Never expect a bootable Windows drive to work in a different laptop. Plan for a clean install and copy data from the old drive via an external adapter.
| Same brand, similar generation (e.g., Dell Latitude to Dell Latitude) | Often works after automatic driver install | | Different brands or CPU generations (Intel to AMD, 8th gen to 12th gen) | Almost always fails to boot | | Windows 10/11 with BitLocker enabled (common in business laptops) | Won’t boot without recovery key | can i swap hard drives between laptops