Hard drive swapping question

[GaryGnu]

I just bought a new Dell Regular Desktop for my father, Core i3 processor with Windows 10, 1 TB hard drive, 8GB memory.

I own a Dell Small Desktop with Core i3 processor, Windows 7, 2 TB hard drive , 6GB memory that I bought in late 2012. They are both 64-bit machines.

I know my father is going to hate this CD drive on the new computer that makes you snap the CD in place. He uses the drive all the time. My 2012 computer has the tray type that he is used to.

I have this brilliant idea to just swap the hard drives and give him my 2012 computer and me keep the new one. I've replaced hard drives many times, but is this swap as easy it sounds or am I asking for trouble somewhere with size, connections, settings, BIOS, etc. ??

Thanks.

 

[corkyg]

Not a good plan. Unless the chipsets are the same in both machines, the OS drive swap will be a problem. Why not just swap the CD drives? That would be simple.

 

[Malogeek]

Not a good plan. Unless the chipsets are the same in both machines, the OS drive swap will be a problem. Why not just swap the CD drives? That would be simple.

That's not usually possible. He mentions snap in which means it's a low profile vertical CD drive proprietary to the design.

I'm not sure swapping drives will work either. I'd check whether windows 7 is available for the newer desktop as an option. If it isn't it's possible the right drivers won't be available to run it properly as white box of manufacturers often don't bother with drivers for older OS when they don't offer the option.

 

[corkyg]

Right about the optical format. If Dad is untrainable, an external optical would work. Swapping HDDs is physically easy, but the OEM OS (not retail) from one will not usually work in the other.

 

[Malogeek]

Right about the optical format. If Dad is untrainable, an external optical would work. Swapping HDDs is physically easy, but the OEM OS (not retail) from one will not usually work in the other.

Good point lol. The license will not transfer.

 

[sm625]

Are the i3's the same generation? I bet it would work but windows is already flaky enough even when you're not introducing it to remnants of old hardware. I ran a windows 7 install from 2009 through 3 different sets of hardware without any serious issues. And these included completely different chipsets. But when I upgraded this old OS to windows 10, it was flaky as hell.