Question about HDD's

[AwkwardSLCE]

Hello, I have a question which might sound dumb, I built a PC but ended selling all the parts separately, I did install windows on that PC, the activated version. The only thing that I have left is the hard disk now, so, what happens to that hard disk? I mean, speaking about the OS that I installed on it, does it continues functioning on any other PC in which that HDD is installed?

[Mo5]

it should but you'll probably need to reactivate it and hope for no driver conflicts with the new pc drivers

[mariushm]

When inserted in another PC, the operating system will start and automatically detect that the hardware is different and will try to install drivers for the new hardware.

If the hardware is too different or if you previously bought a license that's tied to your motherboard , the operating system will ask you to activate it again.

In the past - and probably also today but less often - Windows sometimes crashed when starting for the first time, because it loaded drivers for the old hardware during startup, hardware which was different now or no longer there... so you had to reinstall Windows in such cases.