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I have a Windows 7 64-bit installation on my current PC, and I want to move it to a new PC .. I do NOT have a problem with licensing, as the new system already has its own new Windows 7 license, which I intend to use.

I want to use my existing installation, because it has 3 years worth of installed office related software development software, which installing again could take weeks !

I'm assuming that I can use Windows 7's Backup and Restore feature to backup a system image to a network location, then restore that network stored system image on the new PC ?

Again, like I said, I don't have a WIndows 7 licensing issue, as both machines are corporate provided and come with their own licences.

Matthew Lock
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Ahmad
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4 Answers4

9

Short answer: you have to run sysprep on your old PC, shut it down and move the drive to the new PC.

Long answer: Sysprep is one way only and it strips Windows from all hardware drivers, once you run it, you'd have to install drivers on your old PC as well. You need to create a backup of your Windows in case something will go wrong.

Use the following procedure if you have a spare new drive:

  1. Clone old drive to the new disk, connected via USB to old PC (use gparted or clonezilla live CD)
  2. Swap disks and boot old PC from new drive
  3. Ensure you have the product key as Windows 10 may require it after booting in new PC
  4. Run sysprep on old PC with new drive, shutdown old PC
  5. Put the new drive in new PC, boot and see how and if it works. This way you will still have an untouched old drive that you can still use.
Matthew Lock
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Alec Istomin
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0

It's easy: use Pen Drive Linux and Ubuntu to perform a bitwise clone to the new storage device. (Be sure the new storage device is at least as large as the old one.) Disk cloning instructions are here.

Afterwards, if Windows won't boot, you can download the critical chipset drivers and install them from the Windows install media's Recovery Console with DISM. This is more an issue for Windows 7, as Windows 10 is pretty good here. Once Windows is booting, install any remaining drivers and you should be good to go.

R.J. Dunnill
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Connect the new PC's hard disk to your old PC and mirror the old hard disk using GParted. I think it even allows mirroring over networks, but I don't have any experience doing that. Once done, move the hard disk back to your new PC. The system most likely won't boot up properly, so use Windows 7's restore console. It should be able to fix the issues during two or three attempts.

Important: Don't try to mirror your old hard disk using tools such as Norton Ghost. I've done this in the past and it will modify your old hard disk trying to add bootup entries for the new disk (which never worked for me; i.e. I've been sitting there with an unbootable source disk). So it didn't even do a proper backup.

Mario
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-1

Use applications like:

  1. Paragon Drive Copy 14 Professional
    Features: Upgrade your hard drive to a new one, Migrate to new hardware and more.
  2. FarStone TotalRecovery Pro & Server
    Features: Disk Imaging (backs up files, Windows, and partitions) and more.
  3. KLS Backup 2013 Professional
    Features: Backup of databases (Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL) and application data (Outlook, Thunderbird) and more.
Davidenko
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