Windows 8 Windows 8 Back to HDD

M

MattWin8

New Member

Joined

Oct 29, 2013

Messages

1

• Oct 29, 2013

Thread Author #1

Hi,
A year ago I purchased an SSD and Windows 8 for my old pc and it's been running fine. Now however, I'm going to build a new PC, and I want to move Windows 8 back to my old HDD (it was an upgrade on Windows 7 OEM, so I can't move it across to my new PC). How do I go about this?

Thanks in advance
- Matt

 

M

Mitchell_A

Former Moderator

Joined

Feb 7, 2009

Messages

4,978

• Oct 29, 2013

#2

If you have your original install media for Windows 8, you can use that. If not, there's lots of ways to acquire it

Then just install and activate using your original product key. Due to the different hardware, you may have to use the automated phone system for activation.

 

Saltgrass

Excellent Member

Microsoft Community Contributor

Joined

Oct 16, 2009

Messages

15,152

• Oct 29, 2013

#3

If you are asking about moving your install to a new/different hard drive on the same system, a System Image is the best way to do that. There are several utilities for creating images, and I normally use the one in Windows. It does have some restrictions where the others may not.