Utility of extracting image onto "wrong computer"...?

Just to experiment, I tried extracting TI8 images from three different XP computers to a totally unrelated test computer.

Almost always, windows did not boot. Sometimes if I repaired the existing windows XP with a non-destructive reinstall, it would fix things. But sometimes even then, windows would hang. Even in safe mode. Even after I disabled the first five hanging .sys files, using recovery console.

From what I've now read, this is completely normal. Part of the process of "installing windows" means finding the right drivers for your motherboard, for your video, & other devices. And if you extract an image of PC#1 to PC#2, windows will attempt to use all of PC#1's drivers on PC#2, so of course it will hang.

So I assume that you guys never expected an image to be used like this -- to deploy a motherboard-specific install of windows to a PC with different motherboard.

But... IF you think about it, that could be a useful option -- to be able to copy all data & programs & user settings, from one PC to a new one with DIFFERENT Mobo/hardware... By OMITTING the driver info, or "resetting" it -- or whatever would make it friendly with a DIFFERENT motherboard/device set.


I guess this is really a WINDOWS issue, not an acronis or imaging software issue...


But does anyone know of a way to tell an installation of windows to "start from scratch" with regard to recognizing hardware, but otherwise retain all the user settings, user data and installed programs?

(As I said, doing a non-destructive reinstall of windows (to "repair" the existing installation didn't always do the trick.)


thx!

 

Maybe but this is not the case with me. I move the same image of Win2kSp4 around on 4 completely different computers with different HDD and different Graphics Cards and different Networkcards on following motherboards:
Asus A7V133
Asus A7N8x
ASRock K7VT4A Pro
Asus A7V

I never had one system hanging at boot. When a driver is not present then the device driver cannot be loaded and this will be mentioned in Device Manager. What I did is move (the TI from ) a fresh install of my Win2k Sp4 with all updates taking form one motherboard to the other adding the drivers of the new motherboard. Then taking a new image and moving that one to the third motherboard adding the drivers of that motherboard.....

At the end of the line.. now I have an image with all device drivers of all my motherboards in one and the same TI image. In case I want to reinstall one of my computers... I only need to use the one image.

I never had one of my computers hanging at boot after installing an image, not even when device drivers of that motherboard were missing.

Ciao
Itsme

 

Hi, dgrrr

There have been many post on it, [i.e.repair install] also a starting place is FAQ

Also the old thread To switch from a computer to another...

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

Yes. It's free and it's from Microsoft. It's called SYSPREP. More here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...all/reskit/en-us/prbc_cai_vnve.asp?frame=true

ETA: Well, now I see perhaps I spoke too soon. Looking for a definitive statement I only see MS stating that the machines should utilize the same HAL or have "compatible" hardware. So, I guess within the bounds of Plug and Play capabilities, it does what you want but how wildly different the machines can be and have it still work, I don't know.

 

Yes -- from microsoft.com page on sysprep:

"The reference and destination computers must have compatible HALs. For example, Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC)–based MPS (multiprocessor systems) must use the same APIC HAL. A standard HAL Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC)–based system is not compatible with either the APIC HAL or the MPS HAL."

Since sysprep is used on the original computer, BEFORE creating the image, it must be done ahead of time. If anyone knows of something like sysprep that acts upon an IMAGE, or a non-booting version of windows (works from dos?) -- that'd be cool.

You might say, why not run sysprep on the destination computer, to "reset" the hardware settings and allow them to reconfig -- but remember, windows does not run, that's the problem.