Can I move my hard drive to another pc and start Windows

[Meherr]

Can I move my existing Windows 8 hard drive to my friend pc and then launch windows. I want to give him some movies. Which is around 60GB in size. It is not possible to give it in a pen drive form. So I thought I can better transfer that through my hard drive directly by connecting it the to system. But will windows work on that. Because I also want to configure the system router.

[BethanyI]

No windows wll not work. It might work if the entire hardware configuration is one and the same. You have to re-install windows back again if you tried moving the hard drive. The best thing you can do is hook your drives as a secondary and copy the files. And then move your drive back in your pc. Do not attempt to install or repair windows. You might loose your operating system.

[jaykant]

You can only do that if you are having the exact same hardware. Or else it will not work. I had tried that before and the one thing I face that the system crashed with blue screen. I have a two similar pc at my office and I swap the drives on it. It works really fine. There is no issue with windows if you have same hardware. The setup should be also in similar manner.

[Jessalyn]

If you just want to copy files then the first option will really help. You can hook the drive as a secondary one and done. It will be easier to use it something like a secondary drive. Because you just have to move data. Then why to mess up with the operating system. Second thing you can do is use a external hard drive which will be more safer I think. because there can be settings issue if you change the drive.