Moving a Win10 Pro hard disk to another computer

[dmbyrnes]

I have two identical Lenovo Thinkpad X61 tablet computers, now going on 9 years old. They originally came with Vista, and I subsequently purchased and installed Windows 7 Professional x64 on what seemed to be the more reliable one. I also bought a 3-seat Win 7 Home Premium 32 bit and installed it on the second one.

When Windows 10 came along, I took the free upgrade on both, so the first machine got 64 bit pro and the second got 32 bit home edition.

Now the display on the first machine is failing and I'd like to swap Windows 10 versions from the first machine to the second machine which is now the more reliable one. I tried swapping the hard disks over but as you all would know, this didn't work as the OS is branded by something else in the computer.

My question: Is there any way I can get the HD off the first computer to work in the second, running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, or is there any other way I can transfer that OS from the second to the first computer?

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I have two identical Lenovo Thinkpad X61 tablet computers

Interesting..... IF they are in fact "identical" then I would have expected the hard disk from either to work in the other.

What was your experience, when you tried the swap?
Did it fail to boot?
Did it Blue Screen?
Did it generate some error?
Did Windows 10 have an activation issue?

 

[dmbyrnes]

I tried this about a month ago and my memory is fading. I'm pretty sure it was an activation issue. Maybe Windows is pulling a number of the CPU? I can try it again and report back exactly what happened.

 

[Trouble]

Activating Windows 10 after a hardware configuration change
If you made a significant hardware change to your device (such as replacing the motherboard) Windows 10 might no longer be activated. If you're running Windows 10 (Version 1607) and added your Microsoft account and linked it to the digital license on your device, you can use the Activation troubleshooter to reactivate Windows. For more info, see Using the Activation troubleshooter.

SOURCE: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation

 

[dmbyrnes]

Activating Windows 10 after a hardware configuration change
If you made a significant hardware change to your device (such as replacing the motherboard) Windows 10 might no longer be activated. If you're running Windows 10 (Version 1607) and added your Microsoft account and linked it to the digital license on your device, you can use the Activation troubleshooter to reactivate Windows. For more info, see Using the Activation troubleshooter.

SOURCE: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation

Thanks!

 

[Jorn Johanesson]

if your windows 10 is a free upgrade from windows 7 or windows 8.1 the activating by using the activation troubleshooter will not work becouse the update is a free update. So I was told by a Microsoft person. You will have to purcase a new copy of windows