Moving around os's.

turkalurk · January 17, 2016

Hello, have a question. Looking to buy an Asus vivo mini pc, with no os. However, I have an hdd from my laptop(hp 1205dx),and Upgraded my laptop to an ssd, so I have an hdd laying around.

My question is if I throw the "old" hdd from my laptop into the new Asus mini pc will it boot up and run? Does the operating system stay on the hdd?

I am wondering because an pc without os/hdd is cheaper than buying one with everything included. If I can throw in my hdd from the laptop would it all work and be happy? Or do I need to start all over buying a completely new PC/os?

Justin_ · January 17, 2016

As long as it fits it will work, but if windows notices that your hardware has changed it might deactivate on one or both of the computers. I would suggest going with the one that has the OS if you want Windows

Enderman · January 17, 2016

youre going to have issues because the drive has all the drivers for the components of your old system, not the new one

the best way to make sure everything will work is to get the key from the old installation (if you dont have it you can use a keyfinder to get it)

then put windows on a USB drive and install it on the new computer

then activate it with the key

LogicalDrm · January 17, 2016

Laptops use very integrated drivers. So you can expect BSODs after changing HDD from one to next. Also your activation won't be ok with mobo change. And laptops use strict OEMs for OS. You will need new key.

turkalurk · January 18, 2016

thank for the replies. ended up buying a asus un42 which has a celeron cpu, 2gb ram and 32 gb ssd. 160 bucks, came with everthing including os, keyboard n mouse. will be going behind my 55 inch tv, just for browsing, youtube, and hulu etc. does it well too. looks excellent and not a speed demon but for what it does, works good. its actually a "commercial" unit, so while it isnt fast at all it was super cheap and a bit upgradable.

so far having fun with this little cheap thing. like, pc3 ram wont run in a pc3l computer (what the asus is) so i ordered some pc3l ram.

learned alot this week, thanks for the replies