Importing images to other machines

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by rendez2k, Jan 8, 2008.

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  1. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    I've just downloaded Image for Windows to test against ATI. One thing of interest I noticed is

    Does this mean I can make an image of Windows on one machine, and then install the image to a completely different machine? I thought Windows always screwed up if you did this? I believe from another thread that some other products can do this so I wondered which products have this feature and maybe which ones work well? I'm thinking I could create a clean VMWare image to install on standard machines. I always thought it wasn't possible until I read the feature list for Image for Windows.
     
    rendez2k, Jan 8, 2008
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  2. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    They probably mean different systems with identical hardware.
     
    wilbertnl, Jan 8, 2008
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  3. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    According to the quote though

    "will help you deploy Windows to completely different hardware"
     
    rendez2k, Jan 8, 2008
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  4. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    With ATI and SP IT you can do something similar but experiences are not always as expected but maybe they learned something and put a better stuff on track. Its time for shoot out,i mean Peter maybe will beat on it.
     
    Huupi, Jan 8, 2008
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  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Rendez2k

    Other products I know of are Acronis True Image, and ShadowProtect. I have no experience with Acronis, but I did extensively test Shadowprotect's Hardware Independent Restore. It was quite amazing, as I did to some radically different restores. However there is a caveat. The stated objective of HIR, is to get you a bootable machine. You still may have to install drivers unique to the hardware to get full performance.

    For example I imaged my P4 pentium laptap which uses Promise Raid and a graphic's driver to the card in it. I restored it to my Intel core2 duo machine which uses nvidia raid and also has nvidia graphics. Since those raid drivers are somewhat unique, as part of the HIR process I had to point to my raid driver floppy. Then the machine restored, and I was able to boot to windows. I could indeed work, but the graphics's were generic. They needed the nvidia graphic drivers to get back full functionality.

    Obviously the closer the hardware, the better it will be. How good the Terabyte implemenation will have to be determined.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jan 8, 2008
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  6. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    May I ask:
    What happened to the previously installed (but in the new machine useless) drivers?
    When you remove hardware (let's say a Nvidia video card) and install other hardware (let's say an ATI video card) then the Nvidia driver is still loaded due to registry references, but not used. At first you will fall back on a VESA standard driver until you install the correct driver.

    To me it seems that the system is loaded with unused drivers when you switch hardware without uninstalling drivers.

    What do you think?
     
    wilbertnl, Jan 8, 2008
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  7. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    Thanks Peter - do you know if its included in the home edition of ATI? I couldn't find any details of it on the Acronis site.
     
    rendez2k, Jan 8, 2008
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  8. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Good point, I suspect they are still there. Remember the point is to get a bootable system. You still will have work to do. My preference with a new machine is still install from scratch, but HIR does work, and there are places where it's worth it.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jan 8, 2008
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  9. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    To get a bootable system is probably not the same as deploying Windows to completely different hardware.

    I have seen deployment in life: some employee was installing Windows on as many systems as possible in as little time for office use. Day in day out. Belief me, this guy didn't want to do any after-installation adjustments.
     
    wilbertnl, Jan 8, 2008
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  10. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I agree. I would assume for deployment, the machines are probably very close to identical, with only minor differences. For test purposes I pushed it to the max limit I could. Ergo per the Wilders standard, I was trying to break it.:D

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jan 8, 2008
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  11. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    Just did a quick test with ATI 11 - imaged a VM Machine and tried to restore it to a standalone machine. It restored OK but the machine won't boot to Windows now. I couldn't see any options relating to HIR though? Time to test SP next!
     
    rendez2k, Jan 9, 2008
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  12. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Note if you don't have it licensed, you will need to get the full evaluation not just the trial. Request it here. Ignore the text in red.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jan 9, 2008
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  13. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    Just had a quick look at the SP boot disc and the HIR options and I'm a bit confused. It says to select the volume which contains the OS to whose hardware configuration will be prepared for use on this computer. I'm in a VM and its allowing me to select the c: drive. Is this something I need to do before backup or when restoring?
     
    rendez2k, Jan 9, 2008
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  14. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    When you restore any image to a VM machine, you are restoring to the VM's c: drive. IF the CD was booted by the VM machine, you are fine.
     
    Peter2150, Jan 9, 2008
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  15. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    Does HIR work in all cases?

    I took an image of my VM machine with SP and I've tried to install it on an old P4 at work. The machine now just locks up instantly when Windows tries to start.

    When restoring the images, SP gives me a few options regarding MBR etc. - is there a particular option I should be choosing?
     
    rendez2k, Jan 10, 2008
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  16. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Assuming your disks on the old PC require no special drivers, I would first use the delete volume option, then create a new partition from the image, set the disk active, restore windows mbr, and also track 0. Don't restore the disk signature.

    I never tried anything from the VM machine. Can't test that right now as I am down one machine.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jan 10, 2008
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  17. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    Thanks peter - one thing I noticed though in the log is "HIR: target is not a supported windows volume' which is probably the issue. It sounds like the HIR can't be applied?
     
    rendez2k, Jan 10, 2008
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  18. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    How did you create the machine, and the disks on it?
     
    Peter2150, Jan 10, 2008
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  19. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    Created the machine as normal in VM (my only concern is that was an 'edited' lite version of XP SP2 I made in nlite), then used the SP boot disc to create a CD-Rom of the image file.
     
    rendez2k, Jan 10, 2008
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  20. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    Had this back from support which should explain it (can't test till next week now though!)

    This is most likely because HIR will not work (on the Desktop and Server editions) unless ShadowProtect is installed inside the image. You’ll need to install the software before creating the backup if you are going to restore it to different hardware.
     
    rendez2k, Jan 11, 2008
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  21. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I keep forgetting about that. Most of my testing either had SP installed or was done with the IT Edition beta.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jan 11, 2008
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  22. Hairy Coo

    Hairy Coo Registered Member

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    I have had experience in this regard with ATI and Paragon.

    I had just built a new computer and hoped to transfer the old contents to the new hard disks.

    True Image failed,as did Paragon.

    Am trusting SP to succeed when the next build comes up.
     
    Hairy Coo, Jan 11, 2008
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