Clone Hard drive (Win 7)

[Zed]

so when i get this new pc should i try to clone the existing PC hdd or just reinstall all the apps and what not?

guess its a case of how easy vs the cost of the OEM license for Win 7

 

[Agravaine]

Always reinstall IMO.

 

[Rochdale]

reinstall

 

[Bunty]

I thought Windows got upset if the hardware changed vastly?

 

[Agravaine]

It does.

 

[Tempy]

Windows 7 is much better with hardware changes than previous versions. I couldnt be arsed reinstalling when I replaced my motherboard (it was a major chipset upgrade) the other week so let Windows see if it could sort it out - it did. Had to re authenticate my Windows licence though (which wasnt un expected).

 

[Artanix]

When new hardware is involved, its just a bit cleaner to do a fresh install. Cloning is good for a re-format on a system that hasn't had any big changes

 

[Aciiid]

Well I've not done it on win7, but I used clonezilla (Linux, DD style, freeware) to copy someone's XP machine over to a new one a couple of months ago. As a lot of people above said it was a lot of hassle and I did get all the drivers and windows working but it kept blue screening every now and then so the machine got re-installed after a couple more weeks anyway.