HDD from old PC to new

[Clanscorpia]

I have an old copy of Windows 7 on an old hard drive and I was wondering if I can put it in a new system? It came from an old HP PC

[Belgarathian]

If you still have the key you can do a fresh install and if it doesn't activate, you can contact the Microsoft support center to activate the key on your new hardware (You've upgraded computer components and it is no longer activated).

 

If you're simply wanting to put the old HDD into the new system as additional storage, make sure you clear all the data off the drive otherwise it may confuse your boot as you'll have multiple boot drives installed in your system (you can select your primary boot disk in your MB bios). You would be better off with a fresh install of windows as you'll likely have driver conflicts & issues if you simply plug your old drive into your new system. 

[Clanscorpia]

Ok, this is going to save me a lot of money on my next PC build

[Techicolors]

Windows is probably gonna spit out the new PC because it's bound to the old PC. i think one way to counteract this is to use this guide from here on LTT (http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/106642-how-to-keep-your-current-windows-install-with-a-new-motherboard/). i already did it a couple of times and Windows ran normally