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Resolved Question

What Specs need to match to be able to swap-out Hard Drives

Jun 4, 2016 7:28AM PDT

I want to be able to swap-out Hard Drives between two Dell XPS 8700 Desktops, so that I can use the same Hard Drive in either Desktop.

¿What specs have to match [be compatible] for the Hard Drives to be able to boot and run in either system?

I think one of the things that has to be common on both Desktops is the Video Card?

¿Do both Desktops have to have the same exact Operating System loaded in their BIOS?

My current system has Windows 10 Home Edition loaded.

I am contemplating purchasing a second Dell XPS 8700 Desktop, but I see where some available on eBay etc. are loaded with Windows 8 via their BIOS.

Thanks for your help with my question.

Ron, in Florida.

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Rfinnshw has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Really bad news if you are swapping the drive with the OS.
Jun 4, 2016 1:02PM PDT

For reasons folk may or may not know about Windows does not support swapping between machines. Beyond having the exact chipset, BIOS versions and settings, there are identifiers or codes in the LAN adapter and other places that Windows uses to thwart piracy.

So if you want to more the OS between machines you are dead on arrival. If it's some data drive then there is no limitation.

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Thanks for your help and great information.
Jun 4, 2016 7:11PM PDT

Thank you so much for your helpful information. You saved me a lot of aggravation of purchasing a second Desktop for "back-up" purposes.

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PS. More on this.
Jun 5, 2016 8:59AM PDT

Here's a typical finding.

"But I recently upgraded to Windows 7 on 3 new, identical PCs - and Windows is warning me that it needs activating "today", but so far it has kept working, for about 5 weeks."

They too found XP to not be as picky on the move between identical PCs but today Microsoft felt the piracy stakes were higher so more protection was needed.

-> Yes there is such a thing as "Windows On The Go" but not one client I've found has been willing to pay for that.

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Answer
"Swap-out" is an...
Jun 5, 2016 7:32AM PDT

interesting way of putting it, mind telling us your thinking in this? That seem like lots of work involved every time you want to change computer. As far as the OS goes, you can certainly upgrade win8 to win10 (I believe free win10 upgrade is good until July 29). Or maybe you have other things in mind.

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Our "thinking" was to have a back-up computer to resort to
Jun 5, 2016 8:33AM PDT

My thinking was to have a "back-up computer" to resort to when our main computer dies.
We have used this strategy successfully with our Dell Laptops running Windows XP but apparently the newer Windows versions will not allow this.