Forgive the long winded post and backstory... built a computer some time ago off of craigslist. Bought a new copy of windows 8.1 and everything was fine. One day my hdd failed and I lost my copy of windows and didn't mess much with it which brings us to now.
I had a repair shop load a new copy of win 10 on a separate hdd I had for $50. Got up and running and got another processor off of CL since I am pretty dated. Replaced it, everything still good. Another upgrade is in order so I buy a new SSD from best buy.
I now have a 1tb hdd, a 250g hdd and a 500g ssd.
Now the important stuff:
My OS is loaded on my 250g, and I have been trying to clone my 250 over to my 500ssd. I have done so successfully but when I try to use it as my boot drive and disable my 250 it was failing to boot into windows. Kept getting the "hardware has changed please load your windows install disk" error. Tinkered around a bit(my bad) and now the 250 gets the same error. I moved sata cables to new ports and my boot device order in bios a number of times to try to get it to boot into windows but it still won't.
Do I just need to buy a new copy of windows and wipe everything and start over? Fortunately I have everything important backed up, but didn't want to spent the $ on a new copy, my hdd with my windows8.1(free upgrade to win 10) key is dead, and the computer place didn't give me a product key.
Can I download a friends copy of windows 10 and use it to install a fresh copy on my machine and use my sign in information for my digital license if it will still pull it up?
Could I just disconnect all but my 250hdd and keep changing sata ports until it boots or would that not work?
Sorry again but any help would be appreciated.
I had a repair shop load a new copy of win 10 on a separate hdd I had for $50. Got up and running and got another processor off of CL since I am pretty dated. Replaced it, everything still good. Another upgrade is in order so I buy a new SSD from best buy.
I now have a 1tb hdd, a 250g hdd and a 500g ssd.
Now the important stuff:
My OS is loaded on my 250g, and I have been trying to clone my 250 over to my 500ssd. I have done so successfully but when I try to use it as my boot drive and disable my 250 it was failing to boot into windows. Kept getting the "hardware has changed please load your windows install disk" error. Tinkered around a bit(my bad) and now the 250 gets the same error. I moved sata cables to new ports and my boot device order in bios a number of times to try to get it to boot into windows but it still won't.
Do I just need to buy a new copy of windows and wipe everything and start over? Fortunately I have everything important backed up, but didn't want to spent the $ on a new copy, my hdd with my windows8.1(free upgrade to win 10) key is dead, and the computer place didn't give me a product key.
Can I download a friends copy of windows 10 and use it to install a fresh copy on my machine and use my sign in information for my digital license if it will still pull it up?
Could I just disconnect all but my 250hdd and keep changing sata ports until it boots or would that not work?
Sorry again but any help would be appreciated.
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