transfering OS from one drive to another

[Froger]

hey all.
my pc broke recently so i am having to send it back to get replaced. the one thing is that i bought it in a bundle so i am having to send back the SSD as well. but my SSD has my OS on it, and i dont have the key for my OS as i lost it, and im not sure about getting it from online. do you know if there is a way for me to transfer everything from the drive including the OS to another hard drive, wait till i get the new SSD, and transfer everything back, and nothing be affected so i dont need to reinstall the OS as i dont have the product key. or does anyone have any alternatives?
need help soon, but thanks in advance.

 

[Goldskis45]

You could always download a key finder but if you clone the drive that works most of the time.

 

[Froger]

would the key finder work if i plugged the drive into a PC that already has a different OS?

 

[Goldskis45]

would the key finder work if i plugged the drive into a PC that already has a different OS?

So the only Key finder I know of that can do that is "Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder"
When you go to install it on your computer it will falsely tell you that it is a Trojan, and it also wants you to install crapware with it (Just opt out)
Assuming the registry isn't damaged, the key finder program should find the product key used to install Windows on that hard drive.


Although if your computer was manufactured by a large company like Dell, Sony, Gateway, etc. then the product key that the key finder will find is likely a generic product key that Microsoft allows the manufacturer to use so it's easy for them to mass produce PCs.

If this happens, it can be a pain to get them to reactivate your installation of windows and you will have to call Microsoft support and tell them that your system is being replaced.

Edit:
I would still try cloning it along with getting the key though.

 

[Froger]

I bought windows 8 pro of the Microsoft website... So it should work... I just don't want to switch OS's on the other PC in case something goes wrong... So of it will work... Then I will do it

 

[SuB]

Acronis True Image will clone/backup your drive and it will be a proper copy with key and all. I've used it to move a system in the past. Just don't use it to use the same license in multiple places and you're sorted.

Don't bother with stuff like Norton Ghost as it's crap and has no idea what a UEFI partition is or what the fuck to do with it.

 

[Goldskis45]

Acronis True Image will clone/backup your drive and it will be a proper copy with key and all. I've used it to move a system in the past. Just don't use it to use the same license in multiple places and you're sorted.

Don't bother with stuff like Norton Ghost as it's crap and has no idea what a UEFI partition is or what the fuck to do with it.

+1 to this^

 

[Froger]

OK... I have cloned the drive... But the magic jelly bean can't find windows 8 on the second drive... It only finds windows 7 on the primary drive. Any ideas?

 

[Goldskis45]

You did direct it to the secondary drive right?

 

[SuB]

magic jelly bean?

if you have two bootable drives it's probably going to ignore one of them, try just running with the one drive?

 

[Froger]

OK... Yes... A direct clone... And I ran it on one drive and got it...