Booting a Windows 7 installation on different hardware

"Put the hard drive back in the original machine.

click Windows key + R to bring up ""Run""

From here, type ""sysprep""

This should bring up the sysprep folder.

Now, double click on the sysprep application.

Choose either Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) in order to bring up the first run screens (where you can create users etc.) Or choose System Audit Mode to skip that.

I have never done System Audit Mode after a machine is already set for use such as yourself... it is generally how you preinstall items before locking and giving the computer to someone.

In any case, you need to tick the ""Generalize"" button. This will basically remove all the ties Windows has to the hardware and next time you start the machine (On this or other hardware) It will take a while to start and say something along the lines of ""Windows is preparing to run for the first time""

This should do what you require!"

"Acronis offers an excellent program that allows you to clone a hard drive - and prepare it in a way to allow you to easily plug it into an entirely different pc and boot without any complicated issues.

Sysprep looks like an ideal solution for me... I own three 'identical' laptops bought the same day at the same place... and the simple solution was to install everything on one pc - then clone it two times... Acronis works well enough - but sysprep is a great tool to use as well..."

As long as the BIOS is picking up the hard drive and it is added to the 'boot devices' list (preferably first on the list), I don't think you should have any issues.

Just pop the Windows DVD in and boot to it and run the startup repair. It's worked every time I tried (Vista and 7).

If the new machine has a different hardware configuration than your old machine, simply taking a hard drive out of your old machine and plugging into your new one will almost certainly not work. Your hard drive contains many files that have hardware-specific configuration files, so plugging this into a machine with different hardware will likely give you the blue screen of death. There are software solutions such as Migrate Easy that help with data/operating system/program migration from an old hard drive to a new hard drive on the same machine. I'm not aware of any piece of software that provides a turnkey way to migrate a hard disk into a new machine with a different hardware configuration.