Can I boot into Win7 from Win10 laptop

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My beloved Win7 Toughbook has died but the SSD is intact. can I buy an enclosure, put the hard drive in it and select at startup?

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I believe that Windows 7 might complain that it needs to be activated again.

Provided that you’re successful at getting the SSD into a housing and connecting it to another functioning computer and changing the settings in the computer’s UEFI/BIOS to have it boot from a USB connection first, Windows 7 would then probably see completely different hardware than it’s used to and complain that it needs to be reactivated.

If you’re successful in all of the above, including the reactivation, then you’re probably looking at updating the drivers for the computer’s hardware that Windows 7 will be using.

MVPs, Managers, etc. please correct any misstatements I may have in this post, especially if there are easier ways to accomplish what Brian would like to be able to do!

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In general Windows just won’t boot from an external drive.  However, with the laptop drive in an enclosure you can access your data from the Windows 10 (as long as bitlocker wasn’t turned on).  If you wanted to get all of your programs working as before, that is a tricky problem.  Some backup software (Norton Ghost, Pcmover) can sometimes migrate a Windows 7 installation to new hardware that is also Windows 7 compatible – for that method you would need to buy a refurbished computer of the right age.

You could virtualize your old Windows 7 to run in a VM of a new computer.  Or, try to locate the product keys and reinstall everything.  Or Pcmover.

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Thanks Bob99. While cruising the archives I found reference to Hyper-V which can be turned on in Win10 to let you create a virtual space that can run alternate OS’s which might let me use the Toughbook drive as just a drive not a boot drive, Lots of reading to do.

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You’re welcome! Sounds like you’re going down the best overall path. I’d forgotten that for Windows to boot, you’d have to make sure that certain other parameters for the disk within Windows are set before trying to boot from it. With it in an external enclosure, this becomes more difficult to successfully accomplish.

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Brian Snelling wrote:

My beloved Win7 Toughbook has died but the SSD is intact.

Windows 7 is one of the last best OS still existing. You should be able to make it into VM. It will ask for activation since it will be new mobo. Like mentioned above, try to find similar machine and put the hard drive in it. This is why I buy 5 same computers. One becomes primary. Second becomes a backup. Third and fourth are stored for parts later. Fifth is storage area or backup. Windows 10 and 11 are very bad.

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No they are not very bad.  They are very functional.

Most of the easy tools to make a OS into a virtual machine requires that the hard drive is running.  If you have a spare PC somewhere try putting that drive in a functional PC and swapping the cables for that drive.  See if it boots.

I have moved drives from one computer shell to another, rebooted and the OS finds the new hardware just fine.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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Thanks to all who replied. So far I like Win7 much better but familiarity may be the reason. With the help of a friend I now have Access97 running in Oracle VM Virtual box and Excel and Word 2003 on main drive. Still a memory problem so won’t declare totally fixed. Best for me will be if I can manage to have Access97 on main drive and dispense the Oracle workaround. And if you wonder why Access97 I wrote my payroll program in it about 30 years ago and never could get a later Access to convert.

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Some sites say that if you had the CD or install files for Office 97 or Outlook 97, it can install on Windows 10, even without using compatibility mode.  https://windowsinstructed.com/run-microsoft-office-windows-10/

However there may be errors or glitches, but you may be able to work around them.  https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/93aa70f7-ef54-4a82-b44a-cf2e7365d021/incompatible-microsoft-access-97-and-windows-10-january-2019-update?forum=accessdev

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/access-97-on-windows-10/6a187013-e987-4387-90ed-40d31ef76a48

If you have any interest in a Windows 10 tip for a Windows 7 user, my first would be when looking for a control panel or other setting (or a program) don’t try to click where you think it should be.  Instead, use the start menu search function – for example, to change mouse cursors, type mouse.  Often, you may need to go to the far right to do “additional mouse options.”  This is the same for sleep mode – type sleep, open it, then if needed go to the right and “additional power options”.

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Thanks Energy Saver. Looking into your suggestions now but my latest plan is another used Toughbook and pop in the drive from the dead one. That way I’ll have a Win7 machine where Access 97 already lives and the newer Win10 machine for Internet and other newer programs. Also on the old Toughbook I have an excellent diagnostic program called AutoEnginuity for my diesel trucks and the Win10 laptop seems really wimpy for shop and logging road environments.

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Susan Bradley wrote:

I have moved drives from one computer shell to another, rebooted and the OS finds the new hardware just fine.

How do you to that?

Every time I tried that, Windows OS Xp or 7 never finds new hardware.  May be Windows 10 is better at detect new hardware but I do not trust Windows 10.

I move a hard drive from a dell to a hp. Did not work. had to Reinstall Windows. Move dell to dell same issues. Move gateway to asus same issues.

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Connect it to the new computer shell.  Boot it up.  It will want to restart several times. Go into device manager and then look for all the places where it has a “!” and indicates it’s missing a driver.  Now the fun part. Go to the vendor of the computer shell or motherboard and download anything that appears to match up in description.  10 is better than 7 but even 7 will pick up new hardware reasonably well.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Connect it to the new computer shell. Boot it up. It will want to restart several times. Go into device manager and then look for all the places where it has a “!” and indicates it’s missing a driver. Now the fun part. Go to the vendor of the computer shell or motherboard and download anything that appears to match up in description. 10 is better than 7 but even 7 will pick up new hardware reasonably well.

I am trying with failed lenovo computer. I move the hard drive to a dell computer that works fine. It is a windows 7. It does not want to boot. It gives a blue screen with :

“A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage……”

I have rebooted 10 times and 10 times same message. I tried to get into safe mode before by press F8 but it does not. I tried Windows 7 CD running repair and nothing. I boot with Linux CD on Dell with the hard drive and the Linux can see  all the files on the hard drive and open them. Scanning the hard drive fines no issues. But Windows 7 does not want to boot.

It seems I never can get luck to getting to work.

Thanks for answering my question but seems I will have to just reinstall Windows and than copy the user’s files back to it. Time to go look for an empty external USB drive to copy the files to it.

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