uninstalling win 7 then reinstalling on a new drive

Volatile_Mike · 15 Jun 2012 at 08:59

Hi people

Bit of a noob question, but its been a while since doing something like this. Im buying an SSD to put windows on. Do i need to do anything to the old Drive with windows on, like deactivate the product code or do i just install win 7 on the new drive, enter product code and it will still be genuine?

Thanks

Avathar77 · 15 Jun 2012 at 09:05

is the OS OEM or retail?

Volatile_Mike · 15 Jun 2012 at 09:28

I bought and downloaded it from Microsoft.
com so guess that's retail??

Confused · 15 Jun 2012 at 09:34

As you're just changing hard drive, then it's fine and OEM/retail doesn't matter - just plug in your SSD and enjoy!

It's only if you were changing your entire computer (ie motherboard) that you may be getting into a grey area if you've got an OEM licence.

Then, just format the old drive and use it for some storage

You *may* need to call up the automated line, and even if it doesn't activate immediately, just tell the person that you've changed hard drives but it's still on the same computer. But I seriously doubt you'll even get to the phone point, unless you only installed onto the HDD within the last couple of months.

Orcvader · 15 Jun 2012 at 11:07

Make sure you only have the SSD connected when installing Windows, the installation has a habit of placing some of the boot files on other harddrives.

Volatile_Mike · 15 Jun 2012 at 13:15

Thanks for the replies guys, will do this tomorrow I think