️ In general, the answer is no, it will not work. But sometimes it does. And sometimes it’s something in between.

Can I move my hard drive?
Since Windows Setup configures Windows to the specific hardware on your machine, moving a hard disk from one machine to another and expecting Windows to work is risky. Windows will try to update itself in the face of what it sees as a massive change, but the results are not guaranteed. Your best approach with a new machine is to reinstall Windows from scratch and allow Windows Setup to do its job properly.

Updates, related links, and more discussion: https://askleo.com/3448

Subscribe to the Ask Leo! YouTube channel for more tech videos & answers: https://go.askleo.com/ytsub

Watch next ▶ How Long Does a Hard Drive Last? ▶ https://youtu.be/_IQmn9qhuvs

Chapters
0:00 Move my hard drive?
0:25 Don’t count on it
0:56 Setup configures Windows to the hardware
1:52 Windows tries to re-configure to hardware changes
2:45 Everything changes when you move a hard drive
3:56 Three possibilities
5:00 It’s not worth the risk
5:42 What to do with the old drive
6:38 Data recovery

️ My best articles: https://go.askleo.com/best
️ My Most Important Article: https://go.askleo.com/number1

More Ask Leo!
️ https://askleo.com to get your questions answered
️ https://newsletter.askleo.com to subscribe to the Confident Computing newsletter.
️ https://askleo.com/patron to help support Ask Leo!
️ https://askleo.com/all-the-different-ways-to-get-ask-leo/ for even more!

#askleo #computer #harddrive

Please take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.