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I just bought a Samsung SSD for my girlfriend and moved the Windows 8.1.1 installation (installed with education key) over to the SSD with the Samsung Migration software. Then I physically swapped the drives and it was all good.

Now a relative of mine is interested in doing the same thing. However, he bought an computer with OEM Windows 8 (or 8.1) and does not have a product key as the Windows was bundled with the computer. Will the migration also work for him? He fears that Windows will detect that it is not really running on the original drive and bail, perhaps even tell Microsoft to block the key or something.

Can an OEM Windows installation be cloned to another drive without a licensing or key problem?

Martin Ueding
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2 Answers2

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Use Samsung's Data Migration software to clone (and resize) the drive.

Windows activation will stay active as you're only upgrading one piece of hardware. Even if it doesn't (I've never seen this) you can usually just call MS and explain, and they'll give you the activation code.

I've performed this process on around 15 computers over the last year (laptops and desktops) and I've had few issues (none activation related). If anything goes wrong, you still have the original drive as a backup.

You can get the key out of Windows using Nirsoft Key Finder anyway though I think.

NickG
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IIRC microsofts position is that replacing the motherboard for reasons other than repair is considered a "different computer". Other hardware upgrades are not considered a new computer so replacing the hard drive is fine.

On the mechanics of activation there are two types of OEM windows, "system builder" and "royalty OEM". The former is used by small whitebox builders, the latter by better known vendors.

"system builder" copies handle activation in much the same way as retail copies. Just replacing the hard drive on a machine that is otherwise the same as when activated shouldn't cause deactivation. If there have been lots of other hardware changes then reactivation may be needed (but shouldn't be a problem unless you are really abusing things).

"royalty OEM" copies use a key in the bios (iirc for 7 and below it's a key per manufacturer while 8 and above have a seperate key for each machine). As long as the motherboard isn't replaced there should be no need for reactivation.

plugwash
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