M1730 Replacement - Can I just swap the HD's?

Hey,

You guys think when my replacement M1730 gets here, Can I just switch out the RAID array (2 hard drives) into the computer with the new one to avoid reinstalling/moving my stuff???

I know that they will be the same part numbers, I'm wondering if dell returns would have a problem with doing this. I know when I worked in IT we did this all the time and no one cared....

Any ideas if this is kosher?

 

They allowed me to swap any parts from my old laptop, to the replacement one... including the LCD..

 

yes you can do that

 

Even tho you can, I think I would just do a fresh install of the O/S. Then you wont be second guessing if you have any new problems.

 

The Vista licence is OEM, it will be tied down to the first notebook. If you insert it into the replacement notebook, Vista will see its not the notebook the OEM licence is meant for.

I think it will ask you to re-activate or change product key.

 

Technically I think you re right, but from my experiences - it doesnt ask you to reactivate and works as though nothings ever happened lol.

 

Cloning a HD is enough to trigger reactivation. Once it sees its not the same motherboard it will ask you to re-authenticate

 

Well, I had a bit more of a think about this and I guess the motherboards should be the same, the only change would be say a serial number.

I am pretty sure that is not significant enough to require reactivation, like updating the BIOS, I dont think the activation malarky keep tabs on things like that.

I guess we ll see, but swapping hard drives on replacement machines never pose this issue before. I suppose its not such a big deal even if it does asks for reactivation etc though.

 

If youve ever activated XP before through the phone, the 50 digit Installation ID you provide to MS is a combination of numbers which is generated from the hardware installed in your system. If you change something major like a mobo, the ID will also change.

Vista also uses the same system. If it detects different hardware specially a mobo, it will ask you to re-activate.

OEM licences are pretty much tied down to that exact motherboard. This caused a riot before when the motherboard died and they couldnt use the OEM licence on the replacement motherboard.

 

When I had my m1330 mobo replaced there were absolutely no issues regarding the OS and licences.

 

yeah if the mobo is the same exact thing as before it doesnt matter.. and even still just re-activate it.. they will give you 0 problems if you need to reactivate it.. no big deal.

 

Yeah you should have no trouble. As long as it sees that Dell BIOS it'll work. You may need to re-activate though.