What are the Limitations to Imaging?

So I've been keeping an image for a while, but I'm wondering when it ineffective. For example:

If I got a new hard drive of a different brand, would the image still successfully load and boot?

What if I switched to a SSD; would the image loaded to it still work, or would it be better to reinstall Windows?

What if I got a new processor or switched from an AMD to Intel CPU?

Thanks

 

Imaging didn't work for me when switching from 320GB HHD to 64GB SSD. Despite the image size being 5GB in size. This however depends on what kind of software you use.

 

Brandonn2010,

Yes, yes and yes. But you probably need a new image.

 

from my understanding the image only becomes redundant when you try to restore to significantly different hardware eg.

different motherboard and chipset that need different drivers.
different hard drive controller that needs different drivers.
different graphics card that needs different drivers.
network drivers. etc etc

most times you can restore the image and simply boot into safemode and delete any chipset or drive controller drivers,graphics card drivers. this would force windows to boot with default drivers and re detect hardware changes and ask for the latest drivers. this might need several reboots but 90% of the time you would end up with a bootable system, but might need re activation by phoning M$

bear in mind that the more changes you make the lesser the chances of success. there also becomes a point where its better to do a clean install and start a fresh

Gazzer

 

Vey nice question, always wanted to know those answer myself.

I know this much if you have an image made of your primary partition of 50 GB, you want that image restore to a new HDD , it is essential the new HDD primary partition size also be 50 GB or above. I don't know that for SSD.
Also if you have Win7 as OS activated by using MAK keys then after the restoration, the Win7 still needs to be activated by another if not the same key provided you have one. I think that goes for Winxp too if you are using OEM key then the activation would not pop up. But if your is a retail , then again activation is required.

I do like to know if the image made from a SATA HDD is restorable in a new SSD, i hope someone could answer that.

 

pinso,

That is partially correct. But often the image can be restored to a smaller partition. It depends on the sector spread in the source partition and the imaging software that is used.

SATA or IDE HD. Both images can be restored to a SSD.

 

I didn't knew that , i read in many and many help files of different programs some very popular and some not so, and it always stated restoring an images requires the destination size on the HDD always be equal and always greater then the source image of the previous HDD. Its a new thing for me, i don't image too much i just clone them.

wow, thats a relief to know, cause after few weeks i was thinking of switching to SSD myself. That is a deal breaker now.

 

It is because you are using a backup by storage structure imaging software. If you use a backup by files imaging software, you can easier to restore to a smaller partition.

 

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=337366

You can take a look at my thread. It tells you the differences between 3 imaging methods

 

I agree. That´s right. Also, the only reliable method to backup a system partition is to use sector-based imaging.