Looking for disk mitigation methods to make software transfer easy and to another computer.

[Kassowen]

Hey everyone, its been awhile, and I am asking how to do program migration because I dont do it often, and I am trying to do it across multiple drives, and all the while trying to install windows enterprise over the current W11.

 

I have two drives, both with windows on them, and one of them I want to use on the new laptop, and the other one I put on with my old rig, but left it as is, and most programs generally worked, though a number didnt as the new windows at the time wasnt recognized. How would you get past that by the way? I am thinking I can just transfer my current drive to the new computer(a nice 980 pro), and somehow get everything back via "windows old" file that is left behind if you dont format the drive, but given that most programs dont accept running after being put on a new computer, I dont think that would work. I do have on my older drive a program called pc mover pro, but when I tried opening it, it would accept being on a new computer, so I am at a loss on how to do this, sort of literally reinstalling every program from scratch. New laptop came with a 1tb drive, so I can transfer every to that externally with a nvme enclosure, though I would really be interested in some neat trick anyone here has.

 

This is just an off question, but is it worth it to go with windows enterprise, or is windows 11 easily modible enough to have the performance of enterprise and reliability?

[Aaron44126]

My experience has been you can just take a drive out of one computer and put it into another computer, boot it up, and it will work fine. Windows will notice that it’s in a new computer and do a device discovery on the first boot. You’ll have to figure out the drivers and stuff (as you would with a new Windows install), and reactivate Windows, but that’s all there is to it. I’ve actually done this several times.

 

If these are Dell systems, go to BIOS setup on the target system and make sure that it is NOT set in RAID mode for the disk controller. This method will fail if it is, because the system being moved over will not have the proper RAID driver installed.  You'd get a BSOD with "inaccessible boot device".

 

If you don’t want to “move” the drive, you can use cloning software to clone all of the data to a new drive and put that in the target system; effectively the same thing.

 

This method did not work prior to Windows 8. On old systems you’d just get a BSOD if you did this without special preparation.

[Kassowen]

6 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

My experience has been you can just take a drive out of one computer and put it into another computer, boot it up, and it will work fine. Windows will notice that it’s in a new computer and do a device discovery on the first boot. You’ll have to figure out the drivers and stuff (as you would with a new Windows install), and reactivate Windows, but that’s all there is to it. I’ve actually done this several times.

 

If these are Dell systems, go to BIOS setup on the target system and make sure that it is NOT set in RAID mode for the disk controller. This method will fail if it is, because the system being moved over will not have the proper RAID driver installed.  You'd get a BSOD with "inaccessible boot device".

 

If you don’t want to “move” the drive, you can use cloning software to clone all of the data to a new drive and put that in the target system; effectively the same thing.

 

This method did not work prior to Windows 8. On old systems you’d just get a BSOD if you did this without special preparation.

 

to my understanding, there will be significant performance loss if this is done, with with cpu and gpu performance. Unless this is old news? At least that is what I was told in the now defunct forum from "notebook deity" members. Assuming that is not true, is there a way to make W10 pro become enterprise without a fresh install?

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, Kassowen said:

to my understanding, there will be significant performance loss if this is done, with with cpu and gpu performance. Unless this is old news? At least that is what I was told in the now defunct forum from "notebook deity" members. Assuming that is not true, is there a way to make W10 pro become enterprise without a fresh install?

 

There is no reason for performance loss as long as you get the driver situation cleaned up properly.  This might also mean uninstalling or disabling services associated with drivers on your old system that are no longer needed.

 

To turn Windows 10 Pro into Enterprise, all you have to do is visit Settings and pick the option for "change the product key", and put in a product key for Windows 10 Enterprise.