Please don't change the way you do your videos, the time you take to explain and explain is GREAT for us folks who don't know much about computers, so we welcome all the explanations.
Thanks for the video. Even though I'm not in the beginner camp, I love videos like this because they always give me perspectives on how to handle different repair scenarios. Since I'm the computer guy in my family, I've set up OS's on a drive on my computer, then transplanted that into the owner's computers at many times. It lets me get everything mostly right in the peace and quiet of my Fortress of Solitude, and then fine-tune the setup on the destination machine. I love each and every one of my family members, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on details while being peppered with extraneous conversation, ya' know? So swapping drives is a long-standing efficiency-enhancement for me. I can talk about cousin Stacy's wedding or Uncle Ronald's hip replacement after the job is done (without fear of mistakes) lol.
I'm in my mid 50's I suck because I never truly bothered to learn the PC world. I know cpu's and gpu's and what drives are. However, when my computer does silly things I have no clue what to do. I recently found your channel and trying to follow your awesome way of explaining things. Yes, I am having issues with my system, and hope I find how to fix it with your videos. You are truly the only one I can understand at times. cheers.
Hello, I am one of those that want to know and understand the what, the why, the but, and the how! I'm a shade or two above a novice, but I'm learning. Your time and expertise is very much appreciated! Thank you!
6:10 Before running Windows update or any kind of driver updates, I'd recommend going into "Programs and Features" in Control Panel and removing the software that belonged to the hardware on the old laptop/desktop such as Audio, Video, Network, Chipset (motherboard). The most common issue I have seen with simply transferring a drive from the older machine to a newer one is the "Drive" and "Boot Mode" related settings in the BIOS. Like Windows was installed in the "legacy" mode on the old machine but on the new machine, BIOS is set to UEFI so it won't even see the drive yet alone Windows. Also if the drive setting was set to AHCI on the old machine and the new one is set to RAID (which is oddly the default setting on all OEM laptops), then the old drive wmight be detected but you will get an error saying "Missing operating system" best to let a pro or someone savvy help you with this type of a task.
Thank you. A few random comments: 1) You do not specify if the HD you are transferring is just a data drive, or a bootable OS drive. That makes a lot of difference, doesn't it? 2) You seem to default to Windows OS only, and even more, you refer to Win 10 or 11. How about other systems? Even within Windows, there are people using earlier versions. 3) You mentioned a video card and a sound card several times. Unless one is a serious gamer or an audio/video engineer, who deals with audio/video cards these days? And most people have laptops now...
Thank you for makimg this and saying this in particular bc I've been searching up what kinds of storage I have for years and even asked ppl at best buy and was always confused since I didn't grow up as computer savvy as I wanted
I know this is a 2 month old video but wanted to caution that while yes, one can move drives from one PC to another, I've done that, however, if the system you are retiring and the drive is being moved to a new machine as a boot drive, and is a turnkey system from a computer manufacture, chances are it's an OEM OS, and if you ordered it with Office, chances are, it's also OEM, those can't transfer as I believe they are tied to the MB for the machine it was originally installed on. Thus, you will need to replace with a retail variant (OS/software from a store or online retail), THEN you can install as a fresh install, though you may have to copy/move all data files (documents etc) to another drive, install the new OS, then move data back. As long as it's like for like (sata to sata etc) then yes, you can move drives. If not a boot drive, then the drive can be moved from computer to computer to computer all day long as long as it's working fine as they are storage/software drives only.
Correct. I like that Linux doesn’t care much about HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer). But Windows sure throws a temper tantrum. This is a good video for the novice pc user. Which is covered partway through. Starting in safe mode. Keep the videos coming, Sir!😊
Windows7 setup had an undocumented/unsupported parameter to remove all drivers for hardware, I think it was "/reconfigure" ? You then shut down the system and plug in the harddrive to the new pc and boot up, was very slick but officially unsupported. Could also be used with tools to transfer the partitions to a new harddrive.
@@AskYourComputerGuy Could have been "/unconfigure" was a few years ago and couldnt find my notes, test if you have a vm somewhere. I've used it on my windows7 setup that ran on different hardware for over 10 years which saw one motherboard/cpu swap.
Yes. If it isn't a system drive, then it is plug and play compatible (SATA or IDE adapter, of course). New versions of Windows can readjust(repair) itself to new hardware more often than not, so even that is usually possible, not that I would be that ham fisted about a system change myself. Always start fresh while you are at it. It's work, but nothing done right is easy.
For Win 7, the DVD has to be inserted, from which the Windows was installed. Then the win will run, and will remain activated, it activates automatically again without asking for the dvd key. For me, it needed more retries before the windows accepted the other laptop, and by inserting the dvd, the windows activated automatically.
For windows there is another option (more like the final option) if you're trying to set yourself up on a new pc. It's for those that are willing to do a little extra work and spend some money. If you purchased a new PC (or if you're building one - and installing to a new HD) You can buy a USB hard drive docking station for sata drives. They're around $40 in price. You boot up to your new version of windows and attach the docking station with the old HD inserted. It will show up in the windows file manager app. Then just tunnel into it through its file system --> Windows ---> users ----> "Your user name" ---> to your Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos and Downloads folders Just copy all their contents over to your new windows copy respective folders. Hopefully, you also were mindful enough (prior to doing this) to have made a .txt list of all the programs you had installed and exported an html file of your web browser bookmarks - to copy over too - to finish the new setup.
Yes that works well for transferring files...but, when you have a proprietary program and don't have the original software, this is the best method of you don't already have a backup clone of that drive 👍
Well done as always. I was curious - especially now that your viewers have grown so much (116K ftw!), who do YOU watch for education or entertainment? What channels or creators does The Computer Guy trust?
I got a new laptop and I just did that. Put my old laptop's SSD (nvme m.2) into the new laptop. I needed to fix a bios setting VMD or VDM something related to RAID, had to uninstall old drivers, install new drivers and now it works. Saved me a ton of setting up windows and apps on it! Took me about 2-3h (rests for googling and thinking included). +had to buy a new windows key online since completely new hardware didn't let me use the old Windows 10 license.
you can if you're using Linux, such as Linux Mint! I install a system on a drive than put it in my old laptop, works fine. Windows has a serial number on the drive so it may not work.
You're correct on all counts. Except the serial number on the drive. I've swapped hundreds of drives in my career. The only thing that ever prevents it from working is software. Which, as you say, would not be problem with Linux. So +1 Linux 👍
Another great video!! Question: So many YT producers say, "The video link is up top here" but we never see anything on the screen. Why is that? It happens a lot!
Got a new laptop, came with 512gb SSD. Older laptop has 1TB SSD, want to swap. Both identical spec, other than size. Put the 1tb in the new laptop, sign in screen says to reset my PIN, 'click to reset', no problem. Problem is the mouse doesn't work, but only on this screen, pad and external. No cursor on screen, no Enter/Esc key response. Caps/Num lock can toggle so keys work. Put the 512 back and all is fine. Went back and disabled Bitlocker on the 1T from the old, same issue. It accepted the recovery key, which I of course used the keys to put in, hit Enter, all good. Sign in screen, rinse and repeat
At 1:02, just get a cheap external adapter to USB and copy over all of your data. I use EaseUS Disk Copy to clone a drive, no mater what the physical connection. At 7:29, the problem here, is that you won't be able to get a network connection! So use another computer and get the manufactures driver for that PC . Now boot and get the rest of your drives.
It's not about copying data. It's whether or not you can swap a drive. If you proprietary software installed that you don't have the original media for anymore, this is why it would be relevant.
Copying data is not going to do anything, other than put that data on a different medium, which still won't boot and blue screens because the drivers are crashing by not recognizing the hardware. Sometimes you can move a fully installed Windows from one computer to another, albeit with a few issues, but mostly it doesn't work and a clean install on the other machine is a much better route to go.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus - If you CLONE the drive, it will BOOT! It copies EVERYTHING! I do it all the time. You DON'T know what your talking about!! There's a difference between COPYING and CLONING!
Once after contemplating this and trying to make an informed decision, I said "f it" and plugged the drive in as a second drive. Yes, it handled it good enough to use. Thanks.
Thanks so much for all of your excellent computer advice. I have started a new pc build and this video is of great help to me... Keep up the great work.
Very technical here and all that, but just haven't followed gear too much in recent years. I see stuff here and there and haven't been under a rock though. Very quickly: If I wanted to build new system and only concerned with MOBO, MEMORY and CPU, 32 GB total DDRx at least, what do I start looking at for best bang of buck. No other considerations necessary. I got all that. Just want to know what YOU all would say. As a basic guide to question: Not looking for very high or very low end. 2 years old or so is ok and probably preferred.
