Best path for Windows 7 upgrade to 10, from old hardrive to Vista PC?


  1. Speedy77
    Posts : 2
    Windows 7/10
       New #1

    Best path for Windows 7 upgrade to 10, from old hardrive to Vista PC?


    Hey guys!

    I have a bit of an odd situation on my hands! Long story short, I have an old Windows Vista PC desktop that currently runs my wonderful soundcard that I use to convert and edit some audio. It's been down for a few years due to a graphics card problem, but I'm looking to do a few cheap upgrades to get it up and running again. One of these upgrades includes an OS update to W10!

    My sister's old laptop was running Windows 7, but the laptop eventually burned out and she purchased a new one. I saved the HD, and presumably the copy of W7 on it. I was hoping to upgrade this copy to Windows 10, then transfer it to the Vista PC (both are 32 bit) and physically upgrade the Vista PC from there. Just looking for the best upgrade path!

    I'm not sure if I should try to boot the old laptop drive, upgrade that drive to 10, use a key searcher to find the key, deauthorize it, then install it clean on the Vista PC, or what the best method is.

    Just looking for a few thoughts and some advice. Thanks for reading!
    Last edited by Speedy77; 10 Nov 2015 at 14:40.
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  3. NavyLCDR
    Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       New #2

    First - the Windows 7 on the old laptop is probably an OEM version so it would violate the license agreement to use that to upgrade your PC to Windows 10 with.

    Do all the upgrades on your computer, except for new hard drive.

    Only if the Windows 7 was a retail version - I would put that hard drive in your computer and boot from it. Let it settle down with installing new drivers and everything. You can use showkey plus to get the Windows 7 product key. If the Windows 7 stayed activated , upgrade the installed Windows 7 to Windows 10 and get that activated. That will save the license for your computer for Windows 10 on Microsoft activation servers and then you can clean install Windows 10 on your computer.
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  4. spapakons
    Posts : 3,511
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       New #3

    You could also clean-install Windows 7 using the key from the old laptop, activate it and then either upgrade to 10 or generate the activation token as described here. You can then format and clean-install Windows 10 and use the activation token to activate. You can then connect the old disk to a USB enclosure or SATA to USB adapter to take any files you may want.
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  6. Speedy77
    Posts : 2
    Windows 7/10
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    Awesome, thanks for the help guys!
    I'm currently messing around with the old hard drive now to see what I can even do with it. The laptop was recycled long ago, so this is all that's left. Worse comes to worse I just end up buying an external enclosure and have a spare external hard drive laying around! Thanks again for the help
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