Trying to boot laptop from spare drive

[SEMI_287]

I found an old laptop from around 2013 I had that has a broke screen. My computer case has a HHD dock on the top where I can insert the HHD and boot or access it without opening my case. So I put the old HHD in the dock and rebooted. I booted from it but when the loading screen went away I was left with a black screen with just the cursor in the middle of the screen. The mouse and keyboard do not work. I booted into safe mode and it boots to the desktop but the keyboard and mouse still doesn't work. I've messed with BIOS for hours and nada. I threw the HHD in the current laptop and it boots and the track pad and keyboard are fine. Any one have any idea what this problem could be?

 

[Ethan1]

If you're trying to recover data from the laptop hard drive, just mount it from your normal Windows installation. Windows does not take kindly to booting on different hardware (for both licensing and compatibility reasons).

 

[ndfergy]

What Ethan1 said plus you'll need a wired connection for your mouse and KB to work.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Unless the OS installed on that drive is for that particular machine, don't expect it to work well, or at all.

Why don't you plug in an external monitor and use the laptop as is?

 

[SEMI_287]

I just ended up accessing it through my normal installation like Ethan mentioned. I found it weird because my wifes laptop HHD would boot when it was installed in my desktop.

 

[ndfergy]

Originally Posted By: SEMI_287
I just ended up accessing it through my normal installation like Ethan mentioned. I found it weird because my wifes laptop HHD would boot when it was installed in my desktop.

Your wife's laptop was either installed with an upgradable license or full copy while yours was oem restricted to the motherboard.