off paying customers, but I wonder if they would be this lax :)
 
Alrighty. I've decided I'm going to buy an SSD for my OS and raid together my dual 2 TB HDD's. This sounds like a task and a half, but I'm up for the challenge. However, I've heard a few people mention that SSD's are a pain in the ass to get working. I'm sitting on two 2TB Western Digital HDDS and thinking about buying an 160 gb Intel 320, tomorrow:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364992

I'll call MS only after I've tried activating 7, assuming it gives me an error. I've done a sufficient amount of upgrading, basically everything safe from a new GPU, so I basically have a new system, and I'm clinging to the hope that 7 will be less picky than Vista was with activations new systems. My plan is to put the OS on the SSD and junk like music, videos, whatever on the standard HDD's.

Is there anything I should know before puchasing an SSD? Or is it like your standard HDD and installation of your OS and software is identical?
 
Going with Intel you should have no problems. They are by far the most problem free SSDs. Then you have OCZ on the other end, really fast, but relatively horrible quality control. It's the main thing preventing me from even thinking about getting one of their new Vertex 3 drives (BSOD, data loss, inoperable drives after a couple months, etc.). Same problem with their Agility 3 drives. Vertex 2 and Agility 2 also had problems. Solid series drives also have problems with premature deaths.

Then again it took a few firmware revisions before the Crucial C300 I have was stable and safe enough that I would trust using it.

So moral of the story, SSDs while great still leave a lot to be desired with regards to reliability, IMO.

Regards,
SB
 
Back
Top