Exchanging Hdd

[invisiblelady]

Have two Toshiba laptops, the new one has a bad hdd. Want to put in the one from the other machine. The new laptop is windows 7 and the old one is XP. It's not booting. Do I need to format the xp one or is there a way to just get it working for now? Never normally enter boot menu so don't want to do something I shouldn't!

[bhg481]

You can't just put the disc from the old laptop into the new one and expect it to work. You will need either the installation discs for the new laptop or a System Repair disc, which you should have created as soon as you got the laptop.
If you use the installation discs you will have to reload all your software that didn't come with the computer and all your data will be lost.

[SlackAlice]

Unless both laptops are identical in every way it's not going to work. Your newer laptop will have or need drivers that the old XP HDD will not have.

Only possible way is a re-install of Windows 7 onto the old HDD plus you will need to reinstall some of the specific drivers for the laptop (available from the manufacturers support site).

Ideal solution is a new HDD to install Windows 7.

[invisiblelady]

Thanks for your answers. They're actually from work. Could I take an image off an identical one at work and copy that onto the good hd I have?

[bhg481]

No, because one at work won't be completely identical. The operating system on the laptop is linked to information inside the computer that the average mortal can't get at (to stop people stealing operating systems).
When you get a new computer you get the option to create yourself a disc which you can use to repair it if things go wrong. If you don't take up that option you can be in serious trouble if the HDD fails.

[invisiblelady]

Hmmmm......think it's beyond me then lol. Will have to get our techie bloke on next week. He set all the laptops up so will have created the necessary recovery/backup disc. Was just trying to save us some money but I can't do it. Thanks anyway :-)