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    Swapping laptop hard drives

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by ton247, Sep 14, 2012.

  1. ton247

    ton247 Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey guys,
    So I've been using this netbook for a while now and I just realized that I kept my old 7200 rpm 500gb hard drive from my studio 1550 which died about a year ago (motherboard failure). This netbook's hard drive is 5400 rpm and I was hoping I could swap this one out for my 7200 rpm hard drive. Would I run into any problems?

    The 7200 hard drive still has Windows Vista + a bunch of games/applications/documents still installed on there whereas on this netbook I only have Windows 7 Starter. Can I just keep all my data + the Vista OS from the 7200 drive and use it on this netbook instead of wiping the hard drive clean and reinstalling Windows 7 Starter (I made recovery CDs a while back)?

    I hope that makes sense. I would rather have a full version of Windows Vista than Windows 7 Starter, but if there are compatibility issues with the physical components in the netbook that won't run on Vista, I don't want to risk it.

    Cheers
     
    ton247, Sep 14, 2012
    #1
  2. homank76

    homank76 Alienware/Dell Enthusiast

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    I don't see any problems doing the swap. Window might get confused at first with certain parts being different, but it will adjust to the new system. Just might have to restart the computer a couple times and don't forget about all those updates that will have to be done as well.
     
    homank76, Sep 15, 2012
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  3. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    I would highly recommend a reinstall. Even though Windows Vista/7 can adapt to new hardware, it doesn't mean Windows will necessarily be stable. XP is a no go, I have yet to see an XP machine swapped into completely different hardware not BSOD/refuse to boot at all.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Sep 16, 2012
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  4. ton247

    ton247 Notebook Evangelist

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    Thanks for the advice guys, I'll definitely do a reinstall rather than risk it. +rep!
     
    ton247, Sep 16, 2012
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