Switching laptop HDD to new laptop. Will it boot just the same?

Hello, I had a Samsung NP350E7C-A01US which recently stopped working due to a seemingly faulty power jack not taking any charge any more after the AC adapter plug broke off in the slot.or the Motherboard dying(likely the former as when it still had charge it worked just fine before running out of charge). Not wanting to pay to essentially rework the thing and having wanted one for some time I've decided to buy a gaming laptop namely the MSI GP60 Leopard-010 which is on special at a local store. I want to poach the HDD from my Samsung and place it into the MSI and have it run just the same as if nothing happened. Will I run into ANY issues and how would I deal with them?

 

You will run into issues. The issues will be completely random. It may be something as minor as needing a peripheral driver (like a fingerprint reader) to the other extreme of it not even booting, due to differences so drastic that Windows can't adjust enough to boot.

It is totally random what outcome you will have, and you won't know what you're up against until you turn it on.

You will certainly have activation issues.

 

Will any of these issues affect the HDD itself or the data stored and can they be mitigated by drivet installation?

 

You will not lose your data.

The problems you will encounter are because Windows will try to load the drivers appropriate to the hardware in the previous computer. If the storage controller is different then that maybe as far as it gets before there's a problem because it can't read the drive having loaded the wrong storage controller driver. Sometimes these things are fixable by booting into safe mode and uninstalling the old hardware in Device Manager then rebooting and letting Windows sort itself out (have the drivers for the new computer sitting on a flash drive) but Windows may not run as well as if it had been a new installation.

I would recommend you investigate using a utility such as Microsoft's Easy Transfer to get what you want off the old HDD (you will need a USB enclosure) onto the new computer. I would then recommend you keep the old HDD for backups.

John

 

Issues? Right... Depending on what version of Windows we're talking about, the machine with the transplanted HDD won't even boot, since the HALs don't match. I think Windows 8.x can recover from this, but any version of Windows prior will simply bluescreen during boot.

 

I imagine I'd still have these problems even if it's an updated Samsung or would that actually work out better? The OS is Windows 8.1 and I still have the disk for it. What I basically want is to run this HDD as if nothing had happened at least until I can back everything up and out of it.

 

If you move the drive to identical hardware there will be no issues. If it's an "updated" model, then there's usually changes in the chipset, CPU, graphics chip if applicable, etc., and you're better off reinstalling. But, sure, it should run o.k. until you have things sorted out.

 

The issues in question will be solely OS based, your data should be unaffected.
When you encounter these random issues, there's a good chance you will be forced to format the OS in order for it function properly - in which case, without backing up the data (that is, if you keep it on the same partition where the OS is), you will lose it in the format and clean Windows install.

A clean OS install is what I would suggest.
This way, you will avoid the random problems mentioned in the thread... but before you format the OS section of the drive, I suggest you backup your data (wherever it may be).

I always tell people to split the HDD into 2 partitions.
The C partition should contain OS and program installations, while the D partition should be where you keep your relevant data.
This way, in an event that something happens to the computer (such as a virus/malware infection, or a breakdown of the motherboard), you would be free to simply format/erase the contents of the C partition without fear of losing your data, and just reinstall everything back on it.

 

Thanks for all the help which is very much greatly appreciated. Another question, would I be able to copy and paste browser data from one laptop to another? Namely I install Opera to the new computer same version as my previous, would I be able to copy and paste my old stuff and have it work just fine? Both OS's will be the same.

 

That should be possible and I have done it for Firefox. Check what the Opera support info says.

John

 

Yeah most browsers have some sort of way to export bookmarks at the very least, if not more of your personalization settings.

 

Modern browsers typically have some way to sync via the cloud.

 

Is there a chance this would include tabs and history? Just got the bad news that the motherboard might be what went bad on the Samsung so I'm gonna be needing that upgrade no matter what and I want to preferably transfer that very same HDD with no problems or as little problems as possible, barring that the whole tabs, history, and bookmarks thing since I have an adapter for such occasions.

 

Probably my last question regarding all of this, but I've found a Samsung NP780Z5E-S01UB and pretty much the same question as initially posed if I can switch HDD on this one and what problems I may run into and how to mitigate them. Also some feedback on which of the two laptops would be a better buy would be nice.

 

Made another post on accident due to lag on my tablet, but may as well include the Samsung NP880Z5E-X01UB

 

The one advantage of trying to switch the HDD from one computer to another of the same brand is that the OEM windows is less likely to throw a tantrum. If the old computer was still working then Acronis TrueImage with Universal Restore might have made your task easier since it is designed to restore a disk image onto different hardware.

Questions about which is the better of those Samsung notebooks are best asked in the appropriate thread. Personally, I don't like the glare from silver keyboards which also reduces the key legibility.

John

 

The Windows copy in my laptop isn't the original as I had to install a new copy of Windows, but I do have both the Samsung Windows and the new Windows. Also, thanks for the link to the thread, but I'll likely get the Samsung anyway.

 

If this is windows 8, you should have almost no issues, the windows will just work as a new installation with no drivers and require new set of drivers.

Once you put the harddisk on the new PC, windows will notice the new hardware, and you will see a black windows saying "Please wait", just wait few minutes and it will be all done.