[stoney_pe]

I bought a used hard drive with Windows 7 Ultimate preinstalled. It is supposed to be from a laptop that had a motherboard failure that was sold for parts, so I didn't get any of the installation discs. When I installed it in my HP Pavillion laptop, Windows 7 won't start. I get one of those blue screens, but it flashes by so quickly that I'm not able to read the error message. The best I can gather is that since it came from a different computer, it has the settings for that motherboard, chipset, etc. Is there a way to make this Windows 7 installation work with my computer?
Thanks in advance for your help.

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It most likely won't start since the previous installation was done on another laptop. Drivers for that system are loaded and are not present on your system which will stop the startup.
Since it has no disk with it then that would mean the recovery is located on the hd itself. Even that being the case the recovery will load drivers for the original system and not yours.
Your option is to purchase a Windows 7 and start fresh with this hd and that way you can download and install the drivers for your system.

[rshaffer61]

It most likely won't start since the previous installation was done on another laptop. Drivers for that system are loaded and are not present on your system which will stop the startup.
Since it has no disk with it then that would mean the recovery is located on the hd itself. Even that being the case the recovery will load drivers for the original system and not yours.
Your option is to purchase a Windows 7 and start fresh with this hd and that way you can download and install the drivers for your system.

[phillipcorcoran]

"rshaffer61" is right - even disregarding the installed drivers not matching the hardware, Windows 7 does not like being moved from one PC to another. The "Product ID" code on that hard disk no longer matches the hardware. Windows has to be installed on the computer you want to use it on, using a Windows 7 installation disc and a genuine product key that hasn't been used on any other computer (or it will fail product activation).

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 15 July 2010 - 02:16 PM.