The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    windows vista reinstal

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by squelchy451, Apr 22, 2009.

  1. squelchy451

    squelchy451 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    9
    Messages:
    104
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Hi.

    I'm buying a laptop and I want to upgrade the hard drive. The original hard drive contains Vista.

    Is there a way to move that Vista from the old hard drive to the new hard drive I might be buying?


    THanks
     
    squelchy451, Apr 22, 2009
    #1
  2. gengerald

    gengerald Technofile Extraordinaire

    Reputations:
    674
    Messages:
    1,961
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    You can image one drive to another, but may have device issues. With the purchase of any new computer, I feel that reinstalling Vista and updated drivers is the best bet. This allows for a clean (and legal) installation that will yield the best performance. You will want to use a bootable disc for taking the image (hiren, gparted, etc.).
     
    gengerald, Apr 22, 2009
    #2
  3. vinumsv

    vinumsv MobileFreak™

    Reputations:
    502
    Messages:
    1,238
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I agree with gengerald , always do a clean install when moving to a new pc / laptop to avoid hardware / software issues
     
    vinumsv, Apr 22, 2009
    #3
  4. squelchy451

    squelchy451 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    9
    Messages:
    104
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Do I still keep the old product key?

    How would I reinstall Windows Vista?
    Some softwares I use need legit version of Vista so that's why i'm asking htis
     
    squelchy451, Apr 22, 2009
    #4
  5. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    6,926
    Messages:
    8,178
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    You would still use the old product key (that's your license to use a copy of _Vista). You should check first to see if the recovery media you have can be used to do an installation onto a virgin hard drive that has never had an OS installed on it, or if the recovery media has to be able to find a legal version of _Vista installed on the hard drive before it will do an installation. If your recovery media have to be able to find a pre-existing _Vista installation before they'll work, then you would be best off cloning your existing hard drive to your new hard drive first, and then using your recovery media to do a new installation on top of that cloned image.

    Basically, what you want to do is perfectly legitimate and should not cause you any problems with the legitimacy of your _Vista copy.
     
    Shyster1, Apr 23, 2009
    #5
  6. squelchy451

    squelchy451 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    9
    Messages:
    104
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Basically, I create recovery media from the legit Vista that came with my laptop, install new hard drive, and install the recovery media onto the new hard drive?

    Also, how large should HDD be for Vista (business)?

    I'm planning on a SSD.
     
    squelchy451, Apr 27, 2009
    #6