Swapping SSDs between 2 PCs.

[Diaa]

Two PCs, same make, model, hardware, and OS.
Mutually exchange their SSDs.
What will happen when these PCs start ?

Thank you.

Diaa

 

[Darren]

More often than not it will load up without too many issues. Might have to reinstall some drivers but since Window 8 or so, it usually handles changing stuff pretty well on its own, especially on similar or same hardware.

Windows Activation might get funky but maybe not too.

 

[johnb35]

If its the exact same motherboard and all other hardware is the same then nothing bad will happen. It will boot up like it was in other pc. Curious why you are switching them though?

 

[Diaa]

More often than not it will load up without too many issues. Might have to reinstall some drivers but since Window 8 or so, it usually handles changing stuff pretty well on its own, especially on similar or same hardware.

Windows Activation might get funky but maybe not too.

Thank you.

The reason for this post is that I have trouble with my SSD. I have 2 Acer T3-715 PCs purchased in the same year 2116, one in Ａpr. & the other in Sep. The one bought in Apr. (PC a) got stuck at booting a month ago, and the one bought in Sep. (PC s) is working normally. I want to find out whether PC a's issue is caused by the hardware SSD itself or by the boot manager on the SSD. I am thinking about taking PC a's SSD off its board and insert it into the M.2 SATA SSD slot on the board of PC s and start the machine. See what will happen.

I do not know what this test can prove. If it boots, then, both the hardware SSD and boot manager on the SSD are good. If it doesn't show anything, it is very possible that the hardware SSD itself is bad.

Do I make any sense, please?

Thanks.
Diaa

 

[johnb35]

When you say it got stuck at booting, what exactly is going on? Is there an error message given or bluescreen? If you swap drives and it works then you can assume that there is either something wrong with the drive, operating system or boot files.

 

[beers]

Boot loops aren't necessarily a hardware issue and can be caused by corruption from things like force powering off your system. You should be able to swap them, you might have to reactivate windows but that would realistically be the only real 'limitation'.

If the file system is simply corrupt on the drive it should exhibit the same behavior on either system similarly to any hardware failure items.

 

[Diaa]

When you say it got stuck at booting, what exactly is going on? Is there an error message given or bluescreen? If you swap drives and it works then you can assume that there is either something wrong with the drive, operating system or boot files.

Couple of weeks ago, the PC got stuck at the beginning of booting, when acer logo appeared on the screen.
It was like this :
1.Start button could turn power on,
2.Light in front panel was on,
3.CPU & graphic card fans spun,
4.Monitor was on & showed "acer" logo & booting stopped at this point,
5.Start button could turn the power off.

Except for these functions listed above, EVERYTHING ELSE WAS DEAD.

Today, I had the CPU cleaned & applied new cooler.
The PC behaves differently from how it was before the CPU cleaning.
1. Power on, continuing beeps B - B - B - in half second intervals.
1a. Before cleaning the CPU, there was no beep, no beep even when the PC was started.
2. And now the monitor is not on.
2a. Before cleaning CPU, monitor was always on after power on.
3. And the power on-off button becomes a one way traffic, only power on, not power off.
3a. The power button was normal before cleaning the CPU.

 

[Diaa]

Boot loops aren't necessarily a hardware issue and can be caused by corruption from things like force powering off your system. You should be able to swap them, you might have to reactivate windows but that would realistically be the only real 'limitation'.

If the file system is simply corrupt on the drive it should exhibit the same behavior on either system similarly to any hardware failure items.

Thank you.

"have to reactivate windows"
After the testing, can the same SSD be back to its own PC and run Windows normally ?
Or, does it have to be reactivated ?
This might alert Microsoft.

 

[johnb35]

If its 3 beeps that is usually a memory error. Try removing all memory sticks and blow out the slots then reinsert sticks. If you removed memory before its probably just that there not inserted all the way.

 

[beers]

The PC behaves differently from how it was before the CPU cleaning.
1. Power on, continuing beeps B - B - B - in half second intervals.

Sounds like you either got some paste into the socket that bridges pins or damaged another component.

Continuous single beeps are usually a CPU problem.
Continuous 3 beep segments with a pause are usually RAM related.