Transferring Win 8 system drive from laptop to desktop

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, and like everyone else I'm looking to learn stuff!

I'm planning on moving an SSD system drive from a laptop that is starting to experience difficulties to a desktop PC.


I'm retired now and my laptop never moves off my desk, so this has offered an opportunity to upgrade at little expense.
My laptop is an HP Compaq Presario CQ61, dual core Pentium 4 T4300 2.1GHz with 2 x 120GB SSD drives installed.


The desktop I want to upgrade with the SSD drives is an HP DX6120 Pentium 4 HTT 3.2GHz unit that I've picked up very cheap.


I know a clean install of either Windows 7 or Windows 8 would be best practice,
but is there a way I could just transfer the disk to the PC ?


Any and all advice would be appreciated.


Thanks


Chris

You could transfer the OS that is currently on the desktop to the SSD. But the OS from the laptop will not work on the desktop.

whs said:

Chrispy said:

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, and like everyone else I'm looking to learn stuff!

I'm planning on moving an SSD system drive from a laptop that is starting to experience difficulties to a desktop PC.


I'm retired now and my laptop never moves off my desk, so this has offered an opportunity to upgrade at little expense.
My laptop is an HP Compaq Presario CQ61, dual core Pentium 4 T4300 2.1GHz with 2 x 120GB SSD drives installed.


The desktop I want to upgrade with the SSD drives is an HP DX6120 Pentium 4 HTT 3.2GHz unit that I've picked up very cheap.

I know a clean install of either Windows 7 or Windows 8 would be best practice,
but is there a way I could just transfer the disk to the PC ?


Any and all advice would be appreciated.


Thanks


Chris

Click to expand...

You could transfer the OS that is currently on the desktop to the SSD. But the OS from the laptop will not work on the desktop.

Click to expand...

Ever since W7 it has been pretty good on other hardware systems, I've done it many times using an image back up from my rig to another PC with different hardware. I would assume 8 is no different. It wouldn't hurt to try to boot that SSD to your PC, if that doesn't work you could try imaging the drive to the other SSD using Acronis universal restore and see if you can boot off the newly imaged drive. I say your chances are pretty good.

Chrispy said:

I know a clean install of either Windows 7 or Windows 8 would be best practice,
but is there a way I could just transfer the disk to the PC ?


Any and all advice would be appreciated.


Thanks


Chris

Click to expand...

Welcome Chris!

Won't work if Win8 preinstalled by OEM on laptop. Otherwise, there are quite a few options you could consider. Apparently, you won't be involved in the complications of UEFI. In this regard, the Acronis site emphasizes the capability of Acronis True Image in migrating from and to dissimilar hardware. See the "Add migration" tab in the link, etc. Another program that is often mentioned when wanting to do "heroic" things is Paragon Hard Disk Manager (and there is a free Paragon version/tool that is very capable in some such contexts). See this link especially in regard to Paragon Hard Disk Manager--for home use. WRT Paragon, this tutorial is a good one, but don't know if the procedure would work from SSD to HDD (includes a link to the free version).

He mentioned P4, I doubt it came with W8 so I think he's good to go since there is no UEFI and Secure Boot support on a P4.

Right, I didn't need the word, "apparently."

Thanks gents,

Windows 8 was not pre-installed so that won't be a problem.
I'll do a complete backup of everything and give it a try.
I do have my recovery disk, if needed
If it doesn't work I'll just do a fresh install.
It's just a pain re-installing all my software!

Thanks again

Chris

whs said:

You could transfer the OS that is currently on the desktop to the SSD. But the OS from the laptop will not work on the desktop.

Click to expand...

Hi there
It Might actually work -- not guaranteed - but W8 whatever the detractors say about W8 hardware detection is pretty good so after a bit of "Huffing and puffing" as it gets devices you might find it works.

I copied a W8 installation from an ACER laptop with an INTEL i3 CPU to a desktop with an AMD Phenom CPU -- and it worked OK

It was Windows Enterprise so I didn't have any activation problems (Enterprise is VL). Your Windows might well want re-activation again but shouldn't be a problem --do it by phone.

Just plug the SSD into a SATA slot on the desktop and try booting -- see what happens. Don't wipe the desktop's C drive yet - switch the boot priority in the BIOS to boot the SSD first.

Don't wipe the SSD yet -- even if it Doesn't boot there are some ways of fixing it such as creating a W8 recovery disk and then re-start in "Repair your PC".

Before you disconnect the laptop check in the BIOS to see if AHCI is set -- you'll need same settings on the desktop too.

Another one to check is if there is an ACPI power setting -- this needs to be the same on both machines in the BIOS otherwise 100% guarantee you'll get a boot failure or BSOD.

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks Jimbo, I'll keep all that in mind!
In fact I'll print it down because both my systems will be down!
Desktop should be in the mail in the morning.

Thanks again

Chris

Chrispy said:

Thanks gents,

Windows 8 was not pre-installed so that won't be a problem.
I'll do a complete backup of everything and give it a try.
I do have my recovery disk, if needed
If it doesn't work I'll just do a fresh install.
It's just a pain re-installing all my software!

Thanks again

Chris

Click to expand...

You are very welcome, and good luck.

[/QUOTE]You are very welcome, and good luck.[/QUOTE]

Well, things didn't go quite the way I wanted but I'm up and running!

My PC is not compatible with 64bit so it would not accept the SSD drive with that version.

So after backing everything up I have done a clean install, going back to Windows 7 32bit.

Working very well.

Thanks for the advice!

Chris