Of course, but this video isn't about accessing your files off a different hard drive. It's will your old drive work on a different computer so you don't have to completely start over with customization. Of course if you can't find another IDE system, that could very well be your only option 🤷♂️
Is actually swapping drives really a general real life case though? I mean, if you already have a functioning laptop, wouldn't you just want to access the data of the old drive, rather than swapping it? I would honestly just recommend a SATA or M.2 to USB adapter and just add the drive that way and simply transfer any important data to the current already installed drive.
Perhaps yes. But say for example you have proprietary software on dead pc and you don't have the original software. I've had that happen to clients and this is a great way to at least get back up and running...followed by "let's clone this drive now please" 👍
I can confirm this on Linux Mint on 256GB USB flash drive. moved between N5105 NUC, to N100 NUC, to MSI gaming laptop, to MSI netbook, to N95 NUC, in any order
I've had a 50/50 success rate with setting up a M2 Drive and then snapping it into a new PC with my line of Linux. Yours is Debian based. Mine is Arch based. I mean that I use my current PC to install a particular distro onto a new external M2 drive with the intent of putting that into a new PC. The only problem is that as the install was going on, it is reading all the components in the current PC and not the components in the new PC - so, sometimes it boots up just fine in the new PC and sometimes it doesn't.
Linux does not tie itself to the hardware in a machine like Windows does, so yes, this is entirely possible with Linux. Windows, on the other hand, does everything it can to tie itself to all the hardware in a machine, so good luck sticking that drive in another machine to boot from. Microsoft wants you to buy a Windows license for every machine you own. Product Activation enforces it. It is not in their interest to allow you to run a single copy of Windows on more than one PC.
I think one very important thing you're forgetting about Computer Guy, is that doing a computer swap with a HD will cause it to deactivate your license, unless you have the actual license key to put in. If you have a digital license, MS will say sorry can't do that and it won't reactivate your license!
The old hard drive has an activated Windows on it. I've never run into that issue when swapping drives unless you replace the motherboard *after* swapping the drives.
@@AskYourComputerGuy Well you said you were switching computers, putting the HD into another computer, what's the difference, no different than switching MB's. If your MB dies and you put in a new MB then it won't be activated either.
@@wally6193 I think it matters how it got the key also. For example, if it was OEM and it has already been through an upgrade, they cut it off, and you have to get another key. This is my (limited) research and experience.
@@louf7178 it's like I said, if you own the disk/key then you're good, but yes if it was a digital key from an update/upgrade from win 7/8 to win 10 then it will deactivate. And yes probably from OEM too if it was upgraded to win 10 through updates, but OEM machines that came with win10 usually have a win 10 sticker on the bottom with the key on it. That's my experience.
I upgraded the Hard Drive in my older Imac for a 1Tb Drive which had Windows installed for a PC and was Gobsmacked when it started booting Windows and was completely useable! 😂 Anthony - Birmingham/UK 🇬🇧
If it's your OS drive and you have a retail version of Windows, yes you can move the drive. You have to jump through a couple of hoops, but it can be done.
I guess we're not covering the T2 chip issue here? Yes, older drive, pre T2 wo/Bitlocker- should swap in ok --- but a Bitlocked drive in a 'foreign' computer with a T2- you better have your recovery key handy.
Perhaps an "advanced question" from a long time Linux user experimenting with Win 10; I decided to roll the dice on one of my systems and went ahead and enabled UEFI secure boot and I believe I encrypted my hard drive, per future Win 11 mandates. I have to enter a password after boot, before the OS launches and I have to then enter my MS pin. The PSU died in that system. I had another box I was going to throw the hard drive into, however, it's theoretically encrypted. I think I presently have a brick. I did this for two reasons: 1) My Windows days ended in 2013 with Vista, when I switched to Linux. 2) Having emerged from essentially dial up recently to Starlink, I got the tech bug and I've been educating myself on Windows. On the "bricked" system, Windows was badgering me to do the UEFI and encryption. ("do it!, Do It... Just DO IT!", said Lucy.) I did it. I hate windows. Apparently, I won't be able to take that hard drive and slap it into another box since, that drive is apparently encrypted, per future Win 11 desires. Is this true? Out of frustration and having too many irons in the fire, I just set it aside to deal with another day.
You overprotected your PC. Encrypting your boot drive really wasn't necessary for a Windows beginner. No future mandates I'm aware of exist. It also sounds like you set a UEFI boot password too, also known as a hardware boot lock. Not sure where Windows "badgered" you to set Secure Boot and Encryption, never ran into that ever. Regardless, that's the bad news. The good news is this; 1. If you set a UEFI boot password, you need to buy a replacement power supply, install it, go into UEFI and disable the password. Don't ever use UEFI boot passwords. More trouble than it's worth. 2. Perhaps you didn't set a UEFI password and it's only Bitlocker asking during bootup. If so, place the hard drive on a USB hard drive adapter that you can plug into a USB port on a computer that has BitLocker installed. Go into disk management to set a drive letter for the largest partition on that USB drive, it normally would have been your C drive, and you can give it the letter R. It might take a few seconds to assign it a drive letter, be patient. Then go to file explorer and try to open up R drive. A BitLocker pop up should appear asking you to enter a 48 digit recovery key that Bitlocker forced you to either print, saved to Microsoft account, or saved to a file. You have access to all your data now. If you do not have any access to the recovery key, then ignore everything I've told you up to now, cause you won't get into that drive without replacing that power supply.
@@AskYourComputerGuy I'm sure your other videos will have covered it BUT M2 is only a physical spec. You have no chance of a swap working unless you have the same physical AND data interfaces. [Try replacing a 3.5" SATA with an M2 SATA]. Physically, I've seen 5.25, 3.5, 2.5, 1.8, 1.0, M2 and U2 sizes (+variations!). The related data interface types are MFM, IDE, SATA, minSATA, SAS and NVME (+variations!). Yes I know some of these are obsolete but I do have some working 5.25" MFM drives lovingly stored for posterity. The worst consequence of the confusion comes with M2+SATA and M2+NVME drives. These are completely incompatable, and worse one type will usually fit in the other slot UPSIDE DOWN which I know from bitter experience WILL destroy the SSD!
old dog, new trick here... just bought an IT-maintained Dell Vostra Desktop with, ughhhh...W11. Instead of finding all the Programs already-installed on my former (Dell 7040ssf) SSD C: drive do NOT operated (??) in the new PC, I'll do ALL of these trips. the OS is easy peasy to swap/clone (haa), but its the actual TOOLS-of-mine that matter most!! thanks for these tips!! let yas know how it goes next week :-)
You did mention the possible physical differences between two disks but you forgot to mention the logical differences between two drives - whether they are system disks or just data disks. If you are swapping system disks, even if you manage to overcome the driver incompatibilities (in linux a system disk can be swapped between different computers because they all have generic drivers for most computer components, it is in the linux kernel), you'll end up with a non activated windows. When you change major computer componentes like a motherboard, a cpu or even a gpu (graphics card), you will lose your windows activation status and that is not a minor problem.
I just tried doing this. I had gotten a new Crucial T500 nvme drive to put into my laptop computer. The T500 needed a firmware update, but the laptop had "Intel RST drivers" which treat the boot drive as a RAID. So the Crucial storage executive program would not recognize the T500 as a Crucial drive, and refused to update the firmware. So I tried putting the T500 SSD into a desktop computer with the idea of updating the firmware from there, since the desktop did not have Intel RST drivers. Well it did boot up, but there was a big delay as it loaded drivers for all the hardware in the desktop computer, which was completely different from the laptop. Also, all my registered software like Windows, MS Office and Acronis True Image had pop-up windows telling me that I would have to re-register their software. Also, the firmware update failed again. So I returned the Crucial SSD to Amazon, got a Samsung SSD that didn't have any problems with the Intel RST drivers, and it works just fine. So swapping a boot drive to a different computer CAN work, but then you may have to re-register all your software.
@@AskYourComputerGuy It was really frustrating to go through all that trouble just to update the firmware on the T500 and not be able to. Without the firmware update, the T500 had poor sequential write speeds. Crucial needs to fix that.
