using new computer with drive from another computer possible?

[equlizer]

Ok, im selling an arcade but im taking the computer out of it and transplanting it into my new bartop.  I'm including an older computer but i want to use one of my cloned drives that i had in my old arcade.  It has windows 7 pro on it all up to date.  My computer is a newer i3 system and the older one is a 2nd gen i5.

I really dont want to format and loose all my hyperspin stuff.  Or if i have to can i install a fresh copy of win7 then copy over all of the hyperspin folder?

[UEDan]

Half the time a stright HDD swap will work. the other half you'll get driver issues.
From what I remember about setting up my Hyperspin... as long as the directories are exactly the same you should be ok with a straight copy over.

[Howard_Casto]

Your harddrive just stores data, it has nothing to do with the rest of your hardware.  What will happen is when you first boot up windows will find a bunch of new hardware and try to install drivers... so you better have internet access ready and/or the drivers that came with the new pc.  Sometimes the license of windows will need to be re-activated, which, again, isn't a huge deal.  Understand that, of course, you can't have the same license on two different pcs, so you will need the license that came with the new pc on hand. 

[ZoOl007]

and besides the above - sometimes w7 will refuse to boot after a hd swap -if that happens boot the pc with a w7 dvd that matches the bitness in the hd and let it boot just up to the point where you can click install windows and select the bottom left, repair this computer.
also, sometimes it is necessary to change the sata mode between legacy-ahci-whatever... in the bios to get it to boot. (if you get a bsod)

[gdonovan]

Been my experience that swapping drives nothing but trouble most of the time. In the old days you could delete the hardware key in the registry (Win9x) and Windows would reload itself without much fuss or bother but going cold causes all sorts of conflicts with drivers present and actual new hardware on board.

I'd clean install.

[Malenko]

Moving the drive over will probably work. If you have the option of a clean install, then just copying a folder over (keeping the same drive letter and directory structure) it will probably be less hassle to do it that way.

[Howard_Casto]

Best advice:  Go ahead and plug it in and see what happens.  If it looks like it's going to be a pain to get going then take it back out and prepare to do a clean install because that's a better option anyway. 

[equlizer]

Best advice:  Go ahead and plug it in and see what happens.  If it looks like it's going to be a pain to get going then take it back out and prepare to do a clean install because that's a better option anyway.

^

can i just copy all of the hyperspin stuff from my drive to the other computer (the one i just got used) or does hyperspin need to be installed?  Its been over 4 years since ive tinkered with any of that

[JDFan]

Best advice:  Go ahead and plug it in and see what happens.  If it looks like it's going to be a pain to get going then take it back out and prepare to do a clean install because that's a better option anyway.

^

can i just copy all of the hyperspin stuff from my drive to the other computer (the one i just got used) or does hyperspin need to be installed?  Its been over 4 years since ive tinkered with any of that

Not sure if there are any registry entries it adds but what I'd suggest is install the program (so it adds any registry entries etc.) - then copy the old files over to the new system (overwrite any duplicates when asked )

[equlizer]

All that windows wanted were the mobo drivers