Help needed swapping OSes / moving SSD

[Steven Battisti]

Hey folks,

I have an old machine that is being replaced. The old machine had a SSD with Win 7 pro and all of my apps on it, plus a HDD with all of my data on it. Both of these drives should work fine once I take them out of the old box. The replacement box has a single HDD with Win 8.1 on it.

I want to get the replacement box configured with the SSD as the boot drive, and then get the HDD with all of my old data into the new box as well. (The replacement box is a mini-tower; I haven't figured out how many bays I have available but I am hopeful I can fit the two old drives plus the new HDD.)

I am up in the air about OS. I prefer Win 7, but would be open to trying Win 8. However, the main goal is that I want to get my box up and operational as quickly as possible. The replacement box came with Win 8.1 installed, but no Win discs. I imagine there is an option on the machine somewhere to burn media. I will look into it.

So, people who know more about such things than I do...

1. Would you recommend sticking with Win 7 Pro, or switching to Win 8.1?

2. Based on your answer to #1, how should I proceed to get the replacement box up and running with that OS on the SDD?

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

 

[Eximo]

Ideally you would back the drives up completely before attempting the below.

Quick and dirty just take the drive out of the new box. Boot your old machine, uninstall as many of the drivers as possible, shut down. Remove the SSD and plug it into the new machine and see if it boots successfully.

Depending on the nature of your Windows license, you may need to reactivate Windows. You may have to resort to the phone registration method.

Transferring the new OS to the SSD is not really possible while maintaining any thing else from your old PC. But you could clone the 8.1 install to the SSD.

 

[nao1120]

i wouldn't do the quick and dirty option, It may work ... Your call.

Old machine:
Create new folder on DATA drive and copy all folders from SSD to data drive (verify you have all the data, Pictures, Music, whatever...Profile)... Remove both drives from old machine.
Remove drive from new machine.
New PC:
Place SSD into new system only. Install fresh copy of OS (8.1 is fine)
Once fully installed shutdown and place in data drive from before... Boot up with it and it all should be there. Unfortunately you need to reinstall some games, Most games can be a straight copy (steam folder into new install directory...)
Move files as required

Thats what i would do... Ideally its good like he said to back up "ALL": drives to an external and just format the other ones and start fresh all around

The snag is the recovery discs with the new machine..... Usually its tied to a machine only... You should be able to bother the manufacturer for a set of "discs" so when your SSD is in the system you can install on any HDD.

 

[Steven Battisti]

Thanks people. Important detail I forgot to mention: the old machine won't boot. Fried MOBO etc. So I won't be able to do anything on the old box...

 

[Steven Battisti]

Update: I was able to put the SSD into the new box and it boots into windows. However, I can't get internet, presumably because the controller etc all have the wrong drivers and so forth. So I tried to scan for new hardware, but since I don't have Internet, I can't find drivers. Wonder if I need to use the windows 7 cd to do a repair? Thoughts?

 

[Eximo]

Just use a different computer to download the system drivers for the computer direct from the builder of the computer or the manufacturer's of each part.

 

[Steven Battisti]

Well, after much finagling, I was able to get everything working, hooray! I wouldn't say I ended up doing precisely what Night Owl recommended, but that ended up being pretty close to what happened, so I marked it as the solution.

Thanks very much everyone for your help!