I am really only worried about HAL-type things and the "swamp" as you have described it. I purchased a stand alone version of Win 7 before I knew that I was going to have a dead computer, so I could install a full retail version on a brand new drive that I would place into the temporary machine and then move that drive over to the new machine when it arrives. That means I would not use the OEM version of Win 7 that was supplied on the new machine (or on the temporary one, for that matter). Not sure what I would do with it, but I have more than enough OS systems than computers :)

But from the advice I am receiving, and from my own supplementary research, it is looking increasingly like I would have to do a re-install of Win 7 on the new machine in order to have it all function normally.

Then I would have to decide if I could take a chance with a re-install "in place" to try and save my settings/programs or bite the bullet and do a full re-install and start from scratch.

I think I am leaning to the latter - just seems cleaner and any other shortcut sounds like it is asking for trouble sooner or later.

Michael

From: Richard Glazier <[log in to unmask]>

To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, December 12, 2009 1:45:04 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Swapping Boot Drives

I'm pretty sure a Dell would use a BIOS locked activation
and in one sense would be less of an issue than normal.
Having the OOBE (out of box experience) of an OEM machine
properly electronically re-sealed is not the same as activating.

BUT, at the "core" of that same subject, an OEM licensee is
NEVER allowed to be moved to *different* hardware.
(From a legal perspective.) You could call this a "like kind"
mother board replacement, and likely get permission for it.

Add that to the differing drivers that might be needed and the
HAL (hardware abstraction layer) the computer is originally
installed under (and if it is different from the new one), and
you have a swamp I would not like to swim through <grin>

The "best" computer set-up starts with a "clean install", and
I think you might trip over too many pitfalls to stay in that framework.

(Or you could be the exception, and everything might go fine, making
these types of warnings look like the ravings of someone paranoid...)

Rick Glazier

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