@MiguelDeMarchena maybe with yours, but not "as a rule". I've done it a thousand times. Have you isolated the BSOD cause? BSOD | troubleshoot & fix *ANY* Windows Blue Screen of Death th-cam.com/video/cp5qbrKrDME/w-d-xo.html
This video is very helpful. I have a question though. Is it possible to to plug an old hard drive onto a hard drive adapter usb cable to transfer files from the old hard drive onto the new one that is in a new laptop?
so dumb question, I have an old HDD that seems to be failing, its constantly buzzing/stuttering very loudly and my whole PC has been having freezes, lock ups and has been acting incredibly slow, as well as suddenly being incapable of playing games that were previously low demand, I want to swap out the hard drive to a new SSD, I already have one that holds my OS on, my main question is, if nothing on the HDD is save worthy, can I simply swap out the old HDD for a new SSD and my computer will boot still and I can just partition the new SSD?
I clone a lot of hard drives and constantly have issues when no boot device is found even though it's showing up in the BIOS. I'm using Legacy and not UEFI? The new hard drive is even first in the boot order.
@AskYourComputerGuy Forgot to say that its only in SouthEast Asia like for every 125 IDE drives there is 1 M.2 SATA drives yes this is a warehouse that sells used hardware
I would be more specific on the m.2 drives. There are sata and nvme drives and not all new boards to both in all spots as sata m.2 is being phased out. I know cause i scavenge my old drives when I build a new pc. Or an old one bites the dust.
I tried to keep it simple, just showing that m.2 looks WAY different than SATA vs IDE, for those that don't know the difference. But you're not wrong 👍
@SpaceCadet4Jesus agreed. Which is why I explained options to try in the event of a blue screen, etc. The video is designed for novices. Glsd you understand that 👍
@@AskYourComputerGuy The following doesn't apply to the OP in this comment, but it's been seen everywhere else. I just can't figure out people that watch a video and within the first few minutes say "You didn't mention every minutea that could possibly occur here, your knowledge is weak". I'd respond "Oh yes I did, at the end of the video where I stated that "All possible options not covered in this video will be covered by a future Stanford thesis and peer reviewed scientific study on my way to obtaining my PhD in the future, so please hold your breath for that". 😉
Yes of course you can if windows has a problem it's prob a driver issue ah I get what your getting at w different connections but no one calls an nvme a hard drive it's usually just called SSD or nvme but you can get an older external case for older drives
At 6 minutes into the video, if you can get to desktop, the first thing I would do is copy all user files and settings(like Google Chrome bookmarks)!! Then, if all other steps don't work, then you can install a fresh copy of windows(better idea anyways) and retransfer the files.😁
Agreed! But probably too advanced for most people. I've found pretty decent success with most swaps, but maybe I should make a follow up video. Thx for that 👍
Awesome! I understood everything you said, and it all made sense. I'll be moving my HD from one computer to another because the video display stopped working on the current computer and I understand the video card is imbedded in in the MB. I have a HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Mini Desktop Intel Core i5-6500T and I'm switching to same. It should be nearly the same computer if not exactly the same and your video covered a lot of information for the job. You even mentioned concerns I had such as "would it damage my HD by switching to another computer". It should not and I feel better. Thank you for your clarity and knowledge, DP Wish me luck!
@@AskYourComputerGuy Thank you for asking. Your video and a few others were very helpful. The verdict is... It worked perfectly well. I did the swap the day I got the used computer from an e-bay seller and with great consternation coupled with confidence from the vids, I installed the hard drive and swapped the RAM so now the just-received used HP had 16 GB of RAM and not just 8. After installing the HD and the RAM, I closed it up, hooked up the wires and turned it on. It took maybe a minute or so to boot but it did, and everything was there. I updated windows the next day and there have had no problems other than me needing to find my windows office key so it will stop warning me when I open Office docs, I am so thankful this worked and thank you for your video. This computer has been working just fine since the evening of Wed, Oct. 9, 2024. BTW, the used computer w/o hard drive cost me just under $60 and that was a lot better than about $500 for another computer which I don't quite need yet. Thanks again, DP
What about upgrading Hdd on old laptop from IDE connection to Sata connection SSD..? I want to upgrade my old IBM laptop. Any advice on how to clone OS from old hard drive to new one and are there relable converters from IDE to SATA...?
Internally, doubt they exist. Simply because the size of the laptop tray was designed just for the IDE drive. An adapter, which they do exist, would no longer allow the IDE drive to fit in that tray. Desktop pc would be a different story because there is more room inside. You can clone any drive to ahy other type of drive, but if your old laptop doesn't support SATA, it won't work. I use one of these for data transfers, might give you some ideas: amzn.to/3RTibIl
My desktop died it wouldn’t boot so I took the M2 SSD put it into an adapter and plugged it in to my other computer. The computer recognizes it, but won’t allow me to access it because I don’t have permission. What can I do and thanks for your great videos they are easy to understand
Great question! Go to the C:\users\profile folder. Right click and go to properties. You can change ownership from there and that will give you access to your files again. Or you can use Hirens boot disk and should be able to access them that way [2024 MEGA update!] 2 USB boot drives EVERY Windows user should make before it's too late! th-cam.com/video/pi3haU6h1es/w-d-xo.html
Running the toy operating system, you may get "ntldr not found." There are now freeware ways to get around that -- it tends to tie with product activation, which Debian etc. do not have or need.
Incorrect. Once the drive is wiped, you can install Windows on it. There is no motherboard or Microsoft connection until after Windows is installed. I have replaced thousands of hard drives over the years and never had an issue with activation.
I think the only components tied to the Windows license are the motherboard, CPU, and graphics card Not sure about RAM, but you can DEFINITELY replace the HDD/SSD (I’ve done it on one of my systems)
If the motherboards were made by the same manufacturer, they tend to be interchangeable. I always use ASUS motherboards, they often use compatible or identical BIOS, which makes it easier.
Respect your knowledge. I'd like to know can I put my old win 10 hdd into my fairly new Kamrui mini pc's extra ssd slot running - Alder Lake cpu and ssd running win 11. Or can I make a dual drive start up system?
So I’ve done this with and old Surface Pro hard drive and got a New (used) Surface Pro and it worked like a charm. Keyboard didn’t work but I just had to go into device manager and click scan for new hardware. However, when I right click on This PC I get an error “The Properties for this item are not available.” Any idea how to fix that?
What about the issue with windows when it locks the Software to the Bios? Working on refurbing an old Techra 520. Have purchased a M.2 adapter tray to IDE LAPTOP. Hoping for the best. Working with Win98 for this machine.
I tried taking a hard drive out of a HP laptop with windows 7 ultimate and putting it into my Toshiba laptop that has windows 7 Home pro. it loaded up ok but I could not get onto the internet because it said it could not find the network drivers ??? Not sure what to do now. I ordered a USB to either cable so I could plug it directly into my router, but I have not tried to do that as of yet. any help out there would be appreciated.
Chances are there aren't Windows 7 drivers available for the Toshiba. Worst case, you can find wifi adapters on Amazon that will work with Windows 7. Like this one: amzn.to/3VR8Sv7
Hey I saw you really help people here and are very knowledgeable. Please help me I'll forever be grateful I've spent money on my laptop to get it fixed 2 places they both took money but tried the same fix as I did, it didn't work but still had to pay. My laptop was fine until one day it suddenly froze after restarting the screen went black. Tried a few fixes and reinstalled a new windows and after a lot tries figured every time I install amd graphics driver the screen goes black, and only works if I use Microsoft basic display drivers. But the issue with basic display drivers is the brightness stays at 100% all the time can't change it, I randomly run into blue screen issues and most of the application doesn't use the nvidia graphics drivers anymore. Please help.
I'd focus on what the BSOD stop codes tell you. It could be the GPU chip, bad RAM, lots of things. Get the stop code(s) and look those up and troubleshoot from there 👍
I just removed and old ssd drive from an old pc with windows 7 on it. How can I wipe windows and everything off it so I have a completely clean ssd drive.
Driver & hardware Compatibility issues,windows activation. Outside of those minor problems i've encountered swapping hard drives is not that big of problem. Especially when troubleshooting. As for the IDE drives there are adapters to turn into a SATA drive. Good video, nice easy to understand explaination. Glad youtube recommended me to your channel. 😊 Sub earned
Hard drive types aside (RLL,MFM, SCSI, IDE, ATA, SATA) In a real operating system and a real computer the answer is yes. I refer to non-Mac, non-Wintel computers 🙂
I have 2 ASUS 534U laptops. Can I can clone one hard drive out of one laptop and install it in the other laptop? What changes do I need to make to have these two laptops operate the same?
