M.2 SSD Document, windows 10, and antivirus transfer.

[bim]

basically, to save money, i want to put my m.2 ssd from an intel laptop into a brand new amd pc hoping that it will transfer the windows 10 operating system, the antivirus and all of my documents from my laptop. i would appreciate it if you could tell me if this works or not. thanks

here is my specs for the pc if it helps:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/GtNPMv

(irrelevant, but the case is a h510 flow)

[SupaKomputa]

Yes, it is possible.

I've upgraded my wife's intel laptop to ssd and took out the hdd, put it in my pc, and it worked.

[mariushm]

It would work, as long as both laptops have a m.2 connector with the proper connection : sata or nvme (pci-e lanes)

If your old ssd is m.2 sata , but your new laptop is m.2 nvme only (no sata) then the ssd would not work

 

luckily, majority of new laptops have m.2 connectors with both sata and pci-e lanes (nvme) so it would work.

 

The windows license may be tied to the bios of your old laptop  or to hardware (checked against motherboard, cpu, network card and maybe other things) - if too many things are different, Windows may deactivate itself and require activation to be fully functional.

Your Windows may be an OEM version, meant to work only on specific systems (ex Dell, HP, Lenovo), and may not activate on a laptop from a different brand, so you may have to buy a license for your Windows.

 

[dkoudijs]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

It would work, as long as both laptops have a m.2 connector with the proper connection : sata or nvme (pci-e lanes)

If your old ssd is m.2 sata , but your new laptop is m.2 nvme only (no sata) then the ssd would not work

 

luckily, majority of new laptops have m.2 connectors with both sata and pci-e lanes (nvme) so it would work.

 

The windows license may be tied to the bios of your old laptop  or to hardware (checked against motherboard, cpu, network card and maybe other things) - if too many things are different, Windows may deactivate itself and require activation to be fully functional.

Your Windows may be an OEM version, meant to work only on specific systems (ex Dell, HP, Lenovo), and may not activate on a laptop from a different brand, so you may have to buy a license for your Windows.

 

Yes this is most likly the case, so be prepared to have to renew windows.

This may help you out. https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-license-transfer-another-pc/

 

As for the drivers and such, I would try to get the nic driver downloaded ahead of time, as with that you can jump online at least and get other drivers. I would also reboot and run windows update, with the optional turned on to get any new drivers.

 

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Windows

[bim]

On 10/22/2021 at 2:45 PM, dkoudijs said:

Yes this is most likly the case, so be prepared to have to renew windows.

This may help you out. https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-license-transfer-another-pc/

 

As for the drivers and such, I would try to get the nic driver downloaded ahead of time, as with that you can jump online at least and get other drivers. I would also reboot and run windows update, with the optional turned on to get any new drivers.

 

wait so would it work if i transfered it into a pc rather than laptop?

[mariushm]

6 minutes ago, bim said:

wait so would it work if i transfered it into a pc rather than laptop?

The answer is IT DEPENDS.

It depends on the kind of license you had, if you bought Windows with the laptop. Nobody can tell because nobody can know exactly what kind of Windows you had on your laptop.

 

It would work it's not like Windows won't start ... but it may say "Windows is not activated" in the corner and you may have to enter another license key.

[bim]

15 hours ago, mariushm said:

The answer is IT DEPENDS.

It depends on the kind of license you had, if you bought Windows with the laptop. Nobody can tell because nobody can know exactly what kind of Windows you had on your laptop.

 

It would work it's not like Windows won't start ... but it may say "Windows is not activated" in the corner and you may have to enter another license key.

my windows 10 came with the laptop, but i had to buy antivirus

[bim]

11 minutes ago, bim said:

my windows 10 came with the laptop, but i had to buy antivirus

 

15 hours ago, mariushm said:

The answer is IT DEPENDS.

It depends on the kind of license you had, if you bought Windows with the laptop. Nobody can tell because nobody can know exactly what kind of Windows you had on your laptop.

 

It would work it's not like Windows won't start ... but it may say "Windows is not activated" in the corner and you may have to enter another license key.

wait im stupid i also meant to say will my office subscription stay on the m.2 and will it work with the new pc?

[mariushm]

I don't understand what is so hard to understand. 

 

IF the license is not locked to specific hardware, it will work when the hard drive is installed in another computer. 

 

Computer manufacturers like HP or Lenovo or Dell get discounts to encourage them to ship laptops with Windows, and therefore they often get custom Windows versions ... - Windows 10 Home "HP OEM"  or  Windows 10 Premium "Dell OEM" and so on  - these versions may automatically activate because the serial number / activation key is stored inside the BIOS and Windows will also check the key against some serial numbers of the laptop motherboard, the cpu soldered to the laptop motherboard and so on. 

 

Some laptops come with a regular Windows which is not locked to specific hardware.  I have no idea what version you have.

 

If you take a hard drive from such a machine where the Windows is an OEM version and plug it into a laptop from another manufacturer or a PC, that new laptop or PC doesn't have the activation key in the BIOS and also has different serial numbers for the motherboard, cpu, other things. So, the windows will switch to "This Windows is not activated" and you can't activate it with the original key. You would have to buy a regular key and activate it. 

 

Your antivirus has its own license, as does Office.  The antivirus probably gave you a serial number which allows you to update the antivirus for a period of time, often 1 year. The same license probably lets you install the antivirus on 1 or up to 3-5 computers - depends on antivirus company. 

Worst case scenario, the antivirus software will detect that it's a different computer and tell you  "Dude, you can't run the antivirus on two computers" in which case you could put the hard drive back in the laptop , and uninstall the antivirus. Then move the hard drive and install antivirus again. 

But, most likely the antivirus will just work as it's too "not user friendly" to disable a licensed user if there's just 2 computers using the license - most antivirus programs detect if the serial key is used by multiple computers when the antivirus updates the virus definitions and if the number of computers exceeds some threshold (ex the serial key was leaked on internet and now 100 people use it) they disable the key and your antivirus will stop updating.  Even then, chances are contacting support will result in you getting another key. 

 

 

 

 

[bim]

i am sorry, i only just started and find it a bit hard. im also sorry to bug again, but i logged into the antivirus website and it said this.

so i think that is sorted.

 

i searched some other stuff up and figured out how to work out the office stuff, so thanks for your help i guess