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Migrating System to Dissimilar Hardware

I've been searching through the forum but am unable to find anything on steps to incorporate drivers for updated hardware into the system restore image.  Anyone can can create a system image and restore it to a new machine but to make that new machine boot from the restored image it will require the correct drivers for the new hardware, anyone found a way to do this ?

Comments

  • Backupper Pro will do that for you: https://www.backup-utility.com/help/how-to-operate-universal-restore.html 
    If you're using Win10, the first time you boot, it contains most of the common drivers you will need and it will install them. If you need wifi, network, raid or other drivers specific to your system you can add them when you make your Backupper Boot Media https://www.backup-utility.com/help/create-bootable-disk.html 
    I actually restored an image to a different PC without using universal restore. The initial boot process took a little longer but Win 10 did find all drivers necessary to boot. Once booted, you can add any other drivers you may need. All you are really looking for are enough drivers to get it to boot into Windows. Don't connect any peripherals or external disks, etc on your first boot. 

  • Thanks for the response Flyer, I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64bit and will until I run into to many software conflicts and I'm sure I will be updating my hardware before I move to windows 10, so will Backupper Pro perform the same or is that more the contents of the windows 10 installer which is what I expect is the case, which leaves me at my original question, how would one incorporate the new drivers into the backup image to restore on the new hardware ?  I'm sure I could figure it out on my own but thought someone might have been through the ringer on this one and be able to provide some time saving steps.
  • edited January 2019
    If you make any hardware changes in Win 7 and everything is working migrating to Win 10 won't affect anything. People go from Win 7 to Win 10 every day. The install program will tell you if something is not compatible (driver or program). So if everything is working in Win 7 the migration operation to Win 10 will take care of most driver updating. You may need to manually update some of your drivers after install but that will be program or device dependent. Once you are using Win 10, Backupper will still function like any other program. It won't need anything added to work. Of course you will need a new backup image for the new system but that's it. 

    Your first post referred to a new machine and is why I assumed you were just moving your current system to a new one. In that case Backupper Universal restore will take care of it unless you need some specialized driver to boot your system now. That would be the reason you would need to add a driver to your Bootable Media. Once in the new system, if you need any additional drivers to make something function, you can add them at that time. Your only concern is getting the PC to boot into the new system and that can usually be done with generic drivers.

    And again to clarify this for you.... you don't add drivers to your backup image, you add them to the Boot Media that you created to boot via CD/DVD or USB. But this won't be necessary unless you need something special to get to your backup image location (wifi or network as an example). When you boot via that Media, you check to use Universal restore (for a dissimilar system). That should be all you need.

    If this doesn't answer your question please post again and be very specific on what you are trying to do. 

  • Thanks Flyer, I guess I'm not being clear.  What I'm going to be doing is moving my current installation of Windows 7 Professional to an updated hardware scheme (New Machine).  I have a lot of software installed currently including drivers.  I'm not updating to Windows 10 so basically it would be like taking your existing system hard drive and putting it into a new computer.  I don't want to have to reinstall the OS or any of my programs, that would take forever and a day. 

    I know putting my system drive in a new machine and trying to boot would probably not work due to the lack of correct drivers but I was hoping that downloading the correct drivers for the new hardware and installing them to the backup image would do the trick.
  • edited January 2019
    I understand what you are doing. I've moved my HD's and SSD's to a new build multiple times for myself, my wife and a few friends and all booted up with no problems. On initial boot, it may take several minutes but once the OS sees a change in devices it usually can find the correct drivers. The best way to do this is to just have your C drive (OS), mouse and keyboard connected. No other drives or peripherals. Shutdown, add your other drives and boot again. Then proceed to add all the drivers for your new motherboard... chipset first, audio, network, Intel management engine, raid, any  utilities you might want that come with the board, etc. You may have to do restarts as you add some drivers, the chipset usually requires this, but it will tell you a restart is required as you add them. All these are usually included on a disk with the new motherboard or, and best way, is to download the newest from the motherboard website. Then add any peripherals you have, printer, camera, mic, headset.. and you should be ready to go. You will probably have to reactivate Windows but that's a Windows function. If you need help with this, post here again.

    If your new system is using a new drive (you can reuse the old one if desired) for the OS what Aomei can do for you is this: Create an image of your current system and save it to another internal HD if possible (external should work also). Then put your old OS drive or blank new drive if you are upgrading and the drive with the image in your new system. Boot from the Aomei Bootable Media drive you created, either on a CD or USB. Perform a "restore" from the image you created to your OS drive. Check the Universal restore function. After restoring the image to the drive (new or old) reboot and only have your OS drive (and mouse and keyboard) connected. Then proceed as above. Either way should do it. I can only say this so many times..... the only reason you would need to add drivers to the boot media is if you have a specialized system where specific drivers are required to boot and you are using them BEFORE you change systems. ie.. RAID, wifi, network, SCSI. NOTE again, REQUIRED TO BOOT IN YOUR NORMAL USAGE NOW.
    And what I usually do is download all the new drivers from the motherboard website and save them to another internal HD BEFORE I put in the new motherboard. Then I'm ready to install them after the restore.
  • edited January 2019
    I hope your new machine is not UEFI based. AFAIK most (all?) Win7 boot only on BIOS not UEFI machines
  • edited January 2019
    Thanks Flyer, I'll give it a try, basically I should be able to just put my current system drive in the new machine and reach the OS to perform the driver updates.  

    JohnnyboyGo, thanks for the info.  I have the option for UEFI in my bios but don't use it since I have an SSD for my system drive, it's fast enough, I have my 6TB drive configured for GPT for storage and it works just fine under BIOS.  However, everything I've found says you can set Windows 7 up to boot from UEFI
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