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Swapping os drives.

Lumberjack625
By Lumberjack625
in Storage Devices
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If I have a hard drive running Windows, shutdown my computer, unplug the hard drive, and then plug in another hard drive with another copy of Windows, would it boot up normally as if the first hard drive was never plugged in?

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Just now, Lumberjack625 said:

If I have a hard drive running Windows, shutdown my computer, unplug the hard drive, and then plug in another hard drive with another copy of Windows, would it boot up normally as if the first hard drive was never plugged in?

If the two PC's have identical components, it could work; but it will probably give you a warning about reactivating Windows. The product key/ID is tied to the mobo, not the installation.

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You have missunderstood, I am speaking of one computer and two os drives.

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3 minutes ago, Lumberjack625 said:

If I have a hard drive running Windows, shutdown my computer, unplug the hard drive, and then plug in another hard drive with another copy of Windows, would it boot up normally as if the first hard drive was never plugged in?

Why would you need to do that?

If the HDD was cloned then it would be fine. 

Otherwise it may take a while on the first boot to install drivers and there may be an activation problem

Hello

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I want two copies of Windows on one system and I would prefer not two dual-boot.

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Just now, Lumberjack625 said:

I want two copies of Windows on one system and I would prefer not two dual-boot.

You should be fine then, but you may face activation problems.

You could run a VM it would be easier 

 

P.S:Remember to quote a person so they can see the notification

Hello

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17 minutes ago, Lumberjack625 said:

You have missunderstood, I am speaking of one computer and two os drives.

Still, the Windows activation is tied to the motherboard. I'm not sure if you can have two copies of Windows activated for the same motherboard.

10 minutes ago, TAHIRMIA said:

You should be fine then, but you may face activation problems.

You could run a VM it would be easier 

VM would be the way to go.

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On 10/28/2016 at 11:02 PM, Omon_Ra said:

Still, the Windows activation is tied to the motherboard. I'm not sure if you can have two copies of Windows activated for the same motherboard.

You can't. You have to activate every time you boot up to a different copy

Hello

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