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Make HDD swapable bet. laptops

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by lester

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I have two distinct laptop systems (one's a Dell, the other's a Gateway). I'd like to remove the Dell's HDD and put in the Gateway. HOWEVER, I'd like it to be a temporary arragement 'til I get a drive for the Gateway. I'd like to conserve the Windows XP Pro OS installed in the drive for the Dell. And perhaps use the same installation in the Gateway. What do you recommend? Can I use Windows Hardware Profiles for this purpose? Thanks.

3 replies

by Former member

You are going to have a few hic-cups doing this because of the different motherboard drivers for one. Possible if you delete the motherboard drivers and then put the drive into the other laptop and replace the drivers for that laptop. You might be faced with a "Re-activation" with the Windows Os during the process. Hope this helps you.

by older mycroft

As peconet has indicated, you would have to remove the drivers for the Dell, replacing them with the drivers for the Gateway.

Any swap back again would involve the same process in reverse.

You would also be at risk of placing the harddrive under a degree of strain by repeatedly plugging and unplugging it each time you swapped between machines. The connector isn't really designed for multiple plugging / unplugging - you might damage one or more pins on the harddrive connector.

Whichever laptop is your favourite should be the long term home for this harddrive

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