Swapping a SSD to a new notebook
 

I have a 2 year old Dell XPS13 laptop, which has died as a result of a
serious liquiud spill. The 256GB SSD appears to have survived, and I
believe it is still fully fucntional.
What are the chances that if I buy a new Dell XPS 13, with the same
specs, and put the old SSD in it,the new XPS 13 will boot up and run
with the OS and apps from the old laptop?
What are the potential problems?
Thanks for any advice.
Richard

Swapping a SSD to a new notebook
 

Barring damage to the SSD, the odds of almost everything working as before are near 100%. The only caveat is to pay attention to software that is licensed and for which you have paid good money. Depending on the software, it may activate like Windows does, tying the software to the make and motherboard serial number (Dell's service tag) during activation. If the software is moved to another motherboard, Whoops! It does not work. To get around this for some customers, I have changed the motherboard serial number or service tag, after which everything works correctly as before. You do not need to worry about Windows itself though. Dell installs it's own Windows customized to work on most any Dell computer... Ben Myers

On Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 7:36:13 PM UTC-5, Richard S wrote:
I have a 2 year old Dell XPS13 laptop, which has died as a result of a
serious liquiud spill. The 256GB SSD appears to have survived, and I
believe it is still fully fucntional.
What are the chances that if I buy a new Dell XPS 13, with the same
specs, and put the old SSD in it,the new XPS 13 will boot up and run
with the OS and apps from the old laptop?
What are the potential problems?
Thanks for any advice.
Richard

Swapping a SSD to a new notebook
 

On Wed, 6 Dec 2017 13:46:35 -0800 (PST), Ben Myers
wrote:
Thanks Ben, that is very helpful.
Is it difficult to change the serial number or service tag, and would
you recommend doing this?
Richard

Barring damage to the SSD, the odds of almost everything working as before are near 100%. The only caveat is to pay attention to software that is licensed and for which you have paid good money. Depending on the software, it may activate like Windows does, tying the software to the make and motherboard serial number (Dell's service tag) during activation. If the software is moved to another motherboard, Whoops! It does not work. To get around this for some customers, I have changed the motherboard serial number or service tag, after which everything works correctly as before. You do not need to worry about Windows itself though. Dell installs it's own Windows customized to work on most any Dell computer... Ben Myers

On Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 7:36:13 PM UTC-5, Richard S wrote:
I have a 2 year old Dell XPS13 laptop, which has died as a result of a
serious liquiud spill. The 256GB SSD appears to have survived, and I
believe it is still fully fucntional.
What are the chances that if I buy a new Dell XPS 13, with the same
specs, and put the old SSD in it,the new XPS 13 will boot up and run
with the OS and apps from the old laptop?
What are the potential problems?
Thanks for any advice.
Richard

Swapping a SSD to a new notebook
 

I swapped a HD from a failed Vostro 1400 into a
working (but slower) Vostro 1400 and it worked
okay, thinking it was the failed machine.

Except found new hardware comes up on boot, which
I just cancel.

I needed the failed machine to resurrect with its
data, is the reason for the swap.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Swapping a SSD to a new notebook
 

If you've spent $$$ on expensive software like SolidWorks, AutoCAD, or Adobe CS, change the service tag to match the old system. Not sure what happens if you have Office that was installed at the factory. Dell may have a special deal for Office, providing a Dell-specific version that will run on an Dell. If you don't care about continued use of licensed and paid for software, no need to change the service tag. Dell's ASSET.COM program is the one I used to change the service tag on a Precision 3500 to match the one on a prehistoric 2002-vintage Precision 690. The guy now has the fastest XP computer ever, a quad-core Xeon. I have a hex-core Xeon here, but that would have been overkill... Ben

On Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 2:49:45 AM UTC-5, Richard S wrote:
On Wed, 6 Dec 2017 13:46:35 -0800 (PST), Ben Myers
wrote:
Thanks Ben, that is very helpful.
Is it difficult to change the serial number or service tag, and would
you recommend doing this?
Richard

Barring damage to the SSD, the odds of almost everything working as before are near 100%. The only caveat is to pay attention to software that is licensed and for which you have paid good money. Depending on the software, it may activate like Windows does, tying the software to the make and motherboard serial number (Dell's service tag) during activation. If the software is moved to another motherboard, Whoops! It does not work. To get around this for some customers, I have changed the motherboard serial number or service tag, after which everything works correctly as before. You do not need to worry about Windows itself though. Dell installs it's own Windows customized to work on most any Dell computer... Ben Myers

On Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 7:36:13 PM UTC-5, Richard S wrote:
I have a 2 year old Dell XPS13 laptop, which has died as a result of a
serious liquiud spill. The 256GB SSD appears to have survived, and I
believe it is still fully fucntional.
What are the chances that if I buy a new Dell XPS 13, with the same
specs, and put the old SSD in it,the new XPS 13 will boot up and run
with the OS and apps from the old laptop?
What are the potential problems?
Thanks for any advice.
Richard

Swapping a SSD to a new notebook
 

If you plan on long-term use of the working Vostro 1400, install the drivers, of course.

