Question from Travis: I have an HP desktop computer that got fried by lightning.
I also have an old Dell desktop that had a bad hard drive. Both PCs ran Windows 10.
My cousin connected the hard drive from the HP to his computer and it seemed to work fine, so I replaced the bad hard drive in my Dell with the one from the dead HP.
But now after switching the drives, when I turn the computer on Windows won’t boot up. All it does is display a blue screen with an error message on it.
What do I need to do to fix this?
Rick’s answer: I hate to be the bearer of bad news Travis, but I’m afraid you’ll likely never be able to get the Windows installation from the HP machine to work correctly with the Dell desktop.
Here’s why…
The Windows installation that came pre-installed on the HP is loaded with drivers that were written to work with the hardware devices in that particular machine.
While serious, the driver issue could probably be resolved eventually, but it would take a lot of work, some serious research on the Internet and just plain good luck. Truth be told, I don’t believe it would be worth the hassle.
However, all of that being said, you still have a couple of very simple solutions to choose from…
1 – Follow the directions on this page to create a brand new Windows 10 installation medium and use that to install Windows 10 on the “new” drive from scratch.
2 – Install Linux on the Dell (it’s free).
I hope this helps, Travis. Good luck!
Bonus tip: This situation is a real-world example of why it’s a good idea to always have a System Image Backup of your computer’s hard drive on hand. This post explains how to create one after you get the machine up and running with a new Windows 1o installation.