Can I have two identical PCs with clones of the same hard drive?

This all started when I had a problem with my first pc, a gateway laptop, would not wake up from sleep due to, supposedly, a driver problem. I didn't want to send it off for my free, under-warrantee, repair and be without a computer for however long that
would take. So I bought another one and took it to a local dealer to clone the hard drive of the first one to put on the new one.
This created a number of odd problems which eventually I figured out had something to do, it seemed, with Microsoft not allowing two identical machines to exist like that. I only plan to use one, the other one being exclusively for backup or in case something
happened to the first. But I think the problems occurred when I tried to switch back and forth, to do some texting.
Is there a way I can accomplish this?
Thanks.

Until Windows 7, it was possible to use two identical PCs with same clone. Provided, both the PCs must be legally licensed to use the Windows operating system (version as well as edition) and of same OEM, model and spec. This is possible because, the product
keys are common for all the PCs of same OEM build (if preinstalled, and the installed product key is different from the one mentioned in COA). This made OEM builders to distribute to more PCs than the license agreement, which is impossible for Microsoft to
find out. To solve this issue, Microsoft changed the licensing structure from Windows 8 - embedding the product key in BIOS. So, here, only the installation is provided and the product keys are not common for all the PCs even if they are of the same OEM build.
Therefore, cloning fails here. And naturally, as Team Zigzag and EC Ltd say, same product key can't be used for more than one PC.
As to restore the PC in case of an emergency, you can perform a backup of the existing installed software and user files, which can be restored later (File History in Windows 8). The following links may be helpful:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/what-happened-to-backup-restore
http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2013/09/17/backup-amp-recovery-of-windows-8-windows8-itpro-tipoftheday.aspx#.UkC-hmLrbIU
Balaji Kundalam

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