8.1 supports complete hardware changes.

[dany2010]

Something good about widows 8.1.

 

Just changed everything apart from HDD, missed the boot from cd bit but found 8.1 just installs the new drivers and just runs.

 

Handy as I didn't feel like reinstalling.

[free780]

Needs reactivating I'm guessing?

[FN-GM]

Something good about widows 8.1.

 

Just changed everything apart from HDD, missed the boot from cd bit but found 8.1 just installs the new drivers and just runs.

 

Handy as I didn't feel like reinstalling.

 

Didn't 7 do that? I have swapped about hard drives in the past and known it to boot into 7.

[3s-gtech]

Even XP did, if you were lucky - generally Intel-->Intel and AMD-->AMD worked.

[synaesthesia]

I'd never recommend it in XP but 7 onwards generally handled hardware changes well. Including complete chipset changes!

[dany2010]

didn't know that. Just remember trying in xp and it just saying no.

[Duke5A]

It would work in XP as long as the controller the boot drive sits on uses the same driver as the one on the old board (same south bridge chip). I remember being able to uninstall the controller in device manager prior to pulling the drive and it would play and play the new controller properly.