Download the Tom's Hardware App from the App Store
The reference for current tech news
Yes No
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > Hard Drives > Moving a Windows 7 hard drive to a Linux computer

Moving a Windows 7 hard drive to a Linux computer

Forum Storage : Hard Drives Moving a Windows 7 hard drive to a Linux computer

Related Content
You have searched for "Moving a Windows 7 hard drive to a Linux computer" . You might be interested in the following threads:

See more for "Moving a Windows 7 hard drive to a Linux computer"

Can't find your answer?
Ask!

General Discussion

|

Hard Drives

|

CD/DVD Drives

|

CD/DVD Writers

|

Optical Media

|

Flash Media

|

NAS/RAID

|

SSD

|

Buffalo Tech

|

QNAP

|

RunCore

Word :    Username :           
 
Digigirl   02-01-2012 at 01:13:33 AM

I have a computer I built that has Linux installed, and I recently acquired a hard drive with Windows 7 Home Premium installed. Is there a way to make my computer boot off the hard drive with Windows 7?

Reply to Digigirl
Register or log in to remove.
PhilFrisbie   02-01-2012 at 10:00:51 PM

It depends.

Did you get the license to go along with that copy of Windows? If not, then you have an illegal copy of Windows and we cannot provide help here.

Is it an OEM version of Windows? If so, then the license will not be good in another computer.

So, if it is a full version of Windows, and you have the license in hand, you can try booting, but it will take several reboots before it works properly in order to identify the new hardware and load drivers. Then it will need to be reactivated with Microsoft.

Reply to PhilFrisbie
Digigirl   02-02-2012 at 10:25:36 AM

The hard drive is from my girlfriend's computer. When she moved here that was all the shipping company would ship of her computer. Her family were the ones who had installed the OS on the computer, and we currently have no way of getting in contact with them.

Reply to Digigirl
PhilFrisbie   02-02-2012 at 09:04:21 PM

Then I'm afraid the answer is no, you cannot use the copy of Windows 7 on that drive.

Reply to PhilFrisbie
Digigirl   02-03-2012 at 04:38:19 AM

Is there any way of making something work then? She has a lot of work and programs on that hard drive including all her music, photos, and her copy of the Adobe Suite. I don't want to see several hundred dollars worth of stuff lost all because the postal companies wouldn't ship the entire computer.

Reply to Digigirl
shura4ever   02-03-2012 at 08:01:12 AM

You can access the hard drive data from linux.

Reply to shura4ever
PhilFrisbie   02-05-2012 at 04:48:52 AM

Yes, you can copy the files from the drive while in Linux, but you will need to get the Adobe discs to install Adobe again.

Reply to PhilFrisbie
Register or log in to remove.
Ask the community Add a reply
See all topics related to "Moving a Windows 7 hard drive to a Linux computer"
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > Hard Drives > Moving a Windows 7 hard drive to a Linux computer
Go to:

There are 881 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 1.048 seconds
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Latest best answer
Audio through DVI
By amite, 61 days ago:

Recently, I replaced my older Asus GT9600 card with the newer Asus GTX560. Now, at first...

They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
How do I win badges?
Top experts
Become an expert The rank
Partners