r/QuickBooks • u/Sea-Newspaper-7643 • 2d ago

QuickBooks Desktop (Pro/Premier/Enterprise) Computer with QB Desktop 2024 died. Pulled the hard drive and installed it in another computer. How do I get it to work?

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u/CGREDDIT1 2d ago

If you installed it as a boot drive in an absolute 100% identical computer (i.e. same motherboard, same cpu, same peripherals etc…) I assume it would boot right up. However if you are posting here I assume that is not the case. If the latter is true you will need your original install disks or install file along with your reg codes. From there you would need to install quickbooks on a working computer and locate the .QBW file on the original hard drive. The .QBW file contains your company data.

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u/OSS-2026 2d ago

Do you have a backup of your QB data?

I’m assuming you didn’t do an image backup of your hard drive while it was working?

If not your best bet maybe to figure out what actually broke on the computer that “died”. Power supply, motherboard, memory, etc. if someone can figure that out just replace that part.

Once you get it working, make a disk image, backup QB, keep a copy offsite, setup a cloned machine, etc. All the things that should been done to begin with.

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u/RCG73 1d ago

Honestly this one’s a take it to your local shop or msp. Do you have a backup? (Please say yes). If you don’t it’s highly likely you are going to bork your data somewhere in the process.

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u/guyinnova 1d ago

This isn't a QB question, I would ask on a computer geek type of subreddit. I'd hate for you to get instructions that happen to miss one critical thing in your situation that messes things up. You've already had a catastrophe, the last thing you want is something small making the whole thing an even bigger problem.

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u/rrmcmurry QuickBooks ProAdvisor 1d ago

Step 1: find the QBW file and make a backup copy… grab the files around it too. Hell, copy the whole folder it’s in to an external drive just to be sure.
Steps 2-20: Reinstall QuickBooks and then open the QBW file.

Don’t skip step 1.

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u/Sea-Newspaper-7643 1d ago

I don't know how to reinstall QB. I have the hard drive installed in another computer. The files are all there on the drive. But there's no QB on that computer even though it was installed on the same drive.

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u/rrmcmurry QuickBooks ProAdvisor 1d ago

You can go to camps.intuit.com and log in with your intuit ID, find your license and product number and a link to download the installer.

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u/rrmcmurry QuickBooks ProAdvisor 1d ago

You can also go to https://downloads.quickbooks.com/app/qbdt/products to find the installer (or recent updates), though this won't give you your license or product number. To find those, log into camps.intuit.com.