Use drive with existing Win8 install to dual boot?

[malex7780]

What happens if I put a drive that has an existing install of Win8 on it into my new build? Will Chimera recognize it? I know there are issues with drivers and such but just wondering if it would work at all?

 

[sqishy]

Hi mate, it will just show the Win partitions and you can select what to boot from. It does not care if its multiple drives or a single drive partitioned. You may need to set default partition or hide partition flags to get it booting on your default. Use TAB at boot to work out which hd(x,y) you need.

 

[malex7780]

Hi mate, it will just show the Win partitions and you can select what to boot from. It does not care if its multiple drives or a single drive partitioned. You may need to set default partition or hide partition flags to get it booting on your default. Use TAB at boot to work out which hd(x,y) you need.

Thanks! I'm gonna try it and see what happens.

 

[Going Bald]

What happens if I put a drive that has an existing install of Win8 on it into my new build? Will Chimera recognize it? I know there are issues with drivers and such but just wondering if it would work at all?

Win7/Win8 drives will only boot in the machine where they were installed - part of MS anti-piracy effort.

If you take a drive out of the machine where it was installed and connect it in a different one, you will get a blue/black screen and the message that you have a pirated OS and contact MS.

 

[malex7780]

Win7/Win8 drives will only boot in the machine where they were installed - part of MS anti-piracy effort.

If you take a drive out of the machine where it was installed and connect it in a different one, you will get a blue/black screen and the message that you have a pirated OS and contact MS.

Actually, it worked almost flawlessly. I installed the drive and after I figured out I had to select the "system" partition instead of the actual windows one in Chimera it booted without any issues whatsoever. I've been running it for a few days and when I read your reply I figured I'd better check my windows activation status and it was NOT activated so I had to call in to Microsoft's automated system and got it activated without any issues.

 

[Going Bald]

Actually, it worked almost flawlessly. I installed the drive and after I figured out I had to select the "system" partition instead of the actual windows one in Chimera it booted without any issues whatsoever. I've been running it for a few days and when I read your reply I figured I'd better check my windows activation status and it was NOT activated so I had to call in to Microsoft's automated system and got it activated without any issues.

You got lucky then. If you hadn't activated it, then the hardware PIC file evidently doesn't yet exist. When you install the first time IIRC it gives you 30 days before you have to activate it.

 

[malex7780]

You got lucky then. If you hadn't activated it, then the hardware PIC file evidently doesn't yet exist. When you install the first time IIRC it gives you 30 days before you have to activate it.

No, it was originally activated on the Windows machine but when I switched the drive into the new build I just had to reactivate it.

 

[Going Bald]

No, it was originally activated on the Windows machine but when I switched the drive into the new build I just had to reactivate it.

Which version?

I have Win8 Pro and moving it to a different mainboard/CPU setup results in a black screen with a message in the lower right corner that if is not a legal copy of Windows, contact Microsoft.

 

[RehabMan]

Which version?

I have Win8 Pro and moving it to a different mainboard/CPU setup results in a black screen with a message in the lower right corner that if is not a legal copy of Windows, contact Microsoft.

That would be the case until you activated it properly. Either by calling MS or using the automated process and showing that the license is no longer being used on the original (the original will also be invalidated, of course) ... or by purchasing a new product id.

The problem with transplants is not really anti-piracy/activation but rather the bigger problem is when the installation of Windows is heavily customized for the hardware on the original machine and the hardware (and thus drivers) is substantially different on the target machine. As Windows can run on anything and supports a wide range of hardware devices, it is not possible (as in OS X) to have all drivers for everything installed by default and not all drivers are well behaved when presented with the situation when hardware is not present.

If the hardware on the target is close (or exactd) to the original, transplants/re-activation can work well... Personally, I wouldn't do a transplant of Windows unless the hardware between the two machines is exactly the same (except for RAM, SATA devices, or other devices without specialized drivers). Transplanting between machines with different motherboards is almost guaranteed to be a disaster.