@@AskYourComputerGuy Thank you for your speedy response. I will try cloning the hard drive and installing it. I have Windows 10 installed in both ASUS laptop. I'm thinking of switching one of them to Linux osi, since Windows 10 support will be discontinued soon. What is your opinion switching to Linux?
@randyh5465 actually have a "can average Windows users use Linux" video in the works. Stay tuned for that. From what I've seen as a Linux Noob myself, it seems doable for your average/basic Windows user. You can always try it out online at DistroSea.com
GREAT VIDEO. Thanks for posting. Quick question: let's say I get a new prebuilt tower and decide that I don't want it. Will I be able to put that hard drive back in my old computer? (in my case, my old computer still works. It's just old. Still SATA drive though
Not for the purpose of this video. A drive dock will give you accept your files, but I wanted to show that you can swap drives and have everything just "work" like it did on the old machine. I've made lots of videos mentioning external drive docks. Don't want to confuse the viewer 👍
So i took my m.2 drive out of my old desktop and put it in a new one. Everything works fine. OTHER that my PS4 controller that was paired via bluetooth to my other computer will no longer connect to the bluetooth on this new desktop. I have uninstalled the controller, the bluetooth several times. Any suggestions other than formatting that I can try to fix this issue?
Before formatting and reloading, try DriverMax free. It's helped me hundreds of times over the years figuring out wonky drivers! EVERY Windows user should do THIS *right now*! th-cam.com/video/OWPjOgAjr4o/w-d-xo.html
Love your videos. BTW, I tried to click the links on your sponsor, keysfan and it's not allowing me access to the site? Ideas? Thanks. Would like to buy a key!
@@AskYourComputerGuy tyvm for replying. When I click on the links it gives me an ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED. I use malwarebytes browser guard. Would that be overprotecting me?
@@AskYourComputerGuy it's weird. I tried in edge, chrome and brave but same issue on my main computer. I can get to the site on my phone or another computer. All I have on this system is malwarebytes and win10/logged into MS acct. WTH
@steveflanagan1488 just exit out of MalwareBytes. There is no reason the link shouldn't be work. Verified it worked before I responded the first time 👍
My laptop just has only one ssd slot. If I directly replace my ssd with a better one, do i needed to reinstall windows, or there is a better way to do it?
I would clone one drive to the other, then just swap them: How to clone a hard drive - EASY step by step walk-thru! th-cam.com/video/-89EcTjzl4M/w-d-xo.html
Great video! When I boot up it won't allow updates and I rebooted in safe mode with internet and it won't connect to the internet or allow updates. Is there any tricks to getting it on the internet?
Thanks. I'm planning to build a new workstation, But I don't want to start from scratch, and reload all my software. Good to know I can just move my M2 SSD to the new one.
Hey, i have a old dell optiplex with 2 ssd and i wanne swap them with my gaming pc hdd. They have the same connection gates. Can i just swap them or? Greetings Bubbelpoint
Yes it can be a problem. However if it doesn't immediately boot into normal mode, you can boot into safe mode, remove the display adapter then reboot. Windows will boot in normal mode and download the correct drivers and all should be fine
Thank you for all the amazing information you share on your channel. I have a question about discord. I deleted the EXE file, can I copy from another computer and paste in the discord folder to use it?
You're welcome! Theoretically, yes. Or just download it again. Your settings and channels you follow should be tied to your login, not the installed program
Question, i bough a new motherboard that will arive soon. I will swap my M2 to the new mobo to keep using as it's current PC isn't old but i'll retire it. Should i uninstall the chipset drivers before the swap or Windows will be fine to keep the old drivers even though the new ones will be the drivers in use?
Great video, as per. I don't comment very often, but am a subscriber to your channel and love how you walk us through things, step-by-step, to the end scenario. Great stuff, especially for people like me, who can work on a computer reasonably efficiently, but only really have very limited knowledge and knowhow, as to the actual hardware/maintenance side of things...I understood this video and situation, but may I ask a quick question?...Could this method be flipped. I have quite a decent spec gaming/photo-editing/graphic design laptop, and the HDD failed. Blue screen of death. Could I just buy a new HDD, take out the failed old HDD, and to all intents and purposes, end up with a fresh/new laptop up and running again? Would that work?...I ask, because I can't afford a new Laptop at the minute, and hoped just swapping in a new HDD, might just resurrect my laptop...........All my files and photos and PSDs etc, are on the old HDD, and, like a fool, I did not back them up = lesson learned....I can remember an older video of yours, where go over rescuing data on a failed hard drive, using Hirens, I believe...I will have to investigate that...and I will start backing up properly, as you also recommend, with external hard drives plus Carbonite, or similar......But the question for now is, would me putting a new HDD into my old laptop work...The laptop is an HP Omen, about 4 years old.....Sorry for the long comment, any help appreciated.
Please don't change the way you do your videos, the time you take to explain and explain is GREAT for us folks who don't know much about computers, so we welcome all the explanations.
Thank you! Don't plan on changing, just improving 👍
@@AskYourComputerGuy Improvement is also change. =)
@Turco949 👍
Thanks for the video. Even though I'm not in the beginner camp, I love videos like this because they always give me perspectives on how to handle different repair scenarios.
Since I'm the computer guy in my family, I've set up OS's on a drive on my computer, then transplanted that into the owner's computers at many times. It lets me get everything mostly right in the peace and quiet of my Fortress of Solitude, and then fine-tune the setup on the destination machine. I love each and every one of my family members, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on details while being peppered with extraneous conversation, ya' know? So swapping drives is a long-standing efficiency-enhancement for me. I can talk about cousin Stacy's wedding or Uncle Ronald's hip replacement after the job is done (without fear of mistakes) lol.
Pay no attention to those who say "get to it already" you're doing just fine sir.
I appreciate that 👍
I'm in my mid 50's I suck because I never truly bothered to learn the PC world. I know cpu's and gpu's and what drives are. However, when my computer does silly things I have no clue what to do. I recently found your channel and trying to follow your awesome way of explaining things. Yes, I am having issues with my system, and hope I find how to fix it with your videos. You are truly the only one I can understand at times. cheers.
I try my best! Thx for giving me the chance to help 👍
I swapped the hard drives on my dell laptop to a newer dell laptop ... still working great ... now on Windows 11 ... it just worked
Nice!!! Remind all those people who comment "it's not possible!" 😂
Hello, I am one of those that want to know and understand the what, the why, the but, and the how! I'm a shade or two above a novice, but I'm learning. Your time and expertise is very much appreciated! Thank you!
You are most welcome!!
6:10 Before running Windows update or any kind of driver updates, I'd recommend going into "Programs and Features" in Control Panel and removing the software that belonged to the hardware on the old laptop/desktop such as Audio, Video, Network, Chipset (motherboard). The most common issue I have seen with simply transferring a drive from the older machine to a newer one is the "Drive" and "Boot Mode" related settings in the BIOS. Like Windows was installed in the "legacy" mode on the old machine but on the new machine, BIOS is set to UEFI so it won't even see the drive yet alone Windows. Also if the drive setting was set to AHCI on the old machine and the new one is set to RAID (which is oddly the default setting on all OEM laptops), then the old drive wmight be detected but you will get an error saying "Missing operating system" best to let a pro or someone savvy help you with this type of a task.
👍
Thank you. A few random comments:
1) You do not specify if the HD you are transferring is just a data drive, or a bootable OS drive. That makes a lot of difference, doesn't it?
2) You seem to default to Windows OS only, and even more, you refer to Win 10 or 11. How about other systems? Even within Windows, there are people using earlier versions.
3) You mentioned a video card and a sound card several times. Unless one is a serious gamer or an audio/video engineer, who deals with audio/video cards these days? And most people have laptops now...
Surprisingly Windows 7 bootable drives are the most troublesome to transfer. XP, 8.1 and 10 are no problem.
@cahalsall probably from the lack of a huge built in driver database
@@AskYourComputerGuy I has to do with Windows 7 implementation of HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer)
Thank you for makimg this and saying this in particular bc I've been searching up what kinds of storage I have for years and even asked ppl at best buy and was always confused since I didn't grow up as computer savvy as I wanted
We all start somewhat. Glad to help you out 👍
I know this is a 2 month old video but wanted to caution that while yes, one can move drives from one PC to another, I've done that, however, if the system you are retiring and the drive is being moved to a new machine as a boot drive, and is a turnkey system from a computer manufacture, chances are it's an OEM OS, and if you ordered it with Office, chances are, it's also OEM, those can't transfer as I believe they are tied to the MB for the machine it was originally installed on. Thus, you will need to replace with a retail variant (OS/software from a store or online retail), THEN you can install as a fresh install, though you may have to copy/move all data files (documents etc) to another drive, install the new OS, then move data back.
