Can I clone applications but not the operating system?

I am replacing a server for a small business. The old machine and the new machine are both Windows XP Pro. I haven't used TI before so forgive my ignorance.

I would like to temporarily add the old drive to the new machine as a slave and clone the applications and data but not the OS, since the new computer is already set up for the rest of the new hardware. I'm trying to avoid the situation where I have to reinstall all the apps and then migrate all the data manually. It also seems to me that I'd be wiser to stick with the new OS rather than importing all of the old cruft from the old OS from deleted apps and so on.

Is there a way I can do this? From reading the docs for True Image 11, home version, it seems that the only option is to wipe clean the destination drive. Can I keep my new OS but use True Image to copy my old apps and data without a huge hassle? Or is this an impossible pipe dream?

 

IMO, its impossible. TI11 apparently (I dont' have it) has an exclude folders from image backups but that won't do much for the registry entries. Also, apps tend to put bits and pieces in various places on the sytem and you would have to chase all of these down.

I would bite the bullet and reinstall the apps - when I have to do it I look upon it as a good refresher course in how things are set up.

 

Your problem is not so much in just cloning your programs - as that could be done by mounting the image and just copying them over. Your problem will be that most programs will require their registry entries in order for them to work or for Windows to recognise them.

It might work as you want if you copied the old registry over and merged it with the new, but I think this would be an awful lot of hassle, plus you may still get old entries that'll stuff up your nice clean install.

Your problem highlights one of the problems of a registry style system.

Colin

 

Ok. Thanks for the answers.

I guess another way I could do it is to use TI to just overwrite everything, including the OS. If I understand the docs right, I'd wind up with an exact copy of the old drive, just on the larger, new drive. Then I'd have to go through and find drivers and such for all the new hardware. Is this advisable, or is it a bad idea?

 

Depends on who you ask! Some of us prefer to do a fresh clean install and bypass these issues even if it takes time. Another advantage is that if you have some obscure problem later you won't wonder if it was because you did it the quicker way.

Others have done the restore to different hardware and then done a Windows repair. You could search the forum for threads on this. It is recommended you change the video to generic vga to get that driver out of the equation. You can also look at Microsoft's Sysprep tool which helps with PCI devices.

Another option is to use Acronis Universal Restore. However, I believe you have to use it with the Workstation version of TI.

 

You know, the more I think about it, the more I think I'll go with the original advice to just bite the bullet, reinstall everything, and migrate each application's data files manually. Pain in the butt, but as you say, then I'll have a fresh system and be sure there's no other problems.

Thanks again, this is a very helpful forum with fast response times. And I'll probably still use TI to image this system once I finally do get it done.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup software

To Sam Hall

We'd like to inform you that in order to clone your Windows system to a different hardware, you should first prepare Windows using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep)

Additional information can be found in this Acronis FAQ section.

If you have any further questions concerning our software, please submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will do our best to help you as soon as possible.

Thank you

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Eugene Bogdanov