In general, no. When you install an OS it senses all the hardware and tries it's best to work with that specific stuff. Replacing something with a lot of hardware - like a motherboard - usually requires reinstalling the OS. Not always, but personally I've never had good luck doing it. An awful lot of work just because you didn't want to wait a few days.
Besides, if you break some kind of seal and they discover you've opened the case that could be trouble. On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 8:35 PM, Michael Wosnick <[email protected]> wrote: > This may be a dumb question, but here goes. I ordered a new computer from > Dell and they shipped the wrong box to me. I am awaiting a replacement but > it may take a while given the season. I was told I could use the wrong box > (a Precision T7500 Workstation with a Xeon Processor) while I wait for the > right one to be built and re-delivered (an XPS 9000 with an i7-920 > processor). > > If I install a legal version of Win7 and install all my programs on a brand > new drive that I put temporarily into the T7500, then when the XPS finally > arrives, would I be able to simply remove the T7500's new boot drive and pop > it into the XPS instead and be functional booting form the swapped drive? I > don't want to spend days setting up all of my programs on the box that has > to be sent back unless I have an easy migration to the right box when it > arrives, i.e. a migration that does not have me re-install either the OS or > more importantly all my programs. Both computers will be running on Win7 but > the hardware is different enough that I am wondering about a) license issues > or more likely b) incompatibility issues that might force me to go the > re-install route. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