As long as it's like for like (sata to sata etc) then yes, you can move drives. If not a boot drive, then the drive can be moved from computer to computer to computer all day long as long as it's working fine as they are storage/software drives only.
Yes, if you're running Linux ( but you might need to remove NVIDIA drivers first if its an AMD or Intel machine you're swapping to ).
Correct. I like that Linux doesn’t care much about HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer). But Windows sure throws a temper tantrum.
This is a good video for the novice pc user. Which is covered partway through. Starting in safe mode.
Keep the videos coming, Sir!😊
@TerryMundy thank you - much appreciated 👍
Windows7 setup had an undocumented/unsupported parameter to remove all drivers for hardware, I think it was "/reconfigure" ?
You then shut down the system and plug in the harddrive to the new pc and boot up, was very slick but officially unsupported.
Could also be used with tools to transfer the partitions to a new harddrive.
Interesting! You taught me something 👍
@@AskYourComputerGuy Could have been "/unconfigure" was a few years ago and couldnt find my notes, test if you have a vm somewhere.
I've used it on my windows7 setup that ran on different hardware for over 10 years which saw one motherboard/cpu swap.
Yes. If it isn't a system drive, then it is plug and play compatible (SATA or IDE adapter, of course). New versions of Windows can readjust(repair) itself to new hardware more often than not, so even that is usually possible, not that I would be that ham fisted about a system change myself. Always start fresh while you are at it. It's work, but nothing done right is easy.
👍
For Win 7, the DVD has to be inserted, from which the Windows was installed. Then the win will run, and will remain activated, it activates automatically again without asking for the dvd key. For me, it needed more retries before the windows accepted the other laptop, and by inserting the dvd, the windows activated automatically.
videos are of good advice, people have saved so much money, and effort .
I appreciate that
For windows there is another option (more like the final option) if you're trying to set yourself up on a new pc. It's for those that are willing to do a little extra work and spend some money.
If you purchased a new PC (or if you're building one - and installing to a new HD)
You can buy a USB hard drive docking station for sata drives. They're around $40 in price.
You boot up to your new version of windows and attach the docking station with the old HD inserted. It will show up in the windows file manager app.
Then just tunnel into it through its file system --> Windows ---> users ----> "Your user name" ---> to your Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos and Downloads folders
Just copy all their contents over to your new windows copy respective folders. Hopefully, you also were mindful enough (prior to doing this) to have made a .txt list of all the programs you had installed and exported an html file of your web browser bookmarks - to copy over too - to finish the new setup.
Yes that works well for transferring files...but, when you have a proprietary program and don't have the original software, this is the best method of you don't already have a backup clone of that drive 👍
i did it several times. both on windows and linux. except for one time, it worked with no problem.
It's not always a guarantee, but it does work more often than not! Thanks for sharing 👍
Well done as always. I was curious - especially now that your viewers have grown so much (116K ftw!), who do YOU watch for education or entertainment? What channels or creators does The Computer Guy trust?
Asking the barber who cuts HIS hair? 😅
I got a new laptop and I just did that. Put my old laptop's SSD (nvme m.2) into the new laptop. I needed to fix a bios setting VMD or VDM something related to RAID, had to uninstall old drivers, install new drivers and now it works. Saved me a ton of setting up windows and apps on it! Took me about 2-3h (rests for googling and thinking included).
+had to buy a new windows key online since completely new hardware didn't let me use the old Windows 10 license.
👍
you can if you're using Linux, such as Linux Mint! I install a system on a drive than put it in my old laptop, works fine. Windows has a serial number on the drive so it may not work.
You're correct on all counts. Except the serial number on the drive. I've swapped hundreds of drives in my career. The only thing that ever prevents it from working is software. Which, as you say, would not be problem with Linux. So +1 Linux 👍
I've never had any luck with reset and the blue screen tools, they've always let me down basically.
Sorry for that
The OP explained it perfectly.
Another great video!! Question: So many YT producers say, "The video link is up top here" but we never see anything on the screen. Why is that? It happens a lot!
It's an info card. TH-cam has had glitches with he cards not showing. Sometimes the creator removes the card after publishing, or forgets to add it
Got a new laptop, came with 512gb SSD. Older laptop has 1TB SSD, want to swap. Both identical spec, other than size. Put the 1tb in the new laptop, sign in screen says to reset my PIN, 'click to reset', no problem. Problem is the mouse doesn't work, but only on this screen, pad and external. No cursor on screen, no Enter/Esc key response. Caps/Num lock can toggle so keys work. Put the 512 back and all is fine. Went back and disabled Bitlocker on the 1T from the old, same issue. It accepted the recovery key, which I of course used the keys to put in, hit Enter, all good. Sign in screen, rinse and repeat
That is odd. Mouse and keyboard functions are the most basic of Windows built-in drivers. Have you tried accessing safe mode to see if it works there?
At 1:02, just get a cheap external adapter to USB and copy over all of your data. I use EaseUS Disk Copy to clone a drive, no mater what the physical connection.
At 7:29, the problem here, is that you won't be able to get a network connection! So use another computer and get the manufactures driver for that PC . Now boot and get the rest of your drives.
It's not about copying data. It's whether or not you can swap a drive. If you proprietary software installed that you don't have the original media for anymore, this is why it would be relevant.
Copying data is not going to do anything, other than put that data on a different medium, which still won't boot and blue screens because the drivers are crashing by not recognizing the hardware.
Sometimes you can move a fully installed Windows from one computer to another, albeit with a few issues, but mostly it doesn't work and a clean install on the other machine is a much better route to go.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus - If you CLONE the drive, it will BOOT! It copies EVERYTHING! I do it all the time. You DON'T know what your talking about!! There's a difference between COPYING and CLONING!
@@tubeDude48 Are you talking about Windows, about moving the OS from one computer to another different computer with a different motherboard?
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus - Your just not getting it! There is a difference between Cloning and Coping! Enough said!!
Once after contemplating this and trying to make an informed decision, I said "f it" and plugged the drive in as a second drive. Yes, it handled it good enough to use. Thanks.
Perfect! Make sure to let all the others know who swear in the comments that "it won't work!" 😂👍
Something else I recommend is using ddrive to remove all GPU drivers completely in case the previous disk has drivers for some other GPU
Thanks so much for all of your excellent computer advice. I have started a new pc build and this video is of great help to me... Keep up the great work.
Good deal! And good luck!!!
Not even mention the Bios/UEFI environment and MBR/GPT partitions situations.
👍
You make good videos and you look like one of the IT guys at my school
Thanks, I appreciate it! Hopefully your buddy isn't a dork like me 😂
He's really nice
Very technical here and all that, but just haven't followed gear too much in recent years. I see stuff here and there and haven't been under a rock though. Very quickly: If I wanted to build new system and only concerned with MOBO, MEMORY and CPU, 32 GB total DDRx at least, what do I start looking at for best bang of buck. No other considerations necessary. I got all that. Just want to know what YOU all would say. As a basic guide to question: Not looking for very high or very low end. 2 years old or so is ok and probably preferred.
I'd focus on CPU first, then motherboard, SSD vs HDD, then RAM. The last 2 are much simpler upgrades
You can buy a SATA-to-IDE adapter (and vice-versa) for a few dollars. (Not for a laptop obviously for space reasons.)
Of course, but this video isn't about accessing your files off a different hard drive. It's will your old drive work on a different computer so you don't have to completely start over with customization. Of course if you can't find another IDE system, that could very well be your only option 🤷♂️
Is actually swapping drives really a general real life case though? I mean, if you already have a functioning laptop, wouldn't you just want to access the data of the old drive, rather than swapping it?
I would honestly just recommend a SATA or M.2 to USB adapter and just add the drive that way and simply transfer any important data to the current already installed drive.
Perhaps yes. But say for example you have proprietary software on dead pc and you don't have the original software. I've had that happen to clients and this is a great way to at least get back up and running...followed by "let's clone this drive now please" 👍
Windows XP and 7 is generally hope and pray. Windows 10 and 11 - no problem.
Yes you can if it's Linux, I move my hard drive from my laptop to my desktop using LMDE, and it just works.
You are correct, I have done this even going between AMD and Intel based systems.
I can confirm this on Linux Mint on 256GB USB flash drive. moved between N5105 NUC, to N100 NUC, to MSI gaming laptop, to MSI netbook, to N95 NUC, in any order
I've had a 50/50 success rate with setting up a M2 Drive and then snapping it into a new PC with my line of Linux. Yours is Debian based. Mine is Arch based.
