How best to use Macrium products?

mjf said:

Avonnes said:

I've decided on using Macrium to clone my Vista 32-bit laptop to a new, larger drive Dell (Windows 7) 64-bit laptop. Can I use Macrium Standard for this?

Then, other than creating a Rescue Media CD and Backups, do I need to perform sysprep, or is this already taken care of in the Macrium software?

I know you have clearly stated what you want to do but why not move on to Windows 7 x 64?

Avonnes said:

That's what I'm trying to do & why I've asked for assistance with cloning my old computer.

I totally misunderstood your reply there. Your OP stated you wanted to move your Vista install to the new PC (via cloning), and I took your reply as "I really want to do that and that's why I asked". In other words, I thought you really wanted your Vista install on the new machine, and didn't want w7 (for whatever reason one might have).

Avonnes said:

Think I finally saw the light.

Cloning my old computer to a new OS is not going to work. And, an image of my old computer using traditional imaging products can't be restored to Windows 7, either.

I came across some possible workarounds but I don't have time to test them out. So, I'm gonna follow the suggestion of @ mjf and do manual file transfer.


Thanks to all for the nudge in the right direction!

Yeah, I think you've seen the light! Sysprep/cloning would have put your old Vista install on your new machine, wiping out whatever was there (w7). There are also potential licensing limitiations to deal with as well.

This may help you with moving (copying) your user data and provide a lttle help in getting programs installed on your w7 machine:

Windows Easy Transfer - Transfer To & From Computers

I've never used it so don't know how well it works. There are a bunch of posts in that tutorial that might be worthwhile to browse through.

The approach I finally decided to use to move my application programs and data files to a new Windows 7 computer is as follows:

• Install all of the application programs I want to run on the new Windows 7 computer from the CDs or program downloads (keeping serial numbers handy).
• Make a full backup of my old computer using Macrium Reflect and saving that backup on an external hard drive.
• Install Macrium Reflect on my new Windows 7 computer