Restore to Dissimilar Hardware Imaging?

I'm looking for a Restore to Dissimilar Hardware Imaging solution.

I'm working on ThinkPads, specifically T60 & T61. Been using EaseUs Todo Backup Advanced Server v4.5. It has worked flawlessly for years.

On the 15.4" versions EaseUS TBAS continues to work flawlessly.

But lately all the 14.1" versions after restoring an image continue to boot loop.

Anyone know the solution? Or any other reliable Imaging program that Restores to Dissimilar Hardware?

I want it known that in the past, 3-15 years ago I've used many brands of imaging & cloning software. And that I have a bias based on failures of these brands: Acronis, Paragon, & Norton/Symantec. So I'd like to stay away from these brands if possible. Unless the respondent know based on personal experience one of these brands reliably restores images to dissimilar hardware.

Thank you Wilders.

 

I have used Macrium Reflect Pro to upgrade two PCs and upgraded through two laptops with the same OS environment (move from one laptop to another twice). Worked really well and the machines are still working well today.

 

You can use Paragon Backup & Recovery to create and image and restore it to different hardware. I haven't tried it myself however.

If you have the ability to use the image in the original computer first, you can do an in place upgrade from your Windows DVD, and the first time Windows needs to restart, as soon as it shuts down, power the computer off and put the hard drive in the the new computer. I also haven't tried this, but Microsoft suggest it.

From my experience with Windows 7, the last two computers where I put a hard drive in another computer, Windows booted fine with issue. In once case I mistakenly put the hard drive from another laptop with completely different hardware into another one, in the second case I put a hard drive in a more recent model Thinkpad. For the Thinkpad as soon as Windows launched, Lenovo's System Update tool ran automatically and found the required missing drivers.

 

ShadowProtect or Acronis

 

It's funny when the OP states he has a bias towards certain brands and then gets suggestions to use those!

 

T60s and T61s are pretty similar. You are probably getting the loop on the 14.1" model because it is a 4:3 thinkpad and the 15.4s are widescreen and have a different bios. I've cloned T40 images to T60s with no big problems, just drivers that needed to be updated and changing from a single to dual processor HAL. They still booted with the single processor HAL. I would suspect video driver issues are causing the boot loop and would try booting into safe mode and installing the right video driver and other drivers and see if that solves the boot loop. I would also check the bios settings before booting to make sure they are as close as possible to the machine the image came from.

I used the Aomei Partition Assistant and Backupper for this. There is no restore to dissimilar hardware in these programs but the hardware isn't all that dissimilar. I'm not sure what the restore to dissimilar hardware option actually does but I would suspect that it just puts in a HAL and NT OS Kernel that are likely to be compatible with a wide range of CPUs. The T60 and T61 both use core duo processors so both will use the same HAL and kernel and that won't be the issue.

I just noticed the Linux in your signature so what I said might not apply to what you're trying to do directly but I would still think that the differences in the video boards in the T60 and T61 would be the cause of the boot loop. The better T61s used NVidia gpus and the T60s ATI gpus. On the low end they both used Intel graphics chips on the motherboard with no separate gpu.

 

Thank you MisterB. I will specifically try 14" to 14". Keeping both a 14" master image & 15" master image.

@0strodamus - If it wasn't my topic I'd get a chuckle too.

I am looking for a cookie cutter solution.

 

I'm an idiot. I assumed all T60 & T61 were 64 bit capable. Not so. I was restoring an 64bit image from another imaging program. At completion message said my hardware is not 64bit capable. Loaded 7 32bit. So far so good.

It was NOT EaseUs Todo Backup Advanced Server v4.5 fault!

User error. Although I wish EaseUS had thrown up that error message.