[snoots91]

Ok I have posted this on many websites and I havent gotten a useful answer yet. Last week my laptop, Dell Inspiron 1521 w/ AMD processor 32bit system running Windows 7 Home Premium, died. I was given my moms old laptop, Dell Inspiron 1525 w/ Intel processor 32 bit system running Windows Vista Home Premium. The laptop is nicer than my old one and it suites my needs, minus one thing... The 80gb hard drive that is at 64g after Vistas foot print. Thats no good for me at all. However, my old laptop has a 320gb hard drive! Now, to give a back story, my old laptop was given to me like 2 years ago from my sister. She paid for a copy of Windows 7 and installed it. When I got it I wanted to factory reset the thing and come to find out that there was no Dell Factory Image. The laptop was probably 5 years old and there is no recovery disc. I dont have any CD/DVD's to make one, nor is it in the budget to get any. So back to where I was, I tried to put the new hard drive in the computer and it loads and restarts and goes into Startup Repair. I tried running it and it still dosent work and wont load Windows, I would imaging that is due to the different versions of Windows. If I cancel the startup repair, it goes to the advanced menu and there there is the screen where it wont let me select Factory Image Reset because the option isnt there. It does, however, have me select one of my acccounts from my old computer and I have to type my password in to go to the advanced menu. Is there anyway I can put my old hard drive into my new laptop that dosent require a system restore disc? I could honestly care less if my stuff on my old hard drive gets wiped, but the laptop wont charge or turn on. A little help would be awesome thought since I have only gotten "Re install Windows 7 on the new laptop and use the code on the bottom to activate it" when the code on the bottom is for Vista, what the laptop came from factory with. Many thanks!

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When your sister installed 7 on the 1521 machine it set up a kind of hardware signature and once you put that hard drive from the 1521 into the 1525 the hard drive would not have recognised the new hardware and that's why you're having problems.

These are commonly known as hardware parameter errors.

Also when your sis installed 7 she completely wiped any recovery partition so that is out of the window.

You have 3 options...

Reinstall Vista on the 1525 box using the CoA numbers on the sticker.

Obtain the Windows 7 disk that she used originally.

Buy a new unbranded Windows 7 OEM and do a new install.

[Wolfeymole]

When your sister installed 7 on the 1521 machine it set up a kind of hardware signature and once you put that hard drive from the 1521 into the 1525 the hard drive would not have recognised the new hardware and that's why you're having problems.

These are commonly known as hardware parameter errors.

Also when your sis installed 7 she completely wiped any recovery partition so that is out of the window.

You have 3 options...

Reinstall Vista on the 1525 box using the CoA numbers on the sticker.

Obtain the Windows 7 disk that she used originally.

Buy a new unbranded Windows 7 OEM and do a new install.

[phillpower2]

snoots91

I have broke your OP down into bite size pieces so that it is more manageable

my old laptop was given to me like 2 years ago from my sister. She paid for a copy of Windows 7

Was the Windows 7 that was installed on the HDD the full retail or the OEM version

I could honestly care less if my stuff on my old hard drive gets wiped

This does make things easier but if there is anything at all on the HDD that you would like to save we can help you with that - let us know on this.

So back to where I was, I tried to put the new hard drive in the computer and it loads and restarts and goes into Startup Repair.

Dell are notoriously choosy when it comes to drivers in any event so having Dell drivers for a different notebook altogether on the HDD will cause conflicts that prevent a system from booting.

I have only gotten "Re install Windows 7 on the new laptop and use the code on the bottom to activate it" when the code on the bottom is for Vista, what the laptop came from factory with

Not sure what you mean by this, please clarify as in do you get an on screen message and if so what exactly does it say.
The version of Windows 7 that was purchased will have a bearing on this, if it was the full retail type and the 25 digit product key is and will not be used on more than one computer you can download a W7 ISO and use that alongside the original software license that was purchased, you cannot do this with an OEM license as the product key is tied to the original MB that was present when the OS was installed**.

**Unless a MB is replaced under warranty with a like for like MB or an alternative version of the same brand if the original model is no longer available.