Dropping a hard drive from one laptop into another without a format?

I'd like to get a new laptop but swap hard drives because I currently have the Seagate 500GB 7200RPM HDD and I'd like to hold on to it, as well as my files. Can I simply drop it into the new laptop in the state it's currently in? I'm sure it has a lot of information such as drivers and whatnot that are specific to this notebook only and not the new one so just wondering how it works.

 

In my experience the computer will not boot completely into Windows

 

If its your primary drive (C), then no; you will have to back up your files and reformat.

If its not your primary drive, and its already in NTFS, its basically plug and play.

 

You know, if the two machines are of the same generation and of similar hardware configuration, I've found that swapping hard drives will sometimes work (and even then you may have to tweak the drives a bit), but this is really more the exception than the rule. If you're upgrading to a significantly newer laptop, it's a very good chance that this won't work at all; you'll just get some sort of BSoD at boot, and that'll be that.

 

Yes it will work 80% of the time and will boot into windows fine then you install drivers. If it does not work its usually due to incorrect HAL which can be fixed by simply running a Windows repair. Its obvious most of the people who posted here have very little experience in this situation.

 

How kind of you to the previous posters..

To the OP, well back up your files and try it. If it doesn't work, format
I've only did this once on my friend's desktop and nothing worked, so he had to format.

 

One of the three usually happens depending on your hardware config.

1) It boots okay into windows and asks you to re-activate your licence

2) NTLDR (NTloader) error upon boot. You can do a repair install to fix this.

3) Boot normally

 

You missed the most common, which is a BSOD.
But there are always ways of fixing that too.

 

^^^ How kind indeed eh!

I tried this once and got a BSOD instantly (OS never boot)...if I ever come across this situation again i'll definitely try iGrim's smarty pants solution to see if this Repair would work. I guess if i'm throwing an XP drive into a system designed for Vista that a Repair using the Vista disc should fix this. I'd be sure to try next time I come across the situation again.

 

Well, he's right that a repair will get it booting pretty much always, but to say 80% of the time just dropping it in will boot you to the OS... well... let's just say it's clear he has very little experience with this situation. This is coming from someone who has to do this at work about once a week (not just laptops, desktops too - but the theory is the same).

 

Yes forgot about the BSOD, that is due to hardware driver incompatibility. I manage 40 workstations and when a HD dies i usually swap it over and get one of those 3 i stated above

 

Right, and in my case I got a BSOD. System won't boot, so therefore I don't see how a Repair can fix incompatibilites with drivers between different OSes and Hardware? Keeping in mind the system won't boot.

 

Stop the flame war... and there's one thing i don't get... the hard drive is like the part of the brain where everything is stored so shouldn't the comp boot even if a different hard drive is put in it?

 

There's no war, just trying to clarify things. Just like you i'm trying to understand and learn as well.

I really look forward to iGrim's response to these questions. After all he has the most experience with this type ah thing.

 

Because Windows will boot without any drivers installed, right?
When you do a repair install, it dumps in the generic Windows drivers and gets you booting again. You still need to uninstall the old drivers and install the new drivers after this, but the repair gets you booting.

 

^^^ You mean "Because Windows won't boot..."

Okay, makes sense...still woulda preferred to hear this from Mr. Experience himself but thanks for clearing this up.

 

May I suggest you this to be deleted? Let us avoid a war (and I know what I am talking about)

Now back to topic, I am also interested in this detail. I do know however, kinda logical, that if I get my Dell Vostro HDD in a Lenovo ThinkPad I will get a BSOD as soon as I even think on turning it on (hahahaha how exagerated)

Can you simply swap HDDs?

 

Nope, I meant "will"
Windows will boot without any special drivers installed. Save for F6 drivers, but you'd have to load those in order to do a repair install anyway. So I figured it was kind of moot.

You could, you will have varied levels of success depending on the hardware in those systems.

 

Correct.
It depends on the harddisk controller.
If you have generic Intel ICH controller on the previous machine dropping it in another intel ICH controller system will work however it may BSOD on a Nforce chipset control etc.
It all boils down to the harddisk controller.
Never the less a boot repair ought to do the trick.

 

Just FYI, I know it should be that way on paper, but I've seen failure going from say ICH7 to ICH9 or ICH10 yet been totally baffled by a drive that boots totally fine coming from Nforce4 to ICH9 or ICH10 (almost always when I do this it's to ICH10, sometimes to ICH9/ICH9M, rarely, to a SIS chipset)

 

I am not sure about this. Your statement about using the Repair disc to load generic drivers made sense but that statement i'm unsure of....and unfortunately I don't have the time or patience right now to test this situation out myself either...so some day when I come across this again I might just come back and dig up this thread to share my findings.