Setting up Windows 7 on your desktop and moving it to a laptop
Setting up Windows 7 on your desktop and moving it to a laptop
Is this feasible? You can place your laptop's HDD/SSD on another computer, install Windows 7 there, and then reinstall it onto your laptop. Since you can't install directly due to hardware or OS restrictions, transferring the drive works. The dGPU isn't showing up, only Intel HD Graphics appears, which might be related to the operating system. You should be able to run Windows 7 without issues on this setup.
I've handled this too, including Windows 97. It's been a while since I remember all the specifics, so you might find similar situations helpful—just keep in mind this should apply as well. You could run the installer, but it wouldn't let you install on the target drive. I used a 4790 PC; everything worked fine when I installed the main files before restarting. Then I changed the boot order. Initially, after rebooting, Windows would load from the drive I had set, but I shut it down right away and transferred it to a laptop using a DVD. USB seems possible too. Note...when installing normally and then restarting, it wouldn't start from the USB/DVD, but would use the source drive's boot files instead. Progressing normally with the USB/DVD as secondary media, as I remember. So even if you keep the same boot sequence, it will still work—just booting from the installed drive afterward. In short... on my dedicated PC, I started from USB/DVD, picked the laptop drive for installation, installed files before restarting, switched drives, and then ended up booting from the hard drive once again. But USB is likely an option as well.
If you complete the setup on your PC—including restarts—and set up your account there, moving it to the laptop should work smoothly. No BSODs or issues are expected.
Try the IDE in BIOS first, then adjust it via Windows Regedit with a single bit change (1→0) and switch back to IDE in BIOS. It works in under 2 minutes with a restart.
It can depend on shared components and what drivers have already loaded by windows itself tied to the hardware used, but it's not that long to start over with a Reinstall (install is what,... 10mins, drivers/account/settings another 5-10mins if done previously) Thing is,.. do you want to be annoyed by some finicky crisscross hidden driver issue later by not doing a quick reinstall now...? It very well could have booted windows, seen your desktop motherboard and started linking DLL files and drivers, just from what windows has inbuilt, AKA Network/Audio, then you switch to different chipsets (laptop) and it could work fine forever..... or it may once in 6 years throw an error in a certain program/game/whatever...
The problems you mention shouldn’t interfere with installing a fresh operating system from an external source like USB or DVD. These issues relate to corruption in the existing OS, preventing it from even starting during installation of a new OS. Have you attempted to install the OS yourself already?