I will be taking my product key from the computer I'm currently using to use on a new computer I'm building. Besides backing up my pc files is there anything else I need to do in order to install windows 7 on a new computer? I won't be using the old computer again if that matters. I will be using the drive though that currently has windows 7 installed on it as a backup drive.
Installing Windows 7 on new computer from old computer
- Thread starter win2u
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It depends what type of license was on your old computer; OEM licenses are non-transferable and are meant to die with the machine. Unless you say otherwise, I will assume this is not the case and proceed with info regarding legal transfer of a license.
Was the license an upgrade license or full? If you have an upgrade key then it may require a double install. The Installer is designed to look for a previous install to "upgrade" so the install may not complete the first try. Normally it works fine on the second attempt though I have read for some it takes 3 tries.
Was you old computer 32-bit or 64-bit? and the new computer? The easiest way to transfer your userids and data is with Windows Easy Transfer. The one limitation is that it will not work going from a 64-bit OS to a 32-bit, it does however, work 32 to 32, 64 to 64, or 32 to 64.
You will probably want to drop all the partitions on your old hard drive and then reallocate it as a single partition and format it to get rid of any recovery drives or the small windows 7 system drive.
Was the license an upgrade license or full? If you have an upgrade key then it may require a double install. The Installer is designed to look for a previous install to "upgrade" so the install may not complete the first try. Normally it works fine on the second attempt though I have read for some it takes 3 tries.
Was you old computer 32-bit or 64-bit? and the new computer? The easiest way to transfer your userids and data is with Windows Easy Transfer. The one limitation is that it will not work going from a 64-bit OS to a 32-bit, it does however, work 32 to 32, 64 to 64, or 32 to 64.
You will probably want to drop all the partitions on your old hard drive and then reallocate it as a single partition and format it to get rid of any recovery drives or the small windows 7 system drive.
Well actually I believe it is a upgrade version because I had Vista Ultimate 64 bit then went to Windows 7 64 bit. I can't find my disc at the moment to confirm at the moment though(cleaning at the moment lol). My old computer is Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and my new computer I just really want the same thing but clean install on the new computer. I want to format the old drive with the OS and use it as a secondary drive for space. Thats why I want to make sure do I need to do anything important before I do this like deactivate my key or something?
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No, no deactivation, just be sure you have it written down. If you can't find it, then you can look it up on your current machine with a utility called SIW (links available in our Freeware DB).
And you might want to download W7 64-bit drivers for the new computer. Most will be part of W7 but some may not, and if it turns out what you are missing is your NIC driver then you won't be able to connect to download it.
Windows Easy Transfer is a good way to carry all your userids/data, as I already mentioned.
But you will still need to reinstall any programs: additional browsers, flash, adobe reader, java, your anti-virus. So be sure you have any of those keys (Microsoft Office, etc) and DVDs as well.
And you might want to download W7 64-bit drivers for the new computer. Most will be part of W7 but some may not, and if it turns out what you are missing is your NIC driver then you won't be able to connect to download it.
Windows Easy Transfer is a good way to carry all your userids/data, as I already mentioned.
But you will still need to reinstall any programs: additional browsers, flash, adobe reader, java, your anti-virus. So be sure you have any of those keys (Microsoft Office, etc) and DVDs as well.