[SOLVED] Transfer LL from laptop to desktop w/ win7 sp1 (side-by-side)

[gold_finger]

If original install was OEM version, maybe it will only boot from an internal disk due to restricted MS license built-in to it?  (Just a guess.)

This may be the issue . and if that's the case - it means that every preinstalled software machine from a refurbished supplier may have this same issue with installing LL ?

An OEM version of Windows not booting properly when on a different machine, or external drive (in ukbrian's case) is a different issue than yours and has nothing to do with your particular problem.  Your problem is that it was installed with a hybrid MBR for some reason.  I doubt that this is a common problem generally speaking with refurbished systems, otherwise we'd see a lot more of these types of posts in forums.  I'm not really sure why it happened on yours, but it should be fixable.

That small Windows partition on your drive might contain copy of Windows used to create recovery DVD's.  Look in "Programs" section of Windows menu for somthing that let's you create recovery disks, or type "recovery" or "restore" in search box and see if there is a program to do that.  If so, make a set of recovery DVD's.  That will enable you to re-install Windows from scratch if you wipe entire drive.

If no luck with that, try downloading ISO of same Windows version that is on machine and making set of DVD's from that as per instructions on this page.  (You'll need to have a valid OEM key for Windows to use with the ISO.)

Use instructions on this link to fix the MBR using Windows recovery disks.  (I'm guessing that you may also be able to fix using DVD's made with downloaded ISO file, but not sure.)  Maybe that is all that needs to be done.  (Yes, I know your Windows already boots fine.  My thinking is that by going through procedure, it might change the MBR from hybrid to normal.  That's what I'm hoping anyway.  We'll see.)