i bought a new windows 8 PC, possible to simply put a windows 7 HD from my old laptop into it?

Basically I had a laptop with a SSD drive I want to put into my new laptop, and keep the windows 7. Possible?

 

install win7 on the SSD using the the key one the bottom of the PC..... put the old drive in an external case and assess it by USB.

 

The SSD already has windows 7. Do you mean install it from new computer?

 

The best way would be to create two seperate partitions, one for 7 and one for 8, and install CLEAN installations of each. This way you can have BOTH OSes on you at the same time. If you plan on using a caddy in the optical drive bay, then you could throw in a HDD for maximum storage capacity and this allows both OSes to access your data at all times. Under Administrative Tools, System Configuration, then in the BOOT tab you can set your default (favorite) OS to start up first and shorten the dual boot selection menu time (3 seconds is a good setting, but choose whatever you want). I've been using this method since 8 came out and so far it has been nothing but freedom to choose my commonly used OSes.

P.S. - Install only what you deem is necessary to do the things you want to do and remember to always backup your data in more ways than one.

 

yea, ive been trying that by downloading the windows 7 installition ISOs and burning them to a disc and trying to boot from it, but when I try to boot it says image failed to verify with access denied.

 

Before starting the installation, take a minute to create your partition(s) first.

Hm, sounds like the secure boot BIOS feature most Windows 8 notebooks have enabled by default is causing you to not be able to boot form the cd. Check your BIOS, you should be able to boot and install from the cd without a problem.

 

that made the cd bootable, but now it gets stuck at the windows 7 logo. Is it possible thats becasuse the laptop doesnt have proper windows 7 drivers? How could I solve that?

 

Ummm I think everyone else is missing the original question? Didn't you just want to put your SSD in your new laptop with the SSDs current win7 installation and boot from that? You can do that, just plug it in and try it already!
Sometimes it doesn't work, you can try safe mode and whatnot and then try to troubleshoot issues, msconfig can help.

After that, you can use a linux live CD or USB drive to resize the win7 partition, making room for windows 8. However this could be bad for the SSD. I'm not sure.

To be clear, a clean install is not always necessary. I have more laptops than drives, and I use 1 single hard drive with 1 win7 installation for a Gateway nv78, a Dell 1425, an MSI gt627 and gx640, it boots just fine on all of them.

 

I wouldn't recommend doing because of driver issues. Generic drivers might not be an issue but those specific ones to certain brands and models like keyboard controls, pcie sd card readers or video driver might cause a few incompatibility issues.

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Well, of course they will cause issues, but a clean install can be a huge undertaking for people who don't readily have install medium and a device to back up their data. Drivers can be uninstalled, and don't forget that a clean install will require new drivers to be installed anyway.

 

Yea... Its easy if you kno what you're doing. But, if we can do it, they can learn and do it too. Its not THAT hard. Otherwise pay someone to do it for you.

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More recently I've been hearing of issues with a BIOS lock, making it a pain - if not nearly impossible - to install Windows 7. If the BIOS lock is implemented on your system, you MAY not even be able to stick the hard drive with windows 7 in and expect it to boot.

If you're experiencing a lock up at the Windows logo, that could be an indication that the lock is indeed embedded.

 

Yea, I took the PC back. It seems every good deal on amazon is windows 8 or the windows 7 is sold out. is this across every manufacturer? How about lenovo?