How to: Clone Windows 7 to Another Computer

Reasons for cloning Windows 7 to another computer

Although many people have utilized Windows 10 for several years, some users are still using Windows 7 for some reasons. These users may wish to clone Windows 7 to another disk or a new computer for the reasons like:

1. PC is getting slower and slower and wants to clone Windows 7 to a new computer.
2. Built a new computer to copy Windows 7 from the old computer to the new one
3. The motherboard is failing.
…

Many situations will lead you to transfer your Win 7 to another computer. However, if you want to use Explorer to copy and paste system files, many system files cannot be successfully copied due to Windows permissions. What's more, there are lots of hidden system files users can't find, so the migration of OS is almost impossible to execute manually. 

About the license key

Before you clone your Windows 7, you should pay attention to a problem, the license key. Because when you finish the migration, the OS will ask for a license key to activate. There are 4 kinds of license versions: OEM, Retail, Full, MAK.

1. OEM: Original equipment manufacturer. This activation code has pre-authorized the motherboard of the computer, and it will be automatically bound to the first computer, so you cannot migrate the OEM version of the Windows activation status to the new computer.

2. Retail: This kind of activation code is purchased online, and there is a chance to migrate to another computer.

3. Full: This one, which can be transferred to other computers, is from Microsoft directly.

4. MAK: This type of activation code is used in large organizations; you can use one activation code to activate multiple computers.

►Note: No matter what type of license key you have, one license key can only be used on one computer at a time.

Transfer Windows 7 to new computer step-by-step

For the cloning operation, the best and most widely used method is to ask the help of third-party software. Here we recommend a professional convenient tool, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, with which you can clone Windows 7 to another computer without any worries, for its "Disk Clone Wizard" function can efficiently migrate all you need from one hard drive to another.

In this part, there are 3 sections to guide your operation. Please carefully follow the tutorial step by step.

After you install this powerful software on your old PC, disassemble your new computer, remove the hard drive, and plug it into your old computer, and turn it on.

▌Section 1: Clone the entire Windows 7 hard drive

First, launch AOMEI Partition Assistant.

Step 1. Click “Clone” from the top toolbar and then select “Clone Disk”.

Step 2. In the new window, select ”Sector by Sector Clone”.

♦Attention: The size of the destination disk is no less than the size of the source disk.

Step 3. Select the hard disk with your Windows 7 as the source disk, click "Next".

Step 4. Select the destination disk which is from your new computer, and then click "Next".

Tip: Tick "Optimize the performance of SSD" to improve the reading and writing speed of SSD if the selected destination disk is an SSD storage.

Step 5. Adjust the partition size on the destination disk.

►Note: There are three options: “Clone without resizing partition”, “Fit partition to entire disk” and “Edit partition on this disk”. After finishing the adjustment, please click "Next".

Step 6. In the new window, you can see the disk cloning operating by viewing the "Pending Operations", please click "Proceed" and "Apply".

▌Section 2: Boot Windows 7 on a new computer

After you clone Windows 7 to your new disk, put the new cloned hard drive with Windows 7 back into the new computer, then turn it on.

Step 1. Enter BIOS. Different computers have different keys to enter the BIOS, and "DEL" and "F2" are commonly used.

Step 2. In the BIOS settings, normally, the boot disk sequence is in the options of BOOT, Startup, Advanced Setup, Advanced BIOS Features, and BIOS features.

Step 3. Set the start-up sequence, make sure that the boot sequence of this hard drive is first.

When you finish the above operations, you need to activate your Windows 7 on your new PC.

Step 1. Right-click “This PC”, choose “Properties”.

Step 2. Find ”Change product key”, input your license key to activate Windows 7.

Until now, the entire operation of cloning Windows 7 to another computer is finished. It’s not easy, however, if you don’t want to reinstall, the clone is the recommended approach. With the help of the AOMEI Partition Assistant, you can complete the clone in simple steps. What’s more, this application also supports Windows 11/10/8.1/8//Vista/XP, and it has other practical features to solve various problems.