Post by Jeff RelfCan I boot an 8th Gen i7 using the boot SSD
I pulled from a now-dead 5th gen i7 PC ?
Or will I need to re-install Windows ?
The motherboards are different.
Please forgive the Google post;
I'm confined to a tablet, for now.
IME, if it's pre Windows Vista, the OS needs to be "reset" by reinstalling
on top of the existing OS. IIRC, when booting the Windows CD-ROM and
choosing to install on a existing OS (of the same version), it'll prompt
whether to do a repair install or a clean install. Choose the repair
install. It'll reset all Windows settings, but it will keep all third party
applications & settings, including personal files. If choose to clean
install, any third party settings in the registry will be gone. All other
things are kept, unless you choose to reformat the partition.
Otherwise, if the OS won't boot properly, you'll have to use the recovery
mode to remove device drivers which prevented the OS from loading properly.
i.e. those which are not compatible with the hardwares in the other PC, and
causes OS boot freeze/crash. If it doesn't work, use the same method as
above.