Moved C: drive from an HDX18 to dv9000 and it worked!

My HDX 18 smoked (literally)

Something inside was getting hot to the point that smoke was coming out from the area above the keyboard and the PC was shutting off. It's an early HDX18, out of warranty, so I figure it's shot. I ordered a dv7t quad as a replacement.

However, I needed to run some programs off the C: drive to get stuff off that's easier to archive when the programs are running (Mail messages, etc), so on a whim, I pulled the C: drive out and put it in my older dv9000 CTO laptop that my wife now uses.

It booted and worked!! I was shocked. Windows 7 did not complain. The wireless lit up, it did a few updates and reboots, and I was up and running.

Windows wanted to re-activate itself and gave me 3 days to do it.

So, if anyone else finds themselves in a similar situation, give it a shot. I guess the HP PC architecture between laptops is close enough that Windows will actually start without blue screens or having to recover the O/S.