Question Move drive to virtually identical PC

[SlowBus]

I have a Dell M6800 laptop. It is running Windows 10 Pro. I recently got another M6800. The key differences are that one has an I7-4800MQ processor and the other has an I7-4930MX processor. Both have the same Nvidia video card. Also one has a touch screen and the other doesn't. Other than that, they are identical.

Can I take the SSD out of the original system and expect things to work on the "new" one? What should I expect to happen?

I understand I will need new drivers for the processor and display.

Other than that, will Windows throw a fit with the different processor? Are my installed programs going to notice?

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[USAFRet]

The closer they are to "the same" the more likely it is to work.
But absolutely NO guarantee of it actually working.
And the OEM OS license may have issues.

But...this new laptop copes with its own OS already installed?
If so, why bother trying to move the drive over.

Simply install your desired applications on this new system.

 

[SlowBus]

Thanks for the reply. No primary drive or OS in the new machine.

I was originally thinking it would be a piece of cake to just move the drive but the more I think of it, I think I might have to start from scratch.

 

[Lafong]

I have a Dell M6800 laptop. It is running Windows 10 Pro. I recently got another M6800. The key differences are that one has an I7-4800MQ processor and the other has an I7-4930MX processor. Both have Nvidia Quadro K5100M video cards. Also one has a touch screen and the other doesn't. Other than that, they are identical.

Can I take the SSD out of the original system and expect things to work on the "new" one? What should I expect to happen?

I understand I will need new drivers for the processor and display.

Other than that, will Windows throw a fit with the different processor? Are my installed programs going to notice?

Any input would be appreciated.

Suppose it "works", but not EXACTLY as before.

How much time would you be willing to expend on getting it to work EXACTLY as before, with no assurance that is ultimately possible?

X hours?

Compare X to the number of hours required to reinstall all applications on the new drive and configure it as before.

There is speculation involved....you just have to decide at what point you would throw in the towel if push comes to shove.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the reply. No primary drive or OS in the new machine.

I was originally thinking it would be a piece of cake to just move the drive but the more I think of it, I think I might have to start from scratch.

Ah...

Yes, a fresh install is always recommended.

You could try it, it might work.
But anyone who says it is guaranteed to work is blowing smoke.

Plus, you won't be dragging along years worth of old gunk. a fresh OS install often does wonders for performance.

 

[SlowBus]

Great points, USAFret & Lafong.

Looks like this is going to be a little more painful than I predicted. Crap. I was also thinking I could just move the drive back and forth depending on where I'm working but that's definitely out.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[USAFRet]

Great points, USAFret & Lafong.

Looks like this is going to be a little more painful than I predicted. Crap. I was also thinking I could just move the drive back and forth depending on where I'm working but that's definitely out.

Thanks for the replies.

Continual back and forth?

The OS license WILL complain after a time.

And I've seen instances where it eventually fails to boot up in either system.

 

[SlowBus]

Continual back and forth?

The OS license WILL complain after a time.

And I've seen instances where it eventually fails to boot up in either system.

OK, that settles it. I'm going to have to get a drive and start fresh. Thanks again.

 

[DSzymborski]

Yeah, continual back and forth is a much larger problem than just repurposing a drive into a different PC.

If you're working back and forth, you should focus your solutions on moving the actual data you're using, not the OS.

What you want to do is sort of the equivalent of a restaurant that does delivery orders by carrying an oven to the house of the person ordering the food and cooking it there every order. You really just want to send out the food.

 

[BFG-9000]

It's not like an old Dell laptop where there was an easily swappable slide-in external drive bay. With the M6800 you have to take off the whole bottom of the laptop to change drives out anyway.

I would only expect this to work if you were somehow able to clone the MAC address from the old laptop to the new one, otherwise Windows would inactivate itself immediately.

If you are willing to put up with a permanently disassembled laptop at each location and running Windows unactivated, then when you get your new SSD you could certainly try that out without risking your current install, but I expect you'd quickly find that such a setup is not worth the hassle

Long ago, way before cheap large flash drives, I used to carry a 3.5" HDD on airplanes to different continents all over the world (it was sure nice when the Barracuda IV came out as it had a steel plate covering the bottom) with data on it as it was more reliable than optical disk and especially those Iomega Jaz or SyQuest SyJet/SparQ/Quest abominations. It never occurred to me to try a bootable OS on it, and I even had dozens of drive sleds for those Dell laptops too. Probably would've worked fine for Windows 2000 which had no activation at all, as the laptops really were nearly identical.

With Win 9x though you could easily move an installation to a completely different platform as it could fallback to 16-bit MS-DOS compatibility mode until the drivers got installed. And even clone a running system using only Windows Explorer.

 

[SlowBus]

It's not like an old Dell laptop where there was an easily swappable slide-in external drive bay. With the M6800 you have to take off the whole bottom of the laptop to change drives out anyway.

I completely agree with your points and I realize my initial plan won't work. However, in defense of this old beast, it does have a side caddy for a 2.5" drive that is pops out with a switch. Thanks

 

[BFG-9000]

I'd definitely try to install Windows in there, but you may find that like most modern laptops such bays are usually attached via USB, and that's a problem as Windows really does not like being installed to "removable" drives.

 

[SlowBus]

I'd definitely try to install Windows in there, but you may find that like most modern laptops such bays are usually attached via USB, and that's a problem as Windows really does not like being installed to "external" drives.

Fortunately all the drives are direct SATA connections

 

[dwd999]

Fortunately all the drives are direct SATA connections

You have to understand that Windows licenses are linked to a individual distinct code imbedded in each motherboard. Thus no 2 computers or laptops are ever identical, despite what the other components may be. You would need to know if Dell has registered the code for the new laptop in Microsoft's license database. If not, you may have to buy a new Windows license.

 

[sonofjesse]

Linked to the MB has, it will work and boot if I was betting. You will need to fix the licenese key at some point.

I have moved several drives to new builds (different MB/CPU brands) and it worked . YMMV

Fresh install is always preferred in a perfect world.

 

[BFG-9000]

Business class FTW! Install unactivated Windows on that Easy Eject Drive bay and you can put your data on that drive too. This is kind of a backup OS, so it doesn't matter if you cannot customize your desktop wallpaper on it--this is just for allowing you immediate access to your data, even should the main drive on either laptop become inoperable.

After all there is no reason you cannot also have an activated OS installed on one of the internal drive bays as well for normal use, just use the BIOS to choose which drive to boot from. Just be sure to only have one drive installed while installing Windows.