One does not necessarily have to use a system with the same model to resurrect data, provided one has the right tools at hand... Ben

On Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 4:32:28 PM UTC-5, Ron Hardin wrote:
I swapped a HD from a failed Vostro 1400 into a
working (but slower) Vostro 1400 and it worked
okay, thinking it was the failed machine.

Except found new hardware comes up on boot, which
I just cancel.

I needed the failed machine to resurrect with its
data, is the reason for the swap.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Swapping a SSD to a new notebook
 

Ben Myers wrote:

If you plan on long-term use of the working Vostro 1400, install the drivers, of course.

One does not necessarily have to use a system with the same model to resurrect data, provided one has the right tools at hand... Ben

On Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 4:32:28 PM UTC-5, Ron Hardin wrote:
I swapped a HD from a failed Vostro 1400 into a
working (but slower) Vostro 1400 and it worked
okay, thinking it was the failed machine.

Except found new hardware comes up on boot, which
I just cancel.

I needed the failed machine to resurrect with its
data, is the reason for the swap.

Actually it stays up 24/7 for a year at a time, backing up the main machine every
night and sending it on to idrive.com, so the message doesn't come up much.

Everything is Cygwin under XP run by thousands of shell scripts.

A version of Cygwin, unfortunately, that sometimes breaks intel wifi drivers and the
idrive system by getting process termination signals screwed up, but not so often that
it can't be lived with.

If you upgrade Cygwin then other stuff stops working. Like they changed the bash
syntax just for starters.

So it's all avoiding bit rot.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Swapping a SSD to a new notebook
 

In case my experience might help someone else, here is an update on
swapping the SSD fron an old XPS 13 to a new one:
- with the original SSD installed in the new PC, it booted, updated
some drivers, and ran properly.
- except for Windows, I was able to register/update all installed
software (including Office 2016) to run on the new PC with no issues.
- I could not activate Windows. I had updated the Dell installed
Windows 10 Home on the original PC to Windows 10 Pro in 2016, using a
generic product key from Microsoft, folllowed by the product key for a
Windows 7 Pro install that I was no longer using.
- That update process is no longer available, and after 2 calls to
Microsoft support, where people tried (I think!) to be helpful, I was
told I would have to buy a new copy of Windows 10 Pro (or a new
product key).
- finally, I called the Microsoft store in Canada to make sure that I
could buy a product key, and ended up talking to a very helpful
support person. He found the 2016 log file on the SSD that verified
that the 2016 update to Windows 10 Pro was legitimate. He then
generated a new product key, and Windows 10 Pro is now activated.
I would give Microsoft a C or D for the first 2 calls to support. I
would give the last person I spoke to an A+ for courtesy and knowing
exactly what to do.
It would have been nice if Microsoft had automated the process of
checking the update and generating a new product key. But, given how I
did the original update from 10 Home to Pro, using a Windows 7 Pro
product key, if the last call had been my only contact with Microsoft
while trying to resolve this, I would have been quite happy.

On Wed, 6 Dec 2017 13:46:35 -0800 (PST), Ben Myers
wrote:

Barring damage to the SSD, the odds of almost everything working as before are near 100%. The only caveat is to pay attention to software that is licensed and for which you have paid good money. Depending on the software, it may activate like Windows does, tying the software to the make and motherboard serial number (Dell's service tag) during activation. If the software is moved to another motherboard, Whoops! It does not work. To get around this for some customers, I have changed the motherboard serial number or service tag, after which everything works correctly as before. You do not need to worry about Windows itself though. Dell installs it's own Windows customized to work on most any Dell computer... Ben Myers

On Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 7:36:13 PM UTC-5, Richard S wrote:
I have a 2 year old Dell XPS13 laptop, which has died as a result of a
serious liquiud spill. The 256GB SSD appears to have survived, and I
believe it is still fully fucntional.
What are the chances that if I buy a new Dell XPS 13, with the same
specs, and put the old SSD in it,the new XPS 13 will boot up and run
with the OS and apps from the old laptop?
What are the potential problems?
Thanks for any advice.
Richard