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A friend has a 5 or 6 year old Vista machine with reasonable low-end hardware (Athlon64x2 w/ 8GB RAM), but the Vista install is pretty messed up and it needs to be wiped and reinstalled. We're thinking of buying a retail copy of Windows 7 for the fresh install with the idea of transferring the license to a new machine in a few years. I know a retail license can be transferred to a new machine, but is it possible just to move the HDD to a new machine, reactivate, and avoid reinstalling the OS and programs?
If you said you wanted to reinstall Vista in the first place.. why not just format the HDD and put Windows 7 on it first thing in the new computer? – cutrightjm – 2012-07-14T18:58:13.313
Let me clarify. My friend would like Windows 7, but doesn't want to by a new machine right away. His old machine needs a fresh OS installation anyway. What I'd like to be able to do for him is install Windows 7 on his current machine and just move that hard drive to a new machine in a few months or years when he does get a new machine without having to reinstall the OS or programs. – Jack Christensen – 2012-07-14T20:52:47.457