I mean that I use my current PC to install a particular distro onto a new external M2 drive with the intent of putting that into a new PC.
The only problem is that as the install was going on, it is reading all the components in the current PC and not the components in the new PC - so, sometimes it boots up just fine in the new PC and sometimes it doesn't.
Linux does not tie itself to the hardware in a machine like Windows does, so yes, this is entirely possible with Linux.
Windows, on the other hand, does everything it can to tie itself to all the hardware in a machine, so good luck sticking that drive in another machine to boot from.
Microsoft wants you to buy a Windows license for every machine you own. Product Activation enforces it. It is not in their interest to allow you to run a single copy of Windows on more than one PC.
I think one very important thing you're forgetting about Computer Guy, is that doing a computer swap with a HD will cause it to deactivate your license, unless you have the actual license key to put in. If you have a digital license, MS will say sorry can't do that and it won't reactivate your license!
The old hard drive has an activated Windows on it. I've never run into that issue when swapping drives unless you replace the motherboard *after* swapping the drives.
@@AskYourComputerGuy Well you said you were switching computers, putting the HD into another computer, what's the difference, no different than switching MB's. If your MB dies and you put in a new MB then it won't be activated either.
@@wally6193 I think it matters how it got the key also. For example, if it was OEM and it has already been through an upgrade, they cut it off, and you have to get another key. This is my (limited) research and experience.
@@louf7178 it's like I said, if you own the disk/key then you're good, but yes if it was a digital key from an update/upgrade from win 7/8 to win 10 then it will deactivate. And yes probably from OEM too if it was upgraded to win 10 through updates, but OEM machines that came with win10 usually have a win 10 sticker on the bottom with the key on it. That's my experience.
I have with a ssd that had Windows 10 installed. It worked without any problems.
Nice!
I upgraded the Hard Drive in my older Imac for a 1Tb Drive which had Windows installed for a PC and was Gobsmacked when it started booting Windows and was completely useable! 😂 Anthony - Birmingham/UK 🇬🇧
LOL don't tell anyone that it will actually work 😂
If it's your OS drive and you have a retail version of Windows, yes you can move the drive. You have to jump through a couple of hoops, but it can be done.
I guess we're not covering the T2 chip issue here? Yes, older drive, pre T2 wo/Bitlocker- should swap in ok --- but a Bitlocked drive in a 'foreign' computer with a T2- you better have your recovery key handy.
Always worth a try. Most of my viewers wouldn't know the T2 chip from the T-1000 Terminator. I try to keep it simple 😂👍
Perhaps an "advanced question" from a long time Linux user experimenting with Win 10;
I decided to roll the dice on one of my systems and went ahead and enabled UEFI secure boot and I believe I encrypted my hard drive, per future Win 11 mandates.
I have to enter a password after boot, before the OS launches and I have to then enter my MS pin.
The PSU died in that system. I had another box I was going to throw the hard drive into, however, it's theoretically encrypted. I think I presently have a brick.
I did this for two reasons:
1) My Windows days ended in 2013 with Vista, when I switched to Linux.
2) Having emerged from essentially dial up recently to Starlink, I got the tech bug and I've been educating myself on Windows. On the "bricked" system, Windows was badgering me to do the UEFI and encryption. ("do it!, Do It... Just DO IT!", said Lucy.) I did it. I hate windows.
Apparently, I won't be able to take that hard drive and slap it into another box since, that drive is apparently encrypted, per future Win 11 desires. Is this true?
Out of frustration and having too many irons in the fire, I just set it aside to deal with another day.
You overprotected your PC. Encrypting your boot drive really wasn't necessary for a Windows beginner. No future mandates I'm aware of exist. It also sounds like you set a UEFI boot password too, also known as a hardware boot lock. Not sure where Windows "badgered" you to set Secure Boot and Encryption, never ran into that ever.
Regardless, that's the bad news.
The good news is this;
1. If you set a UEFI boot password, you need to buy a replacement power supply, install it, go into UEFI and disable the password. Don't ever use UEFI boot passwords. More trouble than it's worth.
2. Perhaps you didn't set a UEFI password and it's only Bitlocker asking during bootup. If so, place the hard drive on a USB hard drive adapter that you can plug into a USB port on a computer that has BitLocker installed. Go into disk management to set a drive letter for the largest partition on that USB drive, it normally would have been your C drive, and you can give it the letter R. It might take a few seconds to assign it a drive letter, be patient. Then go to file explorer and try to open up R drive. A BitLocker pop up should appear asking you to enter a 48 digit recovery key that Bitlocker forced you to either print, saved to Microsoft account, or saved to a file.
You have access to all your data now.
If you do not have any access to the recovery key, then ignore everything I've told you up to now, cause you won't get into that drive without replacing that power supply.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus Thank you!
I'm going to order a new PSU this coming week.
I'm happy to post here for updated result.
Thanks again!
Yeah the drive will still be encrypted even if you swap it into another PC 🥲
The M.2 SSD will be a little faster than the SATA SSD. As you said, only newer motherboards have an M.2 slot
Agreed. Wasn't focused on speed so much as "possible options". I made A IDE vs SATA vs m.2 video a while back. I'm sure I'll get asked 😂
@@AskYourComputerGuy I'm sure your other videos will have covered it BUT M2 is only a physical spec. You have no chance of a swap working unless you have the same physical AND data interfaces. [Try replacing a 3.5" SATA with an M2 SATA].
Physically, I've seen 5.25, 3.5, 2.5, 1.8, 1.0, M2 and U2 sizes (+variations!). The related data interface types are MFM, IDE, SATA, minSATA, SAS and NVME (+variations!). Yes I know some of these are obsolete but I do have some working 5.25" MFM drives lovingly stored for posterity.
The worst consequence of the confusion comes with M2+SATA and M2+NVME drives. These are completely incompatable, and worse one type will usually fit in the other slot UPSIDE DOWN which I know from bitter experience WILL destroy the SSD!
Just what I was looking for @6:10 Thanks
You're welcome!
old dog, new trick here... just bought an IT-maintained Dell Vostra Desktop with, ughhhh...W11. Instead of finding all the Programs already-installed on my former (Dell 7040ssf) SSD C: drive do NOT operated (??) in the new PC, I'll do ALL of these trips. the OS is easy peasy to swap/clone (haa), but its the actual TOOLS-of-mine that matter most!! thanks for these tips!! let yas know how it goes next week :-)
You did mention the possible physical differences between two disks but you forgot to mention the logical differences between two drives - whether they are system disks or just data disks. If you are swapping system disks, even if you manage to overcome the driver incompatibilities (in linux a system disk can be swapped between different computers because they all have generic drivers for most computer components, it is in the linux kernel), you'll end up with a non activated windows. When you change major computer componentes like a motherboard, a cpu or even a gpu (graphics card), you will lose your windows activation status and that is not a minor problem.
I just tried doing this. I had gotten a new Crucial T500 nvme drive to put into my laptop computer. The T500 needed a firmware update, but the laptop had "Intel RST drivers" which treat the boot drive as a RAID. So the Crucial storage executive program would not recognize the T500 as a Crucial drive, and refused to update the firmware. So I tried putting the T500 SSD into a desktop computer with the idea of updating the firmware from there, since the desktop did not have Intel RST drivers. Well it did boot up, but there was a big delay as it loaded drivers for all the hardware in the desktop computer, which was completely different from the laptop. Also, all my registered software like Windows, MS Office and Acronis True Image had pop-up windows telling me that I would have to re-register their software. Also, the firmware update failed again. So I returned the Crucial SSD to Amazon, got a Samsung SSD that didn't have any problems with the Intel RST drivers, and it works just fine. So swapping a boot drive to a different computer CAN work, but then you may have to re-register all your software.
Thanks for sharing your story. I've personally never run into that issue but I suppose it's possible
@@AskYourComputerGuy It was really frustrating to go through all that trouble just to update the firmware on the T500 and not be able to. Without the firmware update, the T500 had poor sequential write speeds. Crucial needs to fix that.
I don't use/have SATA UHCI/ACPI drivers. I swap hard drives often.
It can be great to know how to force a windows to boot with generic drivers by editing or removing something from the system on the old disk.
There is. It's called safe mode 👍
@@AskYourComputerGuy safe mode do not work when you swap a drive to another computer all you'll get is BSOD
@MiguelDeMarchena maybe with yours, but not "as a rule". I've done it a thousand times. Have you isolated the BSOD cause?
