Migrating to new hardware.

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by pickers, Nov 27, 2005.

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  1. pickers

    pickers Registered Member

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    I am having a new machine built with new mobo, processor and hard drive.
    The tech doing the job thinks that if I clone the present hard drive using Acronis to the new system because of the new hardware I will end up with an unstable system even if I use sysprep.exe as suggested in one of you articles. Is he right? He suggest that to avoid unstable problems I should load up the new system with the MS op system and rebuild and then make the mirror image for future backups and safety using Acronis. I bought Acronis expressley to avoid having to do this.

    I have read the article on how to use the sysprep prog using "nosidgen" and "mini" as a response but am a little confused. If I understand correctly the process is as follows
    1 run sysprep.exe and answer "mini"
    2 boot up the old system from the Acronis bootable disc which I have already made
    3 make a new image of the old hard disk
    4 boot up the new disc with the same bootable Acronis disk and clone the image on to the new disk.
    5 start up the new machine again which should reboot itself with no problem using the now mirror image of the old system.

    Suppose the new system does not see the external drive as the same drive letter. Will the process still worko_O
    One other question is the sysprep prog has been written for windows 2000. I have tried to run it but only got two folders full of text. Never got to the point of answering "mimi". Seems a bit odd to me.

    Have I got it right

    Would appreciate a fairly quick response if possible.
    Regards Peter o_O
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2005
  2. dld

    dld Registered Member

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    Read this thread to the end including Alexey Povov's post. Note what he says:

    "Please also be aware that we can not guarantee the successful transferring of your operating system to a different hardware. Actually, no one can guarantee this."
     
  3. bobdat

    bobdat Registered Member

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    Quick Response: Listen to your tech!!!!!
     
  4. seekforever

    seekforever Registered Member

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    Another vote for your tech's approach. Sure it's a PITA to reload everything but it's a small PITA compared to dealing with an erratic system.

    Consider a new system an opportunity for a clean up of all the crappola you don't use much anymore, creating a nice clean registry, etc. Now you have something worth backing up.
     
  5. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    The safe approach is to do a clean install of Windows and reload all your programs. However, since you can experiment, why not?

    Restore the image of your old hard drive to the new system. Then run the Windows setup from the Windows XP CD and AFTER THE EULA agreement page, click on the old, restored Windows installation and REPAIR it. This requires a real Windows XP CD and not an OEM recovery CD, but it sounds like that is what you will have.

    With the installation to the same folder as the old Windows (this is called an "upgrade in place" even if both versions of Windows are identical), you may have all your applications working as well as all your data. It has worked for me.

    If this is a stable setup, you have lucked out. If it is not stable, then do things the more conservative way and wipe the hard drive, install Windows and reinstall all your applications.
     
  6. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello pickers,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Actually, your tech person is correct, since you really might get unstable or even non-booting system as a result of transferring the operating system to a different hardware.

    However, here is the basic scheme of transferring the operating system to a different hardware:

    - Prepare your Windows for transferring using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep) as it is described in this FAQ article;

    - Either create an image of the prepared Windows and then restore this image to the desired location or use Clone Disk wizard to transfer the entire contents of your old hard drive to the new disk;

    - Try to boot as usual;

    - If it does not boot then please do the following (depending on the operating system you use):

    - Boot the computer from Windows 95/98/ME Startup Disk and run "fdisk /mbr" command;

    - Boot the computer from Windows 2000/XP Installation CD and run "fixmbr" command in Recovery Console;

    - In case it still does not boot, perform Windows Repair Installation as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

    You might also find this article interesting.

    Please also note that, as dld has mentioned above, we can not guarantee the successful transferring of your operating system to a different hardware.

    If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
  7. pickers

    pickers Registered Member

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    Thank you all for a very quick and frank response. I think I shall just go ahead and be advised by some of you and my tech freind and use Acronis for full mirror image backup of the new system. I have too many unused things on my desk top anyway and I really dont want to have to bother with an erratic system.

    Great support process.

    Thank you again
    Peter
     
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