How to restore image to different brand PC?

I recently bought TI 8.0. I created several C-drive images on my Dell PC, restored one to my F-drive, and successfully rebooted from the F-drive. So I now feel well-protected against a C-drive failure.

But what if the PC itself dies? I still need to get back in operation quickly. How do I (can I?) restore an image to a different PC altogether, a Gateway, say, with a different chipset or whatever? It wouldn't boot, would it? Is there any way of guarding against a total PC failure so that I could be up and running quickly on another PC with not just my "data" files (which of course I have separate additional backups of) but my whole system image: programs, settings, preferences, etc.?

 

If your talking about window XP, then the answer is no. Win/XP via its registration policy's, is licensed to a given system. Changes such as a mother board swap, are not tolerated. This is due to the OEM version that probably has come from your Dell system.

Storage_man

 

Yes, I am using XP. Besides the OEM System Disk, I also have a separately licensed XP full-retail install cd. Would it make a difference if I were to use that to reinstall XP on my current Dell PC? Would an image made from the Dell running the full-retail XP be transportable to another PC?

 

When the hard drive died, I decided to upgrade at that time rather than just replace the hard drive. I used TrueImage ver 8 to restore a Dell (Pentium) pc (WinXP Professional) to a much faster (and Athlon) eMachine. It will work as long as you use the OEM license code for WinXP on the system to which you are restoring the backup image. In this case, I used the WinXP license for the eMachine.

Ghost will not work this way but TrueImage does.

 

RB-101

What simonex says is true.

Storage_man

 

OK, that would be great - but I want to be clear on the procedure:

+ I create an image on the Dell.

+ If the Dell crashes, I restore the image to a hard drive on the Gateway.

+ I boot the Gateway from the restored drive...but here's where I'm unclear...Will it boot up at all? When do I get the chance to supply the OEM license-key? And I assume I would have to install all the Gateway drivers, too - at what point would that be done?

 

All this assumes that the 2 hardware configurations are compatable, and Windows will boot at all given the contrary hardware environment. The list of potential driver conflicts is impressive, and really not worth the trouble OMHO.

It's still good to HAVE the image cause you can get files off of it, but Windows does not much like being moved.