Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Use a system image backup on another computer?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Use a system image backup on another computer?

    I've read many articles online on how to make a system image backup using the built in tool in windows 7 but many say I can't restore on another pc with different hardware.

    Yet this is exactly what I need to do. I'm going from a slow old laptop to a much newer faster one. But I have way too many files/programs that would be a pain to reinstall.

    Is this possible? If so could someone give me detailed steps to take to achieve it? Thanks in advance

    #2
    Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

    your in for pain, it wont "just work" for either windows OR linux.

    the main issue is the drivers it will boot with.
    most can be sorted *if* you can see the screen!!

    so the first thing you need to do is change your video-driver/card settings to VESA or Generic.
    or similar wording.
    and drop the resolution to something like 1024x768 with a framerate of 70-something Hz.
    so it's going to run on any hardware - even if it's poor.

    then copy the drive and put it in your new hardware.
    first boot may be a bit tricky, but once your in, you can search new hardware, set your gpu & display res etc.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

      Originally posted by stj View Post
      your in for pain, it wont "just work" for either windows OR linux.

      the main issue is the drivers it will boot with.
      most can be sorted *if* you can see the screen!!

      so the first thing you need to do is change your video-driver/card settings to VESA or Generic.
      or similar wording.
      and drop the resolution to something like 1024x768 with a framerate of 70-something Hz.
      so it's going to run on any hardware - even if it's poor.

      then copy the drive and put it in your new hardware.
      first boot may be a bit tricky, but once your in, you can search new hardware, set your gpu & display res etc.
      Anything else to change before trying or just display? I’ve tried booting on the new laptop with the hard drive from older one but it went into trying to repair windows which is eventually failed and wouldn’t let me in

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

        Originally posted by caphair View Post
        Anything else to change before trying or just display? I've tried booting on the new laptop with the hard drive from older one but it went into trying to repair windows which is eventually failed and wouldn't let me in
        Its the chipset drivers that are usually the issue. If you are going from an intel environment to an amd then it is sure to fail. They are located under system devices in device manager. You can try to uninstall them in the old system and then try to boot in the new system. The problem is it is hard to uninstall them because the system stops working. If you can get rid of the old drivers then windows will start loading new drivers. You can also try changing them to pci standard generic windows drivers and then try to boot in new system. I does not always work.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

          or maybe you can fix the install on the new machine with DaRT - but i never tried.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

            Originally posted by stj View Post
            your in for pain, it wont "just work" for either windows OR linux.

            the main issue is the drivers it will boot with.
            most can be sorted *if* you can see the screen!!
            I'm surprised about the Linux comment... I can pull a "system disk" out of a *BSD machine and throw it in another machine (same "architecture") and get it to boot pretty easily -- often without resorting to a "GENERIC/INSTALL" kernel.

            Sometimes, there are problems with particular driver incompatibilities -- but, those can be tweeked on the command line at boot time (enable foo; disable baz; etc.). Most of the bootstrap will take place with a generic "vga" video driver so you can watch the drivers loading and see which one is:
            • causing the machine to hang, or
            • causing the video to go wonky


            Reboot (nothing will have been altered on your disk by the failed boot) and enable (or disable) the appropriate driver on the command line (before typing "boot"). Lather, rinse, repeat.

            I probably hand-carry a system disk to a foreign machine at least once a week, this way.

            Windows is far less forgiving. And, stores too much cruft ON the system disk (can you spell "registry"?) even if you choose to install your application on some "non-system" disk (e.g., D: ). So, you can't "fix" the system and leave your apps in place.

            OP should create an image of the disk in question (Clonezilla being easiest approach THAT WON'T TOUCH HIS ORIGINAL). Verify he understands how the image process works by trying to "restore" the image to a "blank" (sacrificial) disk installed in that machine -- verify it works properly.

            Then, screw around with moving the disk (or the copy) to the "new" machine.

            IME, its easier to just reinstall all the apps on the new machine than it is to expect the system to be "stable" when it was built elsewhere.

            [Yes, this is painful. It takes me WEEKS to move apps to a new machine, get licenses updated, set all the options/preferences the way they were, etc. But, the new box is usually pretty stable after having done it "right"!]

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

              you can move linux around or swap gfx cards,
              but only if your booting to a shell.
              if you try to start the x-server with the wrong driver referenced in xorg.conf it will exit with an error code.
              that's fine, but if your setup boots into X11 then you end up in an init loop with it constantly crashing the x-server and then trying to start it again.

              you have to switch consoles with [crtl][alt]F2 and fix it from the shell.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                ^ Not had that issue. Went from a Poweredge 2900, to an Asus board and NVidia graphics in a custom build, to a T520, to a P52 without the X server ever having issues with the same OpenSuse install.
                Things I've fixed: anything from semis to crappy Chinese $2 radios, and now an IoT Dildo....

                "Dude, this is Wyoming, i hopped on and sent 'er. No fucking around." -- Me

                Excuse me while i do something dangerous


                You must have a sad, sad boring life if you hate on people harmlessly enjoying life with an animal costume.