BSOD | troubleshoot & fix *ANY* Windows Blue Screen of Death
th-cam.com/video/cp5qbrKrDME/w-d-xo.html
Great video, really helpful thanks!👍👍
This video is very helpful. I have a question though. Is it possible to to plug an old hard drive onto a hard drive adapter usb cable to transfer files from the old hard drive onto the new one that is in a new laptop?
Correct. Anything similar to this that is usb should work!
amzn.to/3N5HOTE
so dumb question, I have an old HDD that seems to be failing, its constantly buzzing/stuttering very loudly and my whole PC has been having freezes, lock ups and has been acting incredibly slow, as well as suddenly being incapable of playing games that were previously low demand, I want to swap out the hard drive to a new SSD, I already have one that holds my OS on, my main question is, if nothing on the HDD is save worthy, can I simply swap out the old HDD for a new SSD and my computer will boot still and I can just partition the new SSD?
Theoretically, yes
I clone a lot of hard drives and constantly have issues when no boot device is found even though it's showing up in the BIOS. I'm using Legacy and not UEFI? The new hard drive is even first in the boot order.
Maybe RST drivers not loaded?
You have to remember too that M.2 isn't just NVMe SATA used to have M.2 form factor and oddly enough much rarer than IDE for some reason
👍
@AskYourComputerGuy Forgot to say that its only in SouthEast Asia like for every 125 IDE drives there is 1 M.2 SATA drives yes this is a warehouse that sells used hardware
I would be more specific on the m.2 drives. There are sata and nvme drives and not all new boards to both in all spots as sata m.2 is being phased out. I know cause i scavenge my old drives when I build a new pc. Or an old one bites the dust.
I tried to keep it simple, just showing that m.2 looks WAY different than SATA vs IDE, for those that don't know the difference. But you're not wrong 👍
There are a lot of little discrepancies and details he could have gone into but you can see this video is not meant to extensively cover all bases.
@SpaceCadet4Jesus agreed. Which is why I explained options to try in the event of a blue screen, etc. The video is designed for novices. Glsd you understand that 👍
@@AskYourComputerGuy The following doesn't apply to the OP in this comment, but it's been seen everywhere else.
I just can't figure out people that watch a video and within the first few minutes say "You didn't mention every minutea that could possibly occur here, your knowledge is weak".
I'd respond "Oh yes I did, at the end of the video where I stated that "All possible options not covered in this video will be covered by a future Stanford thesis and peer reviewed scientific study on my way to obtaining my PhD in the future, so please hold your breath for that". 😉
Yes of course you can if windows has a problem it's prob a driver issue ah I get what your getting at w different connections but no one calls an nvme a hard drive it's usually just called SSD or nvme but you can get an older external case for older drives
Also if the version of windows is still supported if older you won't be able to update.
Good report, very informative.
At 6 minutes into the video, if you can get to desktop, the first thing I would do is copy all user files and settings(like Google Chrome bookmarks)!!
Then, if all other steps don't work, then you can install a fresh copy of windows(better idea anyways) and retransfer the files.😁
Agreed! But probably too advanced for most people. I've found pretty decent success with most swaps, but maybe I should make a follow up video. Thx for that 👍
I remember having to change the settings, jumpers, on my new IDE drive to read as primary and CD as secondary.
Awesome! I understood everything you said, and it all made sense. I'll be moving my HD from one computer to another because the video display stopped working on the current computer and I understand the video card is imbedded in in the MB. I have a HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Mini Desktop Intel Core i5-6500T and I'm switching to same. It should be nearly the same computer if not exactly the same and your video covered a lot of information for the job. You even mentioned concerns I had such as "would it damage my HD by switching to another computer". It should not and I feel better. Thank you for your clarity and knowledge, DP Wish me luck!
I appreciate your comment and your support! It’s been three weeks, what’s the verdict?
@@AskYourComputerGuy Thank you for asking. Your video and a few others were very helpful. The verdict is... It worked perfectly well. I did the swap the day I got the used computer from an e-bay seller and with great consternation coupled with confidence from the vids, I installed the hard drive and swapped the RAM so now the just-received used HP had 16 GB of RAM and not just 8. After installing the HD and the RAM, I closed it up, hooked up the wires and turned it on. It took maybe a minute or so to boot but it did, and everything was there. I updated windows the next day and there have had no problems other than me needing to find my windows office key so it will stop warning me when I open Office docs, I am so thankful this worked and thank you for your video. This computer has been working just fine since the evening of Wed, Oct. 9, 2024. BTW, the used computer w/o hard drive cost me just under $60 and that was a lot better than about $500 for another computer which I don't quite need yet. Thanks again, DP
@danpena134 nice! Always love a good success story! Thx for sharing
What about upgrading Hdd on old laptop from IDE connection to Sata connection SSD..?
I want to upgrade my old IBM laptop. Any advice on how to clone OS from old hard drive to new one and are there relable converters from IDE to SATA...?
Internally, doubt they exist. Simply because the size of the laptop tray was designed just for the IDE drive. An adapter, which they do exist, would no longer allow the IDE drive to fit in that tray. Desktop pc would be a different story because there is more room inside. You can clone any drive to ahy other type of drive, but if your old laptop doesn't support SATA, it won't work. I use one of these for data transfers, might give you some ideas:
amzn.to/3RTibIl
My desktop died it wouldn’t boot so I took the M2 SSD put it into an adapter and plugged it in to my other computer. The computer recognizes it, but won’t allow me to access it because I don’t have permission. What can I do and thanks for your great videos they are easy to understand
Great question! Go to the C:\users\profile folder. Right click and go to properties. You can change ownership from there and that will give you access to your files again. Or you can use Hirens boot disk and should be able to access them that way
[2024 MEGA update!] 2 USB boot drives EVERY Windows user should make before it's too late!
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Running the toy operating system, you may get "ntldr not found." There are now freeware ways to get around that -- it tends to tie with product activation, which Debian etc. do not have or need.
👍
The Windows O/S MAY NOT allow a clean boot since it may have been a manufacturer install and is associated with your motherboard.
Incorrect. Once the drive is wiped, you can install Windows on it. There is no motherboard or Microsoft connection until after Windows is installed. I have replaced thousands of hard drives over the years and never had an issue with activation.
I think the only components tied to the Windows license are the motherboard, CPU, and graphics card
Not sure about RAM, but you can DEFINITELY replace the HDD/SSD (I’ve done it on one of my systems)
If the motherboards were made by the same manufacturer, they tend to be interchangeable. I always use ASUS motherboards, they often use compatible or identical BIOS, which makes it easier.
Pls cant you help me i dont have arrow and black screen know ...😢😢😢
I would start here:
How to fix ANY Windows problem with the built-in repair tool
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Thanks for posting this Great information.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the support 👍
Respect your knowledge. I'd like to know can I put my old win 10 hdd into my fairly new Kamrui mini pc's extra ssd slot running - Alder Lake cpu and ssd running win 11. Or can I make a dual drive start up system?
Great video and information. Thank you. 👍😊
Glad it was helpful!
So I’ve done this with and old Surface Pro hard drive and got a New (used) Surface Pro and it worked like a charm. Keyboard didn’t work but I just had to go into device manager and click scan for new hardware. However, when I right click on This PC I get an error “The Properties for this item are not available.” Any idea how to fix that?
What about the issue with windows when it locks the Software to the Bios? Working on refurbing an old Techra 520. Have purchased a M.2 adapter tray to IDE LAPTOP. Hoping for the best. Working with Win98 for this machine.
You can use an IDE drive on SATA computer using an adapter.
True 👍
I tried taking a hard drive out of a HP laptop with windows 7 ultimate and putting it into my Toshiba laptop that has windows 7 Home pro. it loaded up ok but I could not get onto the internet because it said it could not find the network drivers ??? Not sure what to do now. I ordered a USB to either cable so I could plug it directly into my router, but I have not tried to do that as of yet. any help out there would be appreciated.
Chances are there aren't Windows 7 drivers available for the Toshiba. Worst case, you can find wifi adapters on Amazon that will work with Windows 7. Like this one: amzn.to/3VR8Sv7
@@AskYourComputerGuy I will take a look
Thank you very much.
You need drivers to load the OS
The best thing to do is image the drive and load the image onto a new blank drive.
Ideally, yes. But Windows basic drivers often work. Not always, but often enough to at least try
Hey I saw you really help people here and are very knowledgeable.
