Del M6600 MB Failure, Can I use its working drive in a "new" M6600? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2022, 12:48:16 am
content: My main work laptop in an DELL M6600. It is having issues with the GPU overheating after it smoked when plugged in to a bad docking station.It is Windows 7 Pro, 32bit. It has extensive software installations that would cost me a lot of time to duplicate, let alone, finding my Office 2016 Pro Key. The OS setup works perfect along with a lot of paid utilities.The "bad" M6600 pro is an I7 2.2ghz. I bought another M6600, same era, but an I7 2.7GHz.Since the bad one is still working, I am working on imaging the hard drive before anything else. I did have it backed up daily on my Synology server but find their Restore media virtually impossible to use restoring to an ATA drive method.Anyway, what are the odds of the image from the bad M6600 working on the new one, sans a driver or two? When I call Microsoft, will they let me activate the "new" one? This is the same as if I had to replace the mother board and need to preserve the bootable system. In this case, beside the processor speed, the MB should be virtually identical and have the same GPU card.P.S. - The good working system is on a 500gb SSD and I want to preserve that in case it would get screwed up putting it the other M6600. So that is why I am imaging it to test this first.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2022, 02:25:42 am
content: normally if the drive is not damadged or anything, putting it back into the same model should be fine, same cpu and same chipset, the drivers should place themselves automatically

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2022, 12:20:06 pm
content: for the serials numbers stuffNot sure there was Belarc Advisor i think who could list all the serials numbers of the installed softwaresTheres some software and or some procedures to back up windows activations and office activations ..And yes for windows activation the motherboard change will reset you license, it is the major part, windows 7 and up rely on a hardware signature ID, even putting identical stuf is considered a major change and reset a few things in windows not the installed softwareFor the reactivation well there is the genuine microsoft route or ''hacks'' but since wndows 7 is now defunct, you may have some problems to do so with Msoft ??

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2022, 02:37:51 pm
content: " or ''hacks'' but since wndows 7 is now defunct, you may have some problems to do so with Msoft ??"I gave up on Synology Business Backup. It just doesn't work with MBR very well at all. I grabbed Aoeme BackkerUpper and seemed to have made a good image and a Linux restoration environment that looks good. It is restoring on to the new "M6600" now. In about an hour, I should know the troubles I seek - lol.I have re-activated XP license, actually relatively recently, within the last year, with Microsoft on a different MB (BUT VERY SIMILAR, IF NOT IDENTICAL SANS THE ETX Module) through automation. I remember calling their system. Years ago, I remember actually talking with someone explaining that the original industrial computer SBC burned up and getting them to let me re-activate XP. I have never had to do this with Windows 7 and I know it is a lot more picky than XP was.It is a lot of work to re-installed a Windows 7 system from scratch and get all the support software from Agilent, National Instruments, Office, Tektronix, etc. to a workable state again and I am busier than sin right now.I will get on EBAY and order a Windows 7 32 Bit Disk and License just in case. Hacking it sounds cool, but I have no idea how to do that. I better get another Office 2016 License too. It will probably mean another Advanced System Care Pro license...... this is what I am trying to avoid.

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2022, 02:56:18 pm
content: Let's assume it will need re-activated. Can an existing system be activated with a new Key?https://www.vip-scdkey.com/software/p201609081840431338.html$17.... not much to lose.