Booting a Windows 7 installation on different hardware

Solution 1:

Put the hard drive back in the original machine.

click Windows key + R to bring up "Run"

From here, type "sysprep"

This should bring up the sysprep folder.

Now, double click on the sysprep application.

Choose either Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) in order to bring up the first run screens (where you can create users etc.) Or choose System Audit Mode to skip that.

I have never done System Audit Mode after a machine is already set for use such as yourself... it is generally how you preinstall items before locking and giving the computer to someone.

In any case, you need to tick the "Generalize" button. This will basically remove all the ties Windows has to the hardware and next time you start the machine (On this or other hardware) It will take a while to start and say something along the lines of "Windows is preparing to run for the first time"

This should do what you require!

Solution 2:

You can fix this without sysprep.

1. download your motherboard drivers and place them on a USB
2. boot from an install disk
3. select "repair your computer" after the install splash screen loads
4. under "system recovery options" select "command prompt"
5. locate the drive letter for your usb stick. cd to each drive letter and dir until you locate it

6. run this command (replace X with the drive letter of your system disk and Y with the usb drive letter). If you get an error like 82 or 7, then your drive letters are incorrect.

   dism /image:X:\ /add-driver /Driver:Y:\ /recurse

7. Wait for all drivers to be added into your system drive.

8. reboot into your system drive