Transfer Win 7 OS

Is it possible to transfer Win 7 OS from a HP laptop to Dell pc? It came installed on the laptop.

 

JoeRay12,

Yes, the Windows 7 came preinstalled on the HP laptop. The Dell also came preinstalled with 8.1.

As a college student, I have the option of installing Windows 7 Professional for free. If I partition the Dell hard drive and put the free Windows 7 in a different partition from the Dell's OS... is that a good or bad idea?

 

That's a matter of opinion.
The problem is if you install 2 Windows OSes on a partitioned hard disc, the older (in this instance Windows 7) must be installed first. If you partition the hard disc and install Windows 7 on the second partition, you wont be able to boot into Windows 8.1.

There are programs with which you can modify the boot record. Hopefully JoeRay12 can advise you as I have not used any of them.

 

Eldon,

Maybe I should you backup (or clone?) the Dell 8.1 and then remove 8.1 off the hard drive and install Win 7 on it? I don't really care to have 8.1 I just wanted it as backup if I messed up the Win 7 installation.

 

I would partition the hard disc and then clone the partition with Windows 8.1.

Then format that partition, install Windows 7 on the newly created partition, and restore Windows 8.1 to the original partition.*

When Microsoft releases Windows 10, it will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 & 8.1 users for 1 year. You can then upgrade Windows 8.1 to 10 and you'll have both your favourite Windows OS (7) and the latest Windows OS (10).

* I am not sure is this will definitely work. It's worth a try.

 

Resize the Win 8.1 partition then create a new partition in the unallocated space you'll have. Install Win 7 to the new partition and use EasyBCD (installed on the Win 8.1 desktop) to add both versions of Windows to the boot menu. I run 8.1 Pro, Vista Ultimate and XP Pro/POSReady2009 from 3 separate drives on my Dell laptop with EasyBCD.

 

Annie2014, here is your solution. In about 6 months you can upgrade Windows 8 to 10 - free of charge. Thanks mdonah. I'm downloading EasyBCD right now.

 

The best bit about EasyBCD is you can add bootable ISOs to its boot menu as well as multiple OSs and boot whatever you like - Acronis, Linux, Partition Wizard etc

 

I tried to add Win 10 after it was installed to EasyBCD and EasyBCD didn't recognize the OS. Hopefully, there will be an update to EasyBCD 2.2 that supports Win 10 in the near future.

 

I realize this is really a hardware question... I'm not certain how to partition the hard drive for this purpose. Do I shrink the C drive? If so, by how much? Will it result in unallocated partition? If so, do I need to do anything to it before downloading windows 7 there? I'm attaching a photo of current partitions.

I did download EasyBCD from Majorgeeks site. When I went to open it gives message that there's a new version. Do I need to download that?

Thanks!

 

You've clicked a wrong download link I think. Download EasyBCD v2.2 HERE.

I think your partitions are going to cause one or two furrowed brows - that second recovery partition at the end is a bit of a problem when wanting to split C and add in a partition for Win 7. Maybe it's a Dell feature? I'm reluctant to advise without a little more info about it.

 

All those partitions originally came set up on the Dell machine. It's still under the time frame that I can return. The internet connection keeps dropping or going to limited.

It was supposed to be a Windows 7 platform - ordered from Newegg. They're saying that Dell had two systems with same UPC and that caused some to get the Windows 7 and others, like myself, the 8.1 :mad.

Thanks

 

Annie, thinking about this I'm going with Eldon's advice - wait for the free upgrade to Win 10 and your dilemma will resolve itself. It simply isn't worth the hassle of repartitioning etc when 8.1 is only going to survive another few months. Anyway, what's the problem with 8.1? You may find you even get to like it once you get more familiar with it

 

The internet connection problem is most probably a driver issue. Check the Dell website for an updated network adapter driver for your model for 8.1.

 

1.) This is exactly what I would do since you didn't get what you really wanted. The upgrade to Win 10 from Win 7 or 8.1 will be free for the first year after it is released from Microsoft.

2.) Are you connecting to the internet via wi-fi? You may need to reposition your modem/router.