Do I have to buy Windows 7 ?

SPiiTFiiRE88

SPiiTFiiRE88

Active member
Hi, I have just ordered a pc from PCS and I have just had a thought.

Do I have to buy Windows 7 to put onto my new hard drive or can I transfer windows my copy of windows 7 from my old hard drive to the new one? can anyone let me know because it could save me £79

Cheers
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
SPiiTFiiRE88 said:
Hi, I have just ordered a pc from PCS and I have just had a thought.

Do I have to buy Windows 7 to put onto my new hard drive or can I transfer windows my copy of windows 7 from my old hard drive to the new one? can anyone let me know because it could save me £79

Cheers
Click to expand...


If you have a licence for Windows 7 (and an installation CD) you wont need to purchase an additional copy. However its likely that any current licence you hold is an OEM licence and would only have been valid for the original PC it was purchased with.

Obviously this might not be the case and you might have bought a copy of Windows 7 retail separately.

You won't be able to simply 'transfer' Windows 7 from one hard drive to another however, you would need to install it on the new hard drive
 
SPiiTFiiRE88

SPiiTFiiRE88

Active member
Hmm.. I am not sure what type it is, I know I brought it from a store about 2 years ago when I upgraded from vista, I will have a look when I get home.

One other question I have is I have chosen the Asus P8z77 LX, is this motherboard OK to overclock with?
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
SPiiTFiiRE88 said:
Hmm.. I am not sure what type it is, I know I brought it from a store about 2 years ago when I upgraded from vista, I will have a look when I get home.

One other question I have is I have chosen the Asus P8z77 LX, is this motherboard OK to overclock with?
Click to expand...

Depends what you mean by 'ok'

You can overclock with most (if not all) motherboards, some are more user friendly than others and some have more 'extreme' features (LN2 temperature sensors etc.).
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
SPiiTFiiRE88 said:
Hmm.. I am not sure what type it is, I know I brought it from a store about 2 years ago when I upgraded from vista, I will have a look when I get home.

One other question I have is I have chosen the Asus P8z77 LX, is this motherboard OK to overclock with?
Click to expand...

Yes,you could order a per-overclocker system from PCS to avoid instability issues when overclocking the CPU.
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
kruppsy said:
Yes you can do it, I did it recently and if your new drive is a WD, you can use this free tool. It does search that you are using a WD drive during installation, so its no a free-for-all.

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en
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I take it back, didn't realise this was possible at all due to windows needing to interface with other components and depending on what version you had you might need to re-activate... Everyday is a school day!
 
kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
SPiiTFiiRE88 said:
Wow, thats awesome, I think I may amend my order so I don't have to buy windows 7 and I can spend the £80 on other stuff!
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steaky360 said:
I take it back, didn't realise this was possible at all due to windows needing to interface with other components and depending on what version you had you might need to re-activate... Everyday is a school day!
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Yeah, its dead easy....just run the 'Clone' then choose to boot from the new drive. I did it a couple of months back after purchasing a WD Black and cloned my OS and all from an old Hitatchi. The only thing I haven't tried is doing a reinstall/recovery from the new drive, not sure if Windows will like whats happened but It shouldn't be a problem as its worked flawlessly so far.
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
kruppsy said:
Yeah, its dead easy....just run the 'Clone' then choose to boot from the new drive. I did it a couple of months back after purchasing a WD Black and cloned my OS and all from an old Hitatchi. The only thing I haven't tried is doing a reinstall/recovery from the new drive, not sure if Windows will like whats happened but It shouldn't be a problem as its worked flawlessly so far.
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OK so thats cloning from one hard drive to another in the same system... I'm not sure that would work with a new PC though?
 
kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
hmmm, you've got a point there...its still going to pick up the changes in mobo etc and want the Windows cd more than likely...if you have the cd and run that after the clone it may work? You'd have to clone it before it went in the new system though?
 
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vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
Cloning or using windows own backup program will work on the same computer,but as steaky mentioned not to another computer.
One of the reasons being the drivers will be incompatible causing all sorts of problems,it's highly unlikely it would even start up.
 
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kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
I have more q's now because I've recently wondered this, if i have a system, then upgrade everything except the HDD, then try to boot up what would happen? I always thought it'd kick off a bit but if you had a retail version of a windows dvd to insert it just fills in the gaps and sorts itself out with sort of a 'repair'?

I very nearly did just that, so Id be interested to know.
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
kruppsy said:
I have more q's now because I've recently wondered this, if i have a system, then upgrade everything except the HDD, then try to boot up what would happen? I always thought it'd kick off a bit but if you had a retail version of a windows dvd to insert it just fills in the gaps and sorts itself out with sort of a 'repair'?

I very nearly did just that, so Id be interested to know.
Click to expand...

I would be very surprised if this was possible. I'd expect a 'clean' install would be required as the amount of 'repair' required would probably amount to the same thing if all the components had changed.
 
kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
I think what you and v have managed to do is 'counter hit' my earlier smug post to use a street fighter analogy...tis me now doing the learning...

I have four days running round my garden in the sun, come back to the boards, and my IT 'know how', and I use the term loosely, has taken a kicking...

It also draws attention to the farce that it my rep score.

must do better...
 
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vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
kruppsy said:
I have more q's now because I've recently wondered this, if i have a system, then upgrade everything except the HDD, then try to boot up what would happen? I always thought it'd kick off a bit but if you had a retail version of a windows dvd to insert it just fills in the gaps and sorts itself out with sort of a 'repair'?

I very nearly did just that, so Id be interested to know.
Click to expand...
This is possible if you first uninstall the drivers from for your old devices before upgrading them.
 
kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
vanthus said:
This is possible if you first uninstall the drivers from for your old devices before upgrading them.
Click to expand...

You've come to my rescue...cheers mate, although I didn't know the uninstall caveat, so really...

ps. good to see normal service is resumed with the old avatar :)
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
kruppsy said:
You've come to my rescue...cheers mate, although I didn't know the uninstall caveat, so really...

ps. good to see normal service is resumed with the old avatar :)
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Haha,it was you who convinced me to change it back. :)
 
kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
vanthus said:
Haha,it was you who convinced me to change it back. :)
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Im glad, because if you'd have said "Cloning or using windows own backup program will work on the same computer,but as steaky mentioned not to another computer.
One of the reasons being the drivers will be incompatible causing all sorts of problems,it's highly unlikely it would even start up" with the dog avatar, I wouldn't have believed it for a second and wanted a second a opinion! I haven't told keynes yet, but his is borderline :)
 
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