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Copy HDD from high spec to SSD in a lower spec system?

1730 Views 13 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  ia178, 
I
Hello there everyone! A newbee in here and also not much a smart ass in the realm of tech so kindly bear with me!

I have recently upgraded to a new laptop of the following specs:

DELL Inspiron, i7, 16GB Ram, 1 Tb HDD, Win 10 (genuine)

from an older laptop with following specs:

HP Pavilion, i3, 4GB Ram, 320GB HDD, Originally Win 7, later updated to Win 10 (genuine)
(Used this bad boy for almost 7 years!)

I still used my older laptop for work purposes until the HDD in it died on me last week for some particular reason. I have a spare SSD (500 GB) that I am thinking to replace the damaged HDD with. Since I am new this, I have a couple of doubts that I hope you lot in here can help me with:

1) Can I clone the HDD in my new laptop to the spare SSD and install the SSD in my older laptop, given the major differences in specs?

2) If the answer to (1) is yes, is there a particular set of steps I need to follow in this case or do I just follow the steps of a basic cloning process?

3) Assuming I could do the above, would I have to reinstall Windows in the older laptop? I still do have the Windows 7 Home product key that was originally installed on my older laptop.

Also do suggest if you think I should avoid the all-in-all idea of cloning and just freshly install Windows on the SSD and later just copy the files I need from my new laptop.

Thanking you in advance to taking the time out to read my post and helping me out!
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saikee
You can't clone a 1TB hdd into a 500GB ssd due to size limitation.

It is also illegal to clone one Windows to be used on more than one computer.

You can just replace the dead hdd with your 500GB ssd now and install its original Windows 7 on it if you have the license.

You can pass the data between computer via a network or USB devices but the operation is not cloining. If you clone something it ends up with a mirror image of the original.

A ssd can be used in exactly the same way as a hard drive. It has nothing to do the high spec. In a higher spec PC things move just faster and the fast ssd is therefore put to a better use.
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flavallee
HP Pavilion, i3, 4GB Ram, 320GB HDD, Originally Win 7, later updated to Win 10 (genuine)
(Used this bad boy for almost 7 years!)
I still used my older laptop for work purposes until the HDD in it died on me last week for some particular reason. I have a spare SSD (500 GB) that I am thinking to replace the damaged HDD with.
Click to expand...
What's the complete model number of that HP Pavilion laptop?
What's the exact serial number and part/product number on it?
Once it's correctly identified, we should be able to help you further with it.

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flavallee said:
What's the complete model number of that HP Pavilion laptop?
What's the exact serial number and part/product number on it?
Once it's correctly identified, we should be able to help you further with it.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Click to expand...
Model: g4-1210se
Serial: 5CD1331X95
Product: QJ542EA

Thank you for taking the time out!
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saikee said:
You can't clone a 1TB hdd into a 500GB ssd due to size limitation.

It is also illegal to clone one Windows to be used on more than one computer.

You can just replace the dead hdd with your 500GB ssd now and install its original Windows 7 on it if you have the license.

You can pass the data between computer via a network or USB devices but the operation is not cloining. If you clone something it ends up with a mirror image of the original.

A ssd can be used in exactly the same way as a hard drive. It has nothing to do the high spec. In a higher spec PC things move just faster and the fast ssd is therefore put to a better use.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the clarifications!
By further exploring my case, I found out today that I cannot simply download the ISO file for Win7 with my OEM product key. Apparently I'll have to request HP to provide me with a "Recovery" iso for a price of about $30.
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flavallee
Model: g4-1210se
Serial: 5CD1331X95
Product: QJ542EA
Click to expand...
You have a HP Pavilion g4-1210se Notebook PC which was purchased on or about August 2011 and which came with Windows 7 Home Basic 64-bit.

Rectangle Font Brand Logo Electric blue


The HP Customer Support and Computer Surgeons HP Recovery Center and Restore Disks sites no longer appear to have a recovery media disc kit for it that you can purchase.

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saikee
If you buy a Windows 7 or Windows 10 license from the Internet, like psngames.org, it should be between $10-12. You need to download the iso yourself and burn it into a DVD or USB drive though. It is cheaper than a recovery iso from HP.
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Triple6
If you upgraded it to Windows 10 then you can install Windows 10 without a product key, jut skip the key entry and then when you connect to the internet it will connect to the Microsoft servers, realize it has been activated on that hardware before and activate automatically.
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saikee
Triple6,

Does your assertion apply to the same PC after the removal of the original disk followed by a replacement of a different size hdd or ssd similar to the thread starter?

I ask this because the original system in the hdd may have been removed so it is just the shell, with CPU, network card, mobo etc of the computer itself that can be checked by Microsoft.
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Triple6
Yes, the key has never been tied to the hard drive, it's always been the motherboard. All the other components are expected to be upgraded or replaced over time. A large upgrade of other components can trigger re-activation though but as long as the motherboard is the original than an OEM or Digital License allows you to reactivate Windows. And for a retail copy you can swap the entire computer out.

Removing hard drive does not make a computer a shell, it's actually one of the least important components. You can even run a computer without a hard drive, many Live Boot USB, SD Card, and CD\DVD operating systems exist as do network boot systems, a hard drive is an optional component even though it may not seem like it.
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Triple6 said:
If you upgraded it to Windows 10 then you can install Windows 10 without a product key, jut skip the key entry and then when you connect to the internet it will connect to the Microsoft servers, realize it has been activated on that hardware before and activate automatically.
Click to expand...
That gives me hope! But can I legally download the Win 10 ISO from the Microsoft website though?
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saikee said:
If you buy a Windows 7 or Windows 10 license from the Internet, like psngames.org, it should be between $10-12. You need to download the iso yourself and burn it into a DVD or USB drive though. It is cheaper than a recovery iso from HP.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the website suggestion! It definitely is cheaper!
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Triple6
Windows 10 can be downloaded from this MS site: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

It also works with Windows 7 and 8/8.1 keys even if they have not been used before to upgrade to Windows 10.
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I
Thanks a mil! Downloading now. I'll update if I face any issues
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