Transfer Win7 to new computer

[SmurfQuake]

I am going to be assembling a PC from parts I bought on Black Friday. I really didn't want to burn the extra money for a new windows copy. I have an old crappy laptop with one foot in the grave that happens to have windows 7, and I read online that transferring windows copies may be considered piracy. When I have assembled my PC and it boots up and stuff, how would I put the aforementioned Windows 7 copy onto the hard drive? ps: what would I do with the old laptop if I am able to transfer its windows copy?

 

[LukeFatwalker]

If you use a solution like Drive Cloner Rx to clone a drive it should transfer over with no issues.

 

[jsmithepa]

First, if this "crappy" laptop is running a 32-bit Win7, is too old, don't re-use it.

But OK, this is what I would do, but I don't guarantee success:

1. Install OS from original disc on new box but don't activate it just yet.
2. Un-Register from laptop. Google how to do this exactly.
3. Activate new box.
4. Windows will still run on old laptop but at some point MS will complaint and you can't run updates anymore.

 

[Rafael Mestdag]

What I'd do is I would use a disk manager/cloner like Paragon and migrate the laptop's Windows 7 copy over to the new PC's HDD(That's assuming you can plug the old laptop's drive onto the new SATA2/3 PC).

 

[jsmithepa]

Why do you folks suggest a cloning process do with a Windows that will try to boot with hardware drivers not present on the new box?

 

[bignastyid]

If it came with the laptop as a preinstalled OEM version of windows 7 then its locked to the laptop and cannot be used on another system.

 

[xFeaRDom]

Why do you folks suggest a cloning process do with a Windows that will try to boot with hardware drivers not present on the new box?

You probably know more about this than me, but it is possible. I managed to do it onto 2 seperate computers with completely difference hardware setups so there's always a chance 😛

To the op: If you're willing to go to Windows 10, I'm sure you can get a cheap, OEM copy of Windows 10 from somewhere, just search around and ensure its a legitimate copy. If you're wanting Windows 7, as also said above, if it is 32 Bit, don't bother, just get either Windows 10 (64 Bit) or a 64 Bit copy of Windows 7

 

[Rafael Mestdag]

Why do you folks suggest a cloning process do with a Windows that will try to boot with hardware drivers not present on the new box?

You probably know more about this than me, but it is possible. I managed to do it onto 2 seperate computers with completely difference hardware setups so there's always a chance 😛

To the op: If you're willing to go to Windows 10, I'm sure you can get a cheap, OEM copy of Windows 10 from somewhere, just search around and ensure its a legitimate copy. If you're wanting Windows 7, as also said above, if it is 32 Bit, don't bother, just get either Windows 10 (64 Bit) or a 64 Bit copy of Windows 7

More to the point, unless you're planning on using DirectX 12 games, you'd better stick with Windows 7 anyways. If anything it'll be better looking and cheaper.