Please help me I'll forever be grateful I've spent money on my laptop to get it fixed 2 places they both took money but tried the same fix as I did, it didn't work but still had to pay.
My laptop was fine until one day it suddenly froze after restarting the screen went black. Tried a few fixes and reinstalled a new windows and after a lot tries figured every time I install amd graphics driver the screen goes black, and only works if I use Microsoft basic display drivers. But the issue with basic display drivers is the brightness stays at 100% all the time can't change it, I randomly run into blue screen issues and most of the application doesn't use the nvidia graphics drivers anymore. Please help.
I'd focus on what the BSOD stop codes tell you. It could be the GPU chip, bad RAM, lots of things. Get the stop code(s) and look those up and troubleshoot from there 👍
Will the software apps on work on the old drive work when installed on the new computer? For instance, will Photoshop still work properly?
Absolutely, assuming the clone was successful. Everything would be identical to your "old" setup
I swapped the SSDs from my Core i5 CPU to Core 2 Duo. Both have Windows 11.
I just removed and old ssd drive from an old pc with windows 7 on it. How can I wipe windows and everything off it so I have a completely clean ssd drive.
Like this!
How to WIPE your hard drive and DELETE viruses from your PC!
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Driver & hardware Compatibility issues,windows activation. Outside of those minor problems i've encountered swapping hard drives is not that big of problem. Especially when troubleshooting. As for the IDE drives there are adapters to turn into a SATA drive. Good video, nice easy to understand explaination. Glad youtube recommended me to your channel. 😊 Sub earned
I appreciate that 👍
Hard drive types aside (RLL,MFM, SCSI, IDE, ATA, SATA) In a real operating system and a real computer the answer is yes. I refer to non-Mac, non-Wintel computers 🙂
I have 2 ASUS 534U laptops. Can I can clone one hard drive out of one laptop and install it in the other laptop? What changes do I need to make to have these two laptops operate the same?
Yes you can clone it. As stated, it often works, but sometimes it does not work. Good news is does not hurt to try
@@AskYourComputerGuy Thank you for your speedy response. I will try cloning the hard drive and installing it. I have Windows 10 installed in both ASUS laptop. I'm thinking of switching one of them to Linux osi, since Windows 10 support will be discontinued soon. What is your opinion switching to Linux?
@randyh5465 actually have a "can average Windows users use Linux" video in the works. Stay tuned for that. From what I've seen as a Linux Noob myself, it seems doable for your average/basic Windows user. You can always try it out online at DistroSea.com
@@AskYourComputerGuy Thanks for all your help!!!
You bet 👍
How can i get the files from older pc that doesn't open anymore? Can I just buy external casing for that hard drive?
GREAT VIDEO. Thanks for posting.
Quick question: let's say I get a new prebuilt tower and decide that I don't want it. Will I be able to put that hard drive back in my old computer?
(in my case, my old computer still works. It's just old. Still SATA drive though
Absolutely!
I have an M.2 SSD from a MSI Gaming laptop, but was wondering if I could put it into a Lenovo Legion 5?
If both machines support m.2, you can absolutely try. It's always 50/50 but if it works, it will save you a ton of headache 👍
No mention of drive docks?
Not for the purpose of this video. A drive dock will give you accept your files, but I wanted to show that you can swap drives and have everything just "work" like it did on the old machine. I've made lots of videos mentioning external drive docks. Don't want to confuse the viewer 👍
Can you please advise if I Restore Window to factory setting will it be as just disk space empty and as it as when it was bought?/ thank you
That is correct! Make sure you backup first though!
So i took my m.2 drive out of my old desktop and put it in a new one. Everything works fine. OTHER that my PS4 controller that was paired via bluetooth to my other computer will no longer connect to the bluetooth on this new desktop. I have uninstalled the controller, the bluetooth several times. Any suggestions other than formatting that I can try to fix this issue?
Before formatting and reloading, try DriverMax free. It's helped me hundreds of times over the years figuring out wonky drivers!
EVERY Windows user should do THIS *right now*!
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Love your videos. BTW, I tried to click the links on your sponsor, keysfan and it's not allowing me access to the site? Ideas? Thanks. Would like to buy a key!
Thanks! Just checked, this works. You can get any key from this link:
www.keysfan.com/windows-11-professional-key.html?ksf=aycg1
@@AskYourComputerGuy tyvm for replying. When I click on the links it gives me an ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED. I use malwarebytes browser guard. Would that be overprotecting me?
@steveflanagan1488 possible! Disable it for a minute and try again
@@AskYourComputerGuy it's weird. I tried in edge, chrome and brave but same issue on my main computer. I can get to the site on my phone or another computer. All I have on this system is malwarebytes and win10/logged into MS acct. WTH
@steveflanagan1488 just exit out of MalwareBytes. There is no reason the link shouldn't be work. Verified it worked before I responded the first time 👍
Your video is very accurate.
Glad you think so!
I like this video because the sponsor of this video. Tha k you sponsor. ❤
Hoping you liked more than just the sponsor 😂
My laptop just has only one ssd slot. If I directly replace my ssd with a better one, do i needed to reinstall windows, or there is a better way to do it?
You need to clone the old drive to the new one.
I would clone one drive to the other, then just swap them:
How to clone a hard drive - EASY step by step walk-thru!
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Great video! When I boot up it won't allow updates and I rebooted in safe mode with internet and it won't connect to the internet or allow updates. Is there any tricks to getting it on the internet?
I would remove the network adapter, then restart. Let Windows redetect and install it again
Can different hardware create a problem with Windows activation?
Not a problem, per se. You might just have to reactivate with a major hardware upgrade
Thanks. I'm planning to build a new workstation, But I don't want to start from scratch, and reload all my software. Good to know I can just move my M2 SSD to the new one.
Go for it!
Hey, i have a old dell optiplex with 2 ssd and i wanne swap them with my gaming pc hdd. They have the same connection gates. Can i just swap them or? Greetings Bubbelpoint
Generally, yes. The good news is that it will either work or not. Won't hurt the original drives in any way
THE VGA /GRAPHICS DRIVER IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM USUALLY CAUSED BSOD OR NON BOOTING
Yes it can be a problem. However if it doesn't immediately boot into normal mode, you can boot into safe mode, remove the display adapter then reboot. Windows will boot in normal mode and download the correct drivers and all should be fine
Thank you for all the amazing information you share on your channel. I have a question about discord. I deleted the EXE file, can I copy from another computer and paste in the discord folder to use it?
You're welcome! Theoretically, yes. Or just download it again. Your settings and channels you follow should be tied to your login, not the installed program
Question, i bough a new motherboard that will arive soon.
I will swap my M2 to the new mobo to keep using as it's current PC isn't old but i'll retire it.
Should i uninstall the chipset drivers before the swap or Windows will be fine to keep the old drivers even though the new ones will be the drivers in use?
I wouldn't. If the drivers aren't needed, Windows will load standard drivers then update them in Windows update 👍
@@AskYourComputerGuy Thanks :)
👍
Great video, as per. I don't comment very often, but am a subscriber to your channel and love how you walk us through things, step-by-step, to the end scenario. Great stuff, especially for people like me, who can work on a computer reasonably efficiently, but only really have very limited knowledge and knowhow, as to the actual hardware/maintenance side of things...I understood this video and situation, but may I ask a quick question?...Could this method be flipped. I have quite a decent spec gaming/photo-editing/graphic design laptop, and the HDD failed. Blue screen of death. Could I just buy a new HDD, take out the failed old HDD, and to all intents and purposes, end up with a fresh/new laptop up and running again? Would that work?...I ask, because I can't afford a new Laptop at the minute, and hoped just swapping in a new HDD, might just resurrect my laptop...........All my files and photos and PSDs etc, are on the old HDD, and, like a fool, I did not back them up = lesson learned....I can remember an older video of yours, where go over rescuing data on a failed hard drive, using Hirens, I believe...I will have to investigate that...and I will start backing up properly, as you also recommend, with external hard drives plus Carbonite, or similar......But the question for now is, would me putting a new HDD into my old laptop work...The laptop is an HP Omen, about 4 years old.....Sorry for the long comment, any help appreciated.
To answer your question, yes you can 👍
@@AskYourComputerGuy Thanks so much for the reply...that's good news!
Cheers🙏👍
You bet, my friend 💪
i have 2 different computer use same ssd drive in both only have to put in my pin number to verify to work
👍
Used to be able to do this on a win3.11 desktops....
I've done it as recently as Windows 10. Jury's still out on Windows 11 with all of it's fancy pants shenanigans under the hood