Hi everyone,
I've just been reading up about a software product which claims it can do something which most disc cloning/backup software can't do successfully: namely, allow you to clone a C drive from one Windows computer and then install (transfer) this onto a different Windows computer with different hardware / driver requirements etc.
I'm pretty skeptical about this as, I imagine like most of you, I've been led to believe that transferring a C Drive clone onto a differently hardware-configured computer will fail to work and usually result in BSOD due to driver issues tied to the specific hardware etc.
But here is that AOMEI Backupper Professional software:
https://www.backup-utility.com/features ... store.html
So have any of you had luck using this software, or indeed any other method, to transfer your setup from one Windows PC to another Windows PC with a different hardware config?
(In my case, I'd be aiming to transfer from a Win7 PC to a different Win7 PC).
It sounds highly suspect to me, given the prior and numerous experiences of so many people who have tried to install a cloned drive from one PC to a completely-different hardware PC without success.
However, on the flip side this software is 'only' $49.95, so I might be tempted to try it anyway and perhaps accept I've just thrown away 50 dollars. However, if it actually works then that will be very helpful...
Cheers,
DW
AOMEI Backupper Pro: claims to install C Drive disc clone onto new computer with different hardware
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2625 posts since 2 Jun, 2016
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- KVRAF
- 1929 posts since 4 Nov, 2004 from Manchester
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- KVRAF
- 1929 posts since 4 Nov, 2004 from Manchester
Not really experienced that since XP, windows 7 upwards tend to have enough generic drivers onboard that they'll at least boot to Windows on all but the most obscure hardware.dark water wrote: I'm pretty skeptical about this as, I imagine like most of you, I've been led to believe that transferring a C Drive clone onto a differently hardware-configured computer will fail to work and usually result in BSOD due to driver issues tied to the specific hardware etc.
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- KVRAF
- 2382 posts since 16 Jan, 2013
Paragon Adaptive Restore that can do this too. I used the ISO linked in the second article a while back to clone a Windows 7 drive to another computer.
https://www.paragon-software.com/techno ... verestore/
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/10 ... therboard/
https://www.paragon-software.com/techno ... verestore/
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/10 ... therboard/
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2625 posts since 2 Jun, 2016
Excellent, thanks fellas for the replies.
I'll check out Paragon too.
Previously, this was the only sort of advice I was getting with regard to manipulating the sysprep tool etc (halfway down this webpage):
https://www.howtogeek.com/239815/why-ca ... -computer/
So it's good to know that there might be some viable options to transferring to a different hardware PC in the future.
If it works, it'll certainly save me about 1 week - 10 days in terms of installing everything again (although I imagine there might still be one or two software issues, eg licenses, to sort out).
Cheers
I'll check out Paragon too.
Previously, this was the only sort of advice I was getting with regard to manipulating the sysprep tool etc (halfway down this webpage):
https://www.howtogeek.com/239815/why-ca ... -computer/
So it's good to know that there might be some viable options to transferring to a different hardware PC in the future.
If it works, it'll certainly save me about 1 week - 10 days in terms of installing everything again (although I imagine there might still be one or two software issues, eg licenses, to sort out).
Cheers
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- KVRAF
- 1929 posts since 4 Nov, 2004 from Manchester
My own personal system drive has gone through 4 configurations since it's first install on a Q6600 based system back in about 09, mostly without issue. My test drives in the office tend to get plugged into every configuration that turns up on my desk which is about half a dozen different systems a week, without any fuss.
Where you might hit a few walls however is the software installed on the drive itself. I'm troubleshooting something at the moment where the OS did an inline upgrade from W7 to W10 and when it's been transfered to a new system (cloned drive with new key injected) it's got the most erratic DPC spike i've seen. Booting in with all startup apps disabled, and the services stripped back make zero difference and the setup works amazingly well with all the test drives I've thrown at it, so I can only figure that something installed is really throwing a spat with the newer hardware, given it was running fine on a 4 generation old machine.
The problem is that given it's third party code, windows performance analyser is having trouble tracing it to source, so we're talking needle in a haystack at this point, when really it should have been fairly straight forward.
tl;dr : it should work, except when it won't.
Where you might hit a few walls however is the software installed on the drive itself. I'm troubleshooting something at the moment where the OS did an inline upgrade from W7 to W10 and when it's been transfered to a new system (cloned drive with new key injected) it's got the most erratic DPC spike i've seen. Booting in with all startup apps disabled, and the services stripped back make zero difference and the setup works amazingly well with all the test drives I've thrown at it, so I can only figure that something installed is really throwing a spat with the newer hardware, given it was running fine on a 4 generation old machine.
The problem is that given it's third party code, windows performance analyser is having trouble tracing it to source, so we're talking needle in a haystack at this point, when really it should have been fairly straight forward.
tl;dr : it should work, except when it won't.
