[jr70895]

Daughter has Dell 1525 laptop and will cost too much to fix for this basic stripped down model. She asked to try and find another just like it and I did find one in real good condition on Ebay, same model. She does not want a new one, mainly due to Windows 8.

My plans were to just take her hard drive out and put it in the exact same model. Her original laptop has Windows Vista upgraded to Windows 7, Office 2010, plus all of her pictures, documents etc etc.
Below, in another forum, is why I was told it would not work....

"An OEM version of Windows (comes pre-installed) is tied to the computer it is installed on. When you switch hard drives, as you are suggesting, Windows may boot up but probably will not re-activate, as it may or may not have to do when installed in another computer. Your taking a chance but may be worth a try".

Well, for the sake of trying it I did swap out the hard drives and it does work just fine so far. The Windows Genuine Software Activation, Windows Updates and everything else seems to be working just like it should.
Does anyone have any experience in this and thoughts on if it will work as I have been running it off and on for 2 days.

Thanks

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Gday jr70895.
An OEM version of Windows is tied to the MB, once activated, but should the MB fail, you can replace it with the identical model + there is even a provision that should the board be no longer available, it can be replaced with an equivalent model. (Some Intel hoops to go through there.) You could have just swapped over the MBs and been legal.
You have achieved the same with the simpler solutions, so I think is OK

[iammykyl]

Gday jr70895.
An OEM version of Windows is tied to the MB, once activated, but should the MB fail, you can replace it with the identical model + there is even a provision that should the board be no longer available, it can be replaced with an equivalent model. (Some Intel hoops to go through there.) You could have just swapped over the MBs and been legal.
You have achieved the same with the simpler solutions, so I think is OK