New laptop hard drive transition
January 6, 2016 5:03 PM Subscribe
Just got a new laptop but my old laptop's hard drive is better. How do I switch new laptop to booting from old laptop's hard drive while keeping all the files?
I just got a new laptop running Windows 10. I have an old laptop running Windows 7 which has a faster (SSD) hard drive and all my files.
New laptop has 2 hard drive bays.
I would like to
1) Boot Windows from the faster hard drive
2) Not lose all my files from the faster hard drive
What's the best way of doing this? I assume I can't just install the old laptop hard drive and boot from it, since the Windows installed on it is tied to the old laptop. My guess is that I would need to
1) copy all the files from old laptop hard drive to new laptop hard drive
2) clone new laptop hard drive to old laptop hard drive
before I could boot from the old laptop hard drive.
Is there a better way to do this?
Thanks!
I just got a new laptop running Windows 10. I have an old laptop running Windows 7 which has a faster (SSD) hard drive and all my files.
New laptop has 2 hard drive bays.
I would like to
1) Boot Windows from the faster hard drive
2) Not lose all my files from the faster hard drive
What's the best way of doing this? I assume I can't just install the old laptop hard drive and boot from it, since the Windows installed on it is tied to the old laptop. My guess is that I would need to
1) copy all the files from old laptop hard drive to new laptop hard drive
2) clone new laptop hard drive to old laptop hard drive
before I could boot from the old laptop hard drive.
Is there a better way to do this?
Thanks!
I'm guessing your Windows OS on the old laptop is an OEM install, and not a retail copy? The similarity of the two laptops (manufacturer, chipset, etc.) also makes a difference.
If you have an OEM windows on the old laptop and it's a different brand than the new one, the method you described is probably your best bet. If it's retail and you have the same brand of new laptop, you could try just installing the SSD into the new laptop, but you absolutely must be able to make an image backup of the SSD drive to a network device or something beforehand in case the straight swap attempt horks it up. If you don't have that capability I would not attempt this (and, in this case your only safe option is your proposed method anyway, regardless of the other variables).
posted by SquidLips at 6:07 PM on January 6, 2016
If you have an OEM windows on the old laptop and it's a different brand than the new one, the method you described is probably your best bet. If it's retail and you have the same brand of new laptop, you could try just installing the SSD into the new laptop, but you absolutely must be able to make an image backup of the SSD drive to a network device or something beforehand in case the straight swap attempt horks it up. If you don't have that capability I would not attempt this (and, in this case your only safe option is your proposed method anyway, regardless of the other variables).
posted by SquidLips at 6:07 PM on January 6, 2016
Also I assume that by "copying all the files" you mean simply moving your documents, etc. to the new drive. Copying 'all' the files, including software, probably isn't going to work well; expect to reinstall any software that you have on the old drive but not on the new one. That also means you're OK with accepting the new windows version since that's essentially what you'd be doing; reinstalling all your stuff onto the new version before cloning back to the old drive.
posted by SquidLips at 6:14 PM on January 6, 2016
posted by SquidLips at 6:14 PM on January 6, 2016
Are you sure you can install an SSD in your new laptop and are you sure the SSD comes out of your old laptop? You better check that first and it's something people do, because I feel like normally you can't just move an actual hard drive from one laptop to another -- laptops aren't meant to have parts swapped in and out like a desktop as everything is very carefully packed together.
Personally, I would buy an external hard drive and copy all the files on there, and then once they are safely there, you can try to install it on the new computer if you want. I've always taken old hard drives out of desktops and into my new ones, but I always had to reinstall Windows though. You'll have all your stuff, but software will need to be reinstalled. You could wipe the SSD after you put it on an external drive and do a fresh Windows install there.
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:30 PM on January 6, 2016
Personally, I would buy an external hard drive and copy all the files on there, and then once they are safely there, you can try to install it on the new computer if you want. I've always taken old hard drives out of desktops and into my new ones, but I always had to reinstall Windows though. You'll have all your stuff, but software will need to be reinstalled. You could wipe the SSD after you put it on an external drive and do a fresh Windows install there.
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:30 PM on January 6, 2016
USB pen drives are remarkably inexpensive nowadays.
SanDisk Ultra Flair USB 3.0 64GB Flash Drive is selling for twenty bucks.
Lexar JumpDrive S75 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive is selling for thirty-three bucks.
Dump any files needed onto the USB stick, to be transferred to new puter. If it were me, I'd want a clone of your WIN7 drive before you wipe it. Unless your old puter is a total piece of garbage, you've still got *years* of support for WIN7.
So maybe swap the drives, from one machine to the other -- your new machine will have the fast drive, your old machine a slower drive but a nice backup puter, or salable perhaps.
Honestly though, unless your SSD is some huge honkin' drive, I'd say leave it in the WIN7 machine and just buy another SSD for the new machine. SSD prices have fallen through the floor. Your call of course, just a thought.
Good luck, and have fun with your new puter!
posted by dancestoblue at 12:59 AM on January 7, 2016
SanDisk Ultra Flair USB 3.0 64GB Flash Drive is selling for twenty bucks.
Lexar JumpDrive S75 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive is selling for thirty-three bucks.
Dump any files needed onto the USB stick, to be transferred to new puter. If it were me, I'd want a clone of your WIN7 drive before you wipe it. Unless your old puter is a total piece of garbage, you've still got *years* of support for WIN7.
So maybe swap the drives, from one machine to the other -- your new machine will have the fast drive, your old machine a slower drive but a nice backup puter, or salable perhaps.
Honestly though, unless your SSD is some huge honkin' drive, I'd say leave it in the WIN7 machine and just buy another SSD for the new machine. SSD prices have fallen through the floor. Your call of course, just a thought.
Good luck, and have fun with your new puter!
posted by dancestoblue at 12:59 AM on January 7, 2016
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posted by soren_lorensen at 5:09 PM on January 6, 2016