                Sometimes you need to break shit to fix it.... Thats why my lawnmower doesn't have a deadman switch or engine brake anymore

                Follow the white rabbit.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                  Originally posted by stj View Post
                  you can move linux around or swap gfx cards,
                  but only if your booting to a shell.
                  if you try to start the x-server with the wrong driver referenced in xorg.conf it will exit with an error code.
                  that's fine, but if your setup boots into X11 then you end up in an init loop with it constantly crashing the x-server and then trying to start it again.

                  you have to switch consoles with [crtl][alt]F2 and fix it from the shell.
                  That's the difference, then. I run my *BSD boxes as servers and run X on (diskless!) X Terminals (or X servers under Windows, Slowaris, etc.). In that way, my user experience is largely the same regardless of whether I'm "connected" to a dinky little dual core Atom (with crappy video hardware) or a multicore Xeon.

                  In that way, none of those "clients" need to have ANY user interface hardware installed (keyboard, mouse, display) -- nor the hassle of configuring different X servers on each box -- yet can still be useful.

                  [Learned that lesson running real server hardware and having to put up with crappy LOCAL video hardware]

                  Also makes it considerably easier to cut and past stuff between OS's.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                    yes, i remember the days when "server" meant you got a videocard with nothing more than a 512k frame buffer on it.
                    i still have one somewhere, i used to strip them for the ram.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                      Originally posted by stj View Post
                      yes, i remember the days when "server" meant you got a videocard with nothing more than a 512k frame buffer on it.
                      i still have one somewhere, i used to strip them for the ram.
                      Most of the boxes I'd seen had on-board video (some low-end radeon). But, the options for upgrading the video (with an add-in card) were limited to PCI or PCI-X.

                      Additionally, fan noise is almost always hellacious so you want to be as far away from the box as possible (e.g., in another room). This just makes a "remote console" all the more appealing.

                      And, of course, there are other boxes that don't have expansion provisions that can play a role in your shop. E.g., I use a little Optiplex FX160 as my DNS, NTPd, xfs, lpd, syslogd, local MX, ftpd (to capture UPS logs), RDBMS, etc. It uses so little power and is so small (USFF) that I can afford to run it 24/7/365 tucked under a dresser (where a monitor and keyboard would take up far too much room). If you're already used to talking to hosts remotely, then there's no issue talking to it using the same mechanisms (its just a wee bit slower owing to its lack of balls)

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                        i like fans - if it sounds like a hovercraft i'm happy.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                          You can download and create system restore for Windows 10, if you want to save your data I suggest you do a BACKUP.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                            he does not want fucking 10 - nobody does!

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                              Originally posted by stj View Post
                              he does not want fucking 10 - nobody does!
                              QTF!

                              Sorry for not providing more useful information regarding the original post.

                              I've had some Windows 7 installations work just fine on different hardware and others not work at all. The one that I had most success with was some pre-activated (i.e. probably illegal) copy of Winodws 7 Home Prem. that I found on a used HDD I bought off of Craigslist. I didn't know the HDD was empty, so I plugged it in a Pentium II PC with 256 MB of RAM and off it went to boot and install drivers (took near damn forever, but actually worked ). Then I took the same HDD, just for giggles, and installed onto a different Pentium 4 PC with 1 GB of RAM. It booted again and installed drivers nearly flawlessly. Just had to manually force the VGA drivers. But since this was a 32-bit Windows 7 version (read: no enforced driver signing), I had no problems with that either.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                                Originally posted by stj View Post
                                he does not want fucking 10 - nobody does!
                                600+ Million users would disagree with you.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                                  Originally posted by brethin View Post
                                  600+ Million users would disagree with you.
                                  You realize how many people have gonorrhea?
                                  You think it's by choice?
                                  "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                                    lol, but you cant format your bloodstream!

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                                      Originally posted by brethin View Post
                                      600+ Million users would disagree with you.
                                      And you come to that conclusion how -- because 600M people are using it?

                                      Specious reasoning -- just because you're using something (because you had no other WINDOWS choices when you purchased that NEW computer) doesn't mean you WANT to be running it!

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Re: Use a system image backup on another computer?

                                        Originally posted by stj View Post
                                        your in for pain, it wont "just work" for either windows OR linux.

                                        the main issue is the drivers it will boot with.
                                        most can be sorted *if* you can see the screen!!

                                        so the first thing you need to do is change your video-driver/card settings to VESA or Generic.
                                        or similar wording.
                                        and drop the resolution to something like 1024x768 with a framerate of 70-something Hz.
                                        so it's going to run on any hardware - even if it's poor.

                                        then copy the drive and put it in your new hardware.
                                        first boot may be a bit tricky, but once your in, you can search new hardware, set your gpu & display res etc.
                                        Um.... he can image the drive then run Paragon Adaptive Restore after it finishes imaging.
                                        Main rig:
                                        Gigabyte B75M-D3H
                                        Core i5-3470 3.60GHz
                                        Gigabyte Geforce GTX650 1GB GDDR5
                                        16GB DDR3-1600
                                        Samsung SH-224AB DVD-RW
                                        FSP Bluestorm II 500W (recapped)
                                        120GB ADATA + 2x Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB
                                        Delux MG760 case

                                        Comment

                                        Working...
                                        X