Moving an activated Win 10 HD to a 2nd (identical) PC

[glricht]

(sorry for the long post)

Has anybody setup and activated a Win 10 PC and then moved the HD to another identical PC? Did the 2nd PC recognize the activation from the 1st PC's HD?

This particular situation is a bit weird for me as I've not run into it before. (Note: this is NOT the same as installing a new HD into an PC whose HD has died and have the activation carry over from the original environment.)

Here's the backstory:

Ordered three new Dell Inspiron 3650's (with identical specs) for a customer. When the PCs came in, I heard a "clunk" from one of the boxes. It was coming from inside the PC itself and when I opened the case, found that the HD was not physically screwed in place -- the assembler had screwed in the screw, but the HD wasn't in place at the time so the screw didn't do anything. During shipping, the HD came slid out of its cage and was just hanging there, plus the SATA power cable had come out.

Without thinking, I simply physically installed the HD and re-connected the cable, then proceeded to do the setup of both Win 10 and the customer software. Everything worked as expected.

However, as I thought about it, I began to wonder if the HD was really fine (tests came back OK) or if it might have banged against the MB; and maybe problems might show up later down the road. So I called Dell and they're sending out a replacement PC.

But I'd rather not have to do the setup work all over again (almost a full day), especially since a lot of network shared folders were done and there's a lot licensed software that would have to be deactivated, installed on the new PC and activated.

If I can simply clone the existing HD onto the replacement PC's HD that would solve a lot of issues, plus there's no driver problems as both PCs are identical. Also, the first PC activated just fine, but the license key in the BIOS of the replacement PC will be different, so would that cause activation problems?

The more I think about it, maybe I should bite the bullet and setup everything all over again on the replacement PC.

Any thoughts?

 

[nlinecomputers]

The system will fail activation. But you probably can change it. You will need to get the new product key and then force the key to change.

http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-change-windows-10-product-key/

 

[Computer Bloke]

There's a type of question that keeps cropping up here: What would happen if I did X? This is one of them.

In many cases X is a relatively simple and reversible thing, and often it would be quicker just to do X and find out than to ask the question and wait for the answer (which may be wrong or inapplicable).

I blame Google; its easy source of plausible but questionably-correct "facts" is killing the art of experimentation.

Anyway, the answer in this case it that it would almost certainly work (I know because I've done it), but you shouldn't take my word for it without testing it out yourself.

So there you are: a plausible but questionably-correct answer that leaves you in exactly the same position you were in when we started!

 

[glricht]

@Computer Bloke, I think you misread my post. Wasn't asking "what would happen if I did X?", I was asking if anybody had actually done it and how it turned out. And I didn't do a Google search to find out what the amateurs thought, I was asking the Pro's who hang out here in TN.

Finally, since you say you've done it, how did it work out for you? Anything fall through the cracks? Any glitches show up down the line? Not necessarily going to, as you say, "take your word for it", but isn't a question like this part of what TN is all about?

 

[Porthos]

I do it quite often. When you go and change key use showkeyplus and get the OEM key from the BIOS and change key to that ant it will activate.

https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/2577-showkeyplus.html

I am a 98% Win 10 only shop.

You will have to reactivate office if installed because it will notice the hardware change.

 

[Computer Bloke]

Finally, since you say you've done it, how did it work out for you?

It worked out fine for me, but that might not be the case for you.

Full story: My wife and I have identical Dell Inspiron 13 laptops, originally both running Windows 7 and with essentially the same small set of software on both. I upgraded mine to Windows 10, which turned out pretty well, and in a moment of madness offered to do the same for the other one. Not wanting to burn my bridges I popped her SSD out and put in a clone of mine, expecting to have to reactivate it and so on. To my pleasant surprise Windows claimed to be already activated and everything worked perfectly for about six weeks - that's the point at which my wife decided that she couldn't stand Windows 10 any longer and I restored domestic harmony by putting the original SSD back in.

So cloning the drive worked nicely for one specific computer with a particular set of software for at least six weeks.

But please remember that there was only one rat in this experiment (and that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data").

 

[Ktex]

One of my customers has an older IBM running Win XP Pro, and because the hard drive is over 13 years old (2003), I tried cloning it with clonezilla. Everything worked, except the main program we wanted to save, color pro 3.6, I think. Error was that it detected program or license files had moved. My guess is that the some programs are "married" to the hard drive. I had earlier tried Acronis 2015, always had good results but in this case it would never open fully.
Yes, cloned win 8 and 10 hard drives almost always work, I have used them when the boot menu is locked out and hard drive is the only option. I always re-activate just to be sure everything is all right and let the machine find its own drivers.
And to quote Porthos:
"I do it quite often. When you go and change key use showkeyplus and get the OEM key from the BIOS and change key to that ant it will activate." Except I use RW portable. http://rweverything.com/