Taking hard drive from my HP PC and putting into a new PC build, is this a simple swap like I was told? Need some answers!

[Joel_67]

I have a HP PC with windows 10 (64 Edition). I was told if I bought a new computer, keeping the processor the same, meaning old computer is AMD, new computer will be AMD etc.

Can I unplug the hard drive and plug it in to the mother board on the new computer? The new motherboard will have the SATA plug in. I was told by a Tech Center service guy that it is a simple plug and play swap but I am not sure and have read that it is not.

I have software, programs, VST's that run off iLock etc and I do not want to loose them. Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks

 

[Paul NZ]

No you should do a clean install

It may work but it may not activate

 

[USAFRet]

Whoever told you it was simple and always works is blowing smoke.

It might work, it might not.
It might boot up, but with lingering issues later.

And then you have the activation issue.

 

[captaincharisma]

yes it is simple if you do not care about the data on the drive but if you do then that is a different story.

and yes, you cannot carry over your HP windows licence to another computer

 

[boosted1g]

On a working standpoint, there is absolutly no garantee this will work.
Just because they are both AMD, evne the same exact CPU in no way means the chipset on the board is the same which means you could have no boot or impossible to track down unrealibility issues.
The only "garanteed to work" is if you put the drive into another HP with the EXACT same hardware in it

Then you throw in the fact that this is a clear violation of microosft licesne agreement and wil likely result in MS deactivating your windows key

And third, at this point it would be a complete and utter pointless waste of money to buy new AMD parts for AM3 or FM2 platform when they are both very dated and new platform is on the horrizon.

 

[Joel_67]

On a working standpoint, there is absolutly no garantee this will work.
Just because they are both AMD, evne the same exact CPU in no way means the chipset on the board is the same which means you could have no boot or impossible to track down unrealibility issues.
The only "garanteed to work" is if you put the drive into another HP with the EXACT same hardware in it

Then you throw in the fact that this is a clear violation of microosft licesne agreement and wil likely result in MS deactivating your windows key

And third, at this point it would be a complete and utter pointless waste of money to buy new AMD parts for AM3 or FM2 platform when they are both very dated and new platform is on the horrizon.

What I am looking to do is order a custom built PC online. Swap the hard drives, but I have about $4k worth of music software on the HD, from DAW's to the mass amounts of VST's.....Some of these you can not buy anymore etc. I was told by a tech at a computer service center that they would take the old hard drive and upload it into the new hard drive, but that wouldn't that cause driver / OS issues? I could switch out motherboards but not sure if the computer would boot up either because of all the conflicting driver issues as well.

 

[USAFRet]

What you are looking to do, and what actually might work...are two different things.

Taking that hard drive, with the current OS, and with all your software...and putting it in a whole new PC...simply may not work.
At all.

We all would like it to 'just work'.
But it often does not.


Just 'moving' your music software to a new drive with a new and different OS absolutely will not work.

 

[Joel_67]

What you are looking to do, and what actually might work...are two different things.

Taking that hard drive, with the current OS, and with all your software...and putting it in a whole new PC...simply may not work.
At all.

We all would like it to 'just work'.
But it often does not.


Just 'moving' your music software to a new drive with a new and different OS absolutely will not work.

That's what I am seeing, I am trying to get just one more project out of this computer before I do a full upgrade. I need a faster processor, Im cracking because of the CPU load and its come down to that. I was hoping for a hard drive swap but looking at a MOB upgrade to house the processor I bought. (AMD FX 8 Core ) which is a +3 socket, my current PC dose not support the +3 sockets. Maybe that would hold me until the full re-build. Thank you for taking the time to help me out as when it comes to internal stuff like this I'm clueless!

 

[boosted1g]

First of all I would try to return that CPU if it is at all possible. The am3+ is now 5 year old architecture from 2012, last years core i3 could beat it out at most tasks.

Secondly:
Some programs are self contained, meaning either everything it needs to run is inisde the executable file or all items are inside the program folder. The significantly larger portion of programs however are not, they add keys to you windows regestiry, files to your user accounts app-data and/or files to program-data folder. While if you take the time you can usually find the user app data and program data files, you will likely never find all the registry keys that the program adds/changes.

If you have the installation media you can reinstall it on the new computer (assuming OS compatibility).
If you dont then this will have to be a lesson learned, ALWAYS keep the installation media of programs you bought. Either save the CD, or save the installation file to at least 2 different hard drives/flash drives.