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May 24th, 2021 21:00
Swapping hard disks in computers
I suspect I know the answer to this but here goes anyhow! I have two computers first one is an optiplex 760 with windows 7 and size 250gb. Second Inspiron 660 with windows 8.1 installed on a 1tb disk.
question: can I simply swap the two drives? I need the 1tb size with windows 8.1 installed on the optiplex in order to support a specific piece of software that doesn’t play nice with Win 7. Or must I wipe the drives and reinstall the operating system on the appropriate drive(s)
Thanks for any help
Poe
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bj11213
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May 25th, 2021 01:00
I very much doubt that it would work: there is a big risk with swapping system disks between computers even when they're running the same operating system.
I would suggest your best course of action is to obtain a new (or reconditioned from a trusted source) 1TB or larger drive and migrate the Win 8.1 system on to it - if your system has a free drive bay you can do this easily otherwise you'll need the temporary use of a external drive dock to do the job. CloneZilla or Aomei Partition Assist (both free) will do the job, clone the 250 GB drive to the 1 TB drive then simply expand the system partition to use the unused space. (CloneZilla is much more flexible but Aomei Partition Assist is probably easier for users who aren't confident outside Windows.)
If your system has a free HD bay then simply adding a second HDD should also be considered (and is less work in the short term) but please note that 1TB HDDs are generally much faster than 250GB drives, especially if you get one of the "hybrid" types (speeded up by having an 8GB SSD cache onboard) or go for a solid state drive (though these are still expensive in 1TB size).
FWIW my Optiplex 9020 SSF system - which has only one 3.5" drive bay - is running a 250 GB SSD and a 2TB 2.5" hard drive mounted in a 2x2.5" to 3.5" adapter - and I still have use of the optical drive as there are 3 SATA ports on the motherboard. That way I have speed, capacity and flexibility: best of all worlds. (And Win 7 & linux are coexisting on the 250GB system drive)