Replace Dell laptop HDD with different OS

[DragonGunner]

Hey guys,
I've got this pretty cruddy laptop that I use for work (Dell Inspiron 15-3558), and I'm planning on swapping the hdd with one from my old Dell XPS.

My biggest concern is that the inspiron runs factory windows 10, and the drive I'm putting in has Windows 7. Would this be problematic? Would drivers get messed up, or would the computer reject the new drive somehow?

Note: I'd meant to downgrade the OS in any case.

Also:
What would I need to do after the swap? Just find and install the appropriate drivers? Will this be simple?

 

[jaslion]

Hey guys,
I've got this pretty cruddy laptop that I use for work (Dell Inspiron 15-3558), and I'm planning on swapping the hdd with one from my old Dell XPS.

My biggest concern is that the inspiron runs factory windows 10, and the drive I'm putting in has Windows 7. Would this be problematic? Would drivers get messed up, or would the computer reject the new drive somehow?

Note: I'd meant to downgrade the OS in any case.

Also:
What would I need to do after the swap? Just find and install the appropriate drivers? Will this be simple?

This computer does not have drivers for anything below windows 10. Your experience will be worse when using windows 7.

 

[DragonGunner]

This computer does not have drivers for anything below windows 10. Your experience will be worse when using windows 7.

Can't I just install the drivers manually? It's all pretty stock hardware - HD 5500, i3-5005U.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there DragonGunner,

You can't really swap OS HDDs like that. Most probably, the laptop would simple not boot.
In my view, you will need to perform a clean OS installation.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[DragonGunner]

You can't really swap OS HDDs like that. Most probably, the laptop would simple not boot.
In my view, you will need to perform a clean OS installation.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

So, format the new drive, put it in, then install Win7?

 

[D_Know_WD]

Well, yeah. You need to back up the data stored on the drive first.
Also, you can repartition and reformat the drive before the installation process, through the CMD. That way, you will reformat the drive, after you install it in the laptop.

Once you are in Windows setup:
- shift+F10 to bring up the command line.
- diskpart [enter]
- list disk [enter]
- select drive [number] [enter]
- clean all [enter]
- create partition primary [enter]
- select partition 1 [enter]
- active [enter]
- format fs=ntfs [enter]
- assign [enter]
- exit [enter]
- exit [enter]

D_Know_WD