IT_Fanatic
asked on
Backup to dissimilar hardware
So today the user computer got worse. It's hardware for sure.
I have a full backup image that I made with windows 7 and Acronis true image 2015.
I want to restore the image to a new computer which is smaller and faster than the old machine the user had. Acronis does universal restore but it's not working. They say you need to add the chipset drivers including the hard drive controller drivers and the problem is those drivers regarding the hard drive controller are not found on a typical user PC on a server yes but not a user PC so without the driver when you restore the image to the new PC it will not work.
The old PC is a Dell Precision Workstation T7500 and the new one is a Dell Optiplex 3020. OS Win7 pro 64bit.
Any advice to get this image into the new dissimilar PC would be great. Even if I have to create a new backup image using another piece of software it doesn't matter I just need to get this to work and I have one day to do it.
Thank you in advanced
I have a full backup image that I made with windows 7 and Acronis true image 2015.
I want to restore the image to a new computer which is smaller and faster than the old machine the user had. Acronis does universal restore but it's not working. They say you need to add the chipset drivers including the hard drive controller drivers and the problem is those drivers regarding the hard drive controller are not found on a typical user PC on a server yes but not a user PC so without the driver when you restore the image to the new PC it will not work.
The old PC is a Dell Precision Workstation T7500 and the new one is a Dell Optiplex 3020. OS Win7 pro 64bit.
Any advice to get this image into the new dissimilar PC would be great. Even if I have to create a new backup image using another piece of software it doesn't matter I just need to get this to work and I have one day to do it.
Thank you in advanced
Read this article: https://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/2569/Windows-OS-migration-to-dissimilar-hardware-How-to-migrate-to-new-hardware-without-OS-reinstallation.html
You need to adjust the OS to new hardware. And if you do not have RAID controller enabled on new machine it must boot after Adjust OS operation.
You need to adjust the OS to new hardware. And if you do not have RAID controller enabled on new machine it must boot after Adjust OS operation.
Get a hold of Symantec System Restore 2013 r2 (eval good for 60 days).
Backup the old system,then use the restore anywhere function .
http://www.symantec.com/system-recovery-server-edition/
Here are the drivers ,just use the exe to extract them ,do not install.
Then copy the inf files to a usb drive and when you are prompted for hardware drivers ,browse to the usb drive and install.
These might work with Acronis ,so give that a shot.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/optiplex-3020-desktop/drivers
Backup the old system,then use the restore anywhere function .
http://www.symantec.com/system-recovery-server-edition/
Here are the drivers ,just use the exe to extract them ,do not install.
Then copy the inf files to a usb drive and when you are prompted for hardware drivers ,browse to the usb drive and install.
These might work with Acronis ,so give that a shot.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/optiplex-3020-desktop/drivers
ASKER
Unfortunately none of those options worked. Not sure if it has something to do with the new bios security UFEI. I finally got it to work.
What I did was the new machine already has the OS installed so I just restore the backup only the C drive to the new PC. Once it booted up uploaded the new drivers and that's it. No blue screen and it just worked and tried this 3 times. Weird as this isn't what Acronis says to do. Their method failed miserably.
What I did was the new machine already has the OS installed so I just restore the backup only the C drive to the new PC. Once it booted up uploaded the new drivers and that's it. No blue screen and it just worked and tried this 3 times. Weird as this isn't what Acronis says to do. Their method failed miserably.
Have you used Paragon Adjust OS as suggested?
ASKER
Yes and that did not work either. The model machine I had was 3 Dell Optiplex 3020 with pre installed Windows 8 which I asked the vendor to downgrade to Windows 7 Pro.
Pretty strange. For me it worked always, moreover I could convert GPT based system to MBr without loosing OS.
I'm doing a clone with a couple of 3020's (W7 64 bit) right now and the version of Paragon I have warns about the recovery partition causing issues if doing a restore.
I wish somebody could get this right.
I wish somebody could get this right.
If wrong restored to wrong place yes, it could cause problems. Otherwise there is no problem.
Sure if you try to restore an UEFI over MBR it can cause problemsor vice versa.
What is important, where the BootMgr is and the Windows folder.
Sure if you try to restore an UEFI over MBR it can cause problemsor vice versa.
What is important, where the BootMgr is and the Windows folder.
The warning comes from the Paragon hard disk manager server 11 when I attempt to clone to a SSD.
Since Dell is being cheap about restore media (and M$ discourages them shipping it these days),it makes for interesting problems.
You can't buy a 32 bit M$ OS preinstalled from any of the big OEM's to boot.
Since Dell is being cheap about restore media (and M$ discourages them shipping it these days),it makes for interesting problems.
You can't buy a 32 bit M$ OS preinstalled from any of the big OEM's to boot.
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ASKER
What ended up working was i did a full backup of only the C drive using Acronis. Recovered it to the new machine on the C drive. Once it booted up I installed the drivers it needed since it was dissimilar hardware. Simple but weird as that should not have worked and its worked 4 times for me now.
Win 7 was already installed. Acronis restore will restore the user's profile and files. All that should be left is installing applications.
Installing applications can present difficulties: missing disks or license keys, old version doesn't work on new OS, squirrelly interdependencies that aren't documented. If you have something insurmountable, you could try installing the image in a virtual machine or buying a refurbished copy of the old machine to run it on. (Creating a virtual machine from an OEM-licensed Windows OS is not allowed.)
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I haven't tried it with Win7, but you may be able to use installation media to get into the Recovery Console and do a Repair installation on top of the restored system image.