How to copy an entire hard drive?

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bill of oz

Member
i have 2 working computers, lets just call them computer A and computer B

on computer A i have a fully functional operating system, plus some of my own files, documents, pictures, games, etc etc,

on computer B i have a fully functional operating system (different from computer A) and that is all

my question is.....how can i copy the entire contents of computer A's drive (including the operating system) to computer B's drive??

if i have to format computer B's drive and lose the operating system that is currently on it, that is fine, i want to use the operating system from computer A anyway,

i realize it would be easier to just swap the hard drives, but without going into a long explanation i want to leave the drives as is,
 
Are computers A & B identical hardware wise? You may run into driver issues if you simply clone A to B. In addition, you will need to re-activate Windows (can't have same license on 2 machines).
 
You can't use the operating system from one computer and transfer it to another computer. You will need to install windows fresh and you will need a new license to run the operating system.
 
thanks.....i have decided i am just going to put the drive from computer A into computer B, so it will have both drives,

i will use the operating system from computer B and just have the A drive to access my files, but is it possible to flip back and forth between the operating systems on each drive?
 
bill of oz said:
thanks.....i have decided i am just going to put the drive from computer A into computer B, so it will have both drives,

i will use the operating system from computer B and just have the A drive to access my files, but is it possible to flip back and forth between the operating systems on each drive?
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That won't work, it will most likely blue screen due to major hardware changes between the two.

Also, Windows detects hardware changes and if it detects a major change it will ask you to re-activate. You can only re-activate so many times.
 
WRXGuy1 said:
That won't work, it will most likely blue screen due to major hardware changes between the two.

Also, Windows detects hardware changes and if it detects a major change it will ask you to re-activate. You can only re-activate so many times.
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i just want to clarify which part of my question you are referring to.....

is it okay if i install the drive into the other computer as a slave just to access my files?
 
bill of oz said:
i just want to clarify which part of my question you are referring to.....

is it okay if i install the drive into the other computer as a slave just to access my files?
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Yes you can do that, you may have some permission issues that will need to be fixed after moving an OS drive from one computer to a second computer as a slave.
 
I don't know why some here said that you cannot transfer OS and all other data from one computer to another and make it work properly,but you can.It is perfectly possible and it will work perfectly fine.
I did it tons of times.
If I do a fresh install of EVERYTHING on ALL computers I have,it would take me few months to adjust everything manually on all of them and that's just dumb and a huge waste of time lol.

The ONLY problem you will run into is licensing.Even that can be super easily solved,but the way of doing it is unfortunately illegal so I cannot write how to solve that in here...unfortunately.

So anyway YES you CAN use that second drive as a data drive in another computer.Just be sure to copy all important data of it first and then reformat it and you are good to go.





Cheers!
 
Lets get one thing clear. There is a difference between something being illegal and something being a breach of contract.
 
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