Hard drive transplant? Possible?

[Nhyrum]

I'm looking to do a hard drive transplant from a rig that died(the drive is fine, the mobo died) into a used PC. Is it just plug and play? Even if it's from a dell to another brand PC? What do I have to do to have it boot from the transplanted drive?

 

[ThatVietGuy]

It's a straight swap, but you'll only be able to use that copy of Windows for only a short time. That copy is tied to the old computer and can't be transferred.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm looking to do a hard drive transplant from a rig that died(the drive is fine, the mobo died) into a used PC. Is it just plug and play? Even if it's from a dell to another brand PC? What do I have to do to have it boot from the transplanted drive?

You'll almost certainly need to reinstall the OS.
It probably will not boot. At all.

 

[Nhyrum]

Tied how? To the S/N of the mobo something in the bios? If I needed a spare mobo from Dell could it be repaired? (hypotheticaly, I'm sure they don't support a 10+ year old system)

 

[USAFRet]

Tied how? To the S/N of the mobo something in the bios? If I needed a spare mobo from Dell could it be repaired? (hypotheticaly, I'm sure they don't support a 10+ year old system)

The OS needs to be installed on the system where it will live.
Moving a drive with an installed OS sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. There is no way to 'fix it' if it doesn't work.

Try it.
See what happens.

And then you will run into activation issues. The license from the old system is tied to that original motherboard. It will become deactivated.

 

[Nhyrum]

OK, so if it does boot(fingers crossed) is there a way to mirror all the data so it's useable? All the games and other data like my desktop shortcuts?

 

[USAFRet]

OK, so if it does boot(fingers crossed) is there a way to mirror all the data so it's useable? All the games and other data like my desktop shortcuts?

It won't, and no.
You will have a whole new OS. It will know nothing about the old applications and shortcuts.
Steam games, maybe.

 

[aDarkness]

I tried this, with two drives, I thought my mobo was fried. It boots to the windows load screen, then shuts off and reboots. You need a whole new OS installed.

 

[Nhyrum]

So... Looks like I need to connect with captain Jack Sparrow of the one ibterwebs for a copy of windows... A completely legal copy....

 

[aDarkness]

So... Looks like I need to connect with captain Jack Sparrow of the one ibterwebs for a copy of windows... A completely legal copy....

Exactly. Sorry for your loss.