Move Windows 7 install to different PC Hardware

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jeffw_00
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 1:46 pm

Move Windows 7 install to different PC Hardware

Post by jeffw_00 »

Hi - My 5 year old MOBO Died. I can get new hardware, but the shop is telling me it's really hard to move my hard disk with Windows (home Premium) to new hardware because what they really needed to do was, before my machine died, go into device manager and change something (disk controller setting?).

Fortunately, I did a full image backup (onto another disk) the night before it died. Does anyone know what the guy is talking about, and is there some Terabyte Unlimited tool I could use, either on the Hard disk (attached to another machine), or on the backup (which i could then restore to the hard disk) to put the Windows installation in some sort of "hardware-agnostic" mode so I Can put it into an new PC boot it, install the drivers and be up and running?

Thanks in advance for any advice you have.

best
/j
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Move Windows 7 install to different PC Hardware

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

You can use the TBOSDT OSDTOOL script to add critical storage drivers and adjust several other options. Sometimes this isn't necessary as Windows will adjust well enough on its own. Generally, the less changes to the system, the more likely it will adjust. For example, going from a board with an Intel chipset to a new board with a newer version of the Intel chipset may only require installing the newer storage driver. The driver needed would depend on the controller mode (AHCI, RAID, etc.) and are usually available to download from the manufacturer's website.

The general procedure would be to setup the new system with the new drive (could be the old drive, clone, or drive with a restored image on it) so it's ready to boot. Download the storage drivers and have them ready (on a UFD, for example). Then boot to TBWinRE or IFL and run the OSDTOOL script. Install the drivers (remove old drivers, if you wish). With Windows 7 (especially if 64-bit version) you probably wouldn't need to change anything else. Restart and see if Windows will boot.

Keep in mind that Windows may not reactivate automatically on the "new" system. Another thing to consider is if the old system is running a 32-bit version of Windows you may prefer to have the 64-bit version on the new system, which would mean reinstalling.

There is a section in the TBOSDT manual on using the OSDTOOL script which may be helpful if you are unfamiliar with the process.
mjnelson99
Posts: 785
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:24 am

Re: Move Windows 7 install to different PC Hardware

Post by mjnelson99 »

Chances are you will need to reactivate Windows. Even updating the
firmware on a DVD drive caused that on my computer. It was fast &
automatic in my case.
Mary

On 7/1/2017 12:23 PM, jeffw_00 wrote:
> Hi - My 5 year old MOBO Died. I can get new hardware, but the shop is telling me it's really hard to move my hard disk with Windows (home Premium) to new hardware because what they really needed to do was, before my machine died, go into device manager and change something (disk controller setting?).
>
> Fortunately, I did a full image backup (onto another disk) the night before it died. Does anyone know what the guy is talking about, and is there some Terabyte Unlimited tool I could use, either on the Hard disk (attached to another machine), or on the backup (which i could then restore to the hard disk) to put the Windows installation in some sort of "hardware-agnostic" mode so I Can put it into an new PC boot it, install the drivers and be up and running?
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice you have.
>
> best
> /j
>
>
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Move Windows 7 install to different PC Hardware

Post by TeraByte Support »

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/ has a video (dell to hp server)
sample.



DrTeeth
Posts: 1289
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: Move Windows 7 install to different PC Hardware

Post by DrTeeth »

On Sat, 1 Jul 2017 10:23:07 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
jeffw_00 disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>Thanks in advance for any advice you have.

There is every chance that you will be able to transfer your disks to
the new system without doing anything. You may have to reactivate Win
7.

I upgraded my system a few years ago and of course, took a backup
first. I then upgraded the mb and CPU and booted. I had to do a
coupler of reboots and all was well. Then, there was a hardware issue
which involved refitting the old mb and CPU and sending the new ones
back. This happened a total of four times and I am STILL using that OS
to this day without any issue.

I would save any other procedures until you are sure that the above
does not work. The above got a bad name as in win XP, it failed with a
BSOD if one had installed 3rd party drivers for the chipset and not
removed them before the swap.

When I upgrade in a few months, I will do the above again. The time is
coming where I may do a fresh install of Win 7, but it certainly will
not be due to hardware swaps.
--
Cheers,

DrT

"If you want to find out what is wrong
with democracy, spend five minutes with
the average voter." - Winston Churchill
jeffw_00
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 1:46 pm

Re: Move Windows 7 install to different PC Hardware

Post by jeffw_00 »

First - apologies for taking so long to respond - life got ahead of me. But thanks to everyone for all the feedback. The guy at the shop found a similar MOBO in the basement and used it to bring up my disk so he could do the fix he described. However, I will share this thread with him. TBU rocks!
/j
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