can i remove my hdd with windows 8 on and use it at a later date ?

Hi everyone i bought myself a new laptop with a 1tb hdd and it has windows 8 installed. I understand the product key is encoded into the bios now and would like to know some basic things. What i want to know is if i remove the hard drive then plug it back in will the product key automaticly register with the oem hard drive and still be activated in windows 8. The reason i ask this is because i want to put my 120gb ssd in the laptop and install my copy of windows 7 ultimate on it but would like the be able to use the windows 8 hard drive again. The problem is im not sure if it will still be activted on that hard drive if i remove it and plug it back in.
 

Question Info

Last updated March 24, 2018 Views 80 Applies to:
Answer
Answer

 

Hi Nathan,

 

 

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

 

Based on the information you have provided, I understand that you have Windows 8 installed on your computer, you want remove the hard drive and use it again at a later point of time. I will certainly help you with this issue.

 

Yes, you can re-connect the hard drive on which windows 8 was installed, but it will prompt for activation since there is a change in Hardware on your computer. You will have to reactivate Windows 8.

 

Refer to the link.

 

How to contact a Microsoft Product Activation Center by telephone

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950929

 

If you face any more issues while working with Windows do post on Microsoft Community Forum.

 

Did this solve your problem?

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for marking this as the answer.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this response?

Thanks for your feedback.