Experience of installing Windows 11 on an old 2009 PC

[Windows Server]

I tried installing via a Rufus USB installer two or three times in a row. Each time, after the reboot, it got stuck on: "Loading operating system...". Then, I thought about installing Windows 10 and then updating to Windows 11. However, during the process, it BSODed, and the changes were reverted. This happened twice. Next, I tried the Rufus USB installer again, and it BSODed with different errors on the second reboot. Then, I tried to boot from a Windows 11 to go USB drive, and it resulted in watchdog BSODs.

I was losing hope. Then, I had the idea to use an old HP ProBook 6540b that had a similar CPU (Intel Core i5 520M). I installed Windows 11 on it and then plugged the SSD into my main PC. It initially failed, but then the recovery menu appeared, and I booted in safe mode. It took a while, and after a restart, the magic happened: it successfully booted into Windows 11. The only issue was that the Ethernet card wasn't working. To fix it, I went to Device Manager (during the Wi-Fi connection prompt for sign-in) and tried to automatically install the driver for the Ethernet card, which resulted in another BSOD. (Later, I fixed it by downloading the driver from the Realtek website.)

So, that's my story. I hope that you could understand it.

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