HDD laptop to desktop Help

[eryanh]

So what I am trying to do is move my laptops hard drive to an older desktop I have to use it instead of my laptop. Laptop is Windows 8.1 and desktop was purchased in 2010 with Windows 7 on it. I did a test swap just hooking up the hard drive with no luck. Started to boot up but didn't go very far, just an underscore flashing on the screen. Was wondering if there is a way to do this without reinstalling windows as I want to keep all the files currently on this hard drive.

 

[Paul NZ]

No its better if you do a clean install. because of different drivers and chipsets. Otherwise you will have probs

 

[ss202sl]

probably not. the hardware between laptops and desktops are so different that moving an OS almost never works. You'd be better off backing up the data, and re-installing.

 

[eryanh]

So since that won't work, I've been told by a source that this old Dell desktop I have will only run if I buy a CD with Dell specific drivers on it otherwise it won't work at all. Is this true or am I being fed mistruths?

 

[ss202sl]

Windows will run on it(any windows 7 version). There are drivers you will need for the system, but you can get them from Dell's website.

What you've been told is a half-truth. There usually is a dell recovery CD that is shipped with systems(with the drivers and some dell applications). This CD would only work on a Dell system.