Best Way to Build A New Win10 Machine.

Unfortunately, Hardware manufacturers and Microsoft are not the same company like Apple is. So, when Windows installs on a computer, it takes a snapshot of the hardware, motherboard and chipset and loads drivers specific to that hardware. If you were to remove the drive and place it into a different computer with different hardware, when the computer would try and boot, it would look for the older hardware and not find it and it would BSOD or not boot.

Yes, I know.

What we're talking about is a basic platform upon which Windows can be installed. Or Linux. Or OS/2 or whatever.

Quite possibly there's an OS out there right now that would do the job and I could have it tonight just for downloading it onto a stick and then could boot from that stick and away I go...

And if that became common knowledge it'd become 'the way' to start setting up a new machine: boot from a stick, set up your internet connection, download mobo drivers or whatever, then download an OS and install....

Maybe ReactOS or Haiku.. I don't know.. they all want to be fully fledged OS's in their own right... more than I need, more than I'm hypothesizing...

Its 2017, I would not run an OS on a hard drive at all. Put the OS on an SSD.

spunk said:

So, Windows cannot be preinstalled on a Hard Drive when you buy it.

Sure it could. Very easily.

sysprep /generalize

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...(v=ws.10).aspx

"If you intend to transfer a Windows image to a different computer, you must run sysprep /generalize, even if the computer has the same hardware configuration. The sysprep /generalize command removes unique information from your Windows installation, which enables you to reuse that image on different computers. The next time you boot the Windows image, the specialize configuration pass runs. During this configuration pass, many components have actions that must be processed when you boot a Windows image on a new computer. Any method of moving a Windows image to a new computer, either through imaging, hard disk duplication, or other method, must be prepared with the sysprep /generalize command. Moving or copying a Windows image to a different computer without running sysprep /generalize is not supported."

But then when you purchased the hard drive or SSD you would also have to pay the additional price for the Windows license - but still not a bad idea at all.

One hurdle, though, would be GPT v. MBR partitioning of the hard drive - GPT for UEFI computers and MBR for legacy BIOS computers. But all that could be specified in the order, 32/64 bit, Home/Pro, UEFI/BIOS.

Download Ubuntu Desktop | Download | Ubuntu

Windows could be preinstalled on a HDD. The setup wouldn't happen until the drive was installed and the computer started. It would cost more than a dollar or two. I've had success swapping my SSD from a computer that died to a new computer and everything including activation work the first time. This was a full install retail version. What does 2017 have to do with installing the OS on a HDD? Last time I tried it still works. One thing I would recommend is that when installing use a local account and switch to a MS account after the OS is installed. This way you will be able to use your name for username and not the first five letters of your email address.

Hmmm. Then what about what NavyLCDR says about this 'sysprep/generalize' thing, I wonder?

I could sure use a method to transfer. I got a free upgrade on an old machine with a D945 motherboard running win7 back when they were doing that.

It'd be great if I could get if off there and onto a more modern motherboard.

My googling only pointed me towards phone contacts with MS and pitching them the story and relying on finding a friendly operator.... Not very hopeful. I didn't even try.

These two ideas seem much more hopeful. sysprep or, as you say, just try it with version/download or otherwise of win10? It was win10?

And I wonder when/how would you issue the sysprep command?

I'd rather spend nothing.
I have a 150G and you've confirmed my thought that it's not really big enough.
I don't want to get caught with a too small system disk, I've had that hassle before.
Thinking of that: what's the size of a 1T disk?
I mean: what's it measured in?
8 bit bytes?
So if I install 64 bit win10 I've got effectively only 250G from a 1T drive?
Or that's not quite true because the OS is clever enough to pack the 64 bit word with two (or more?) chars, etc.?

In short: do we lose any space on a hard drive by using 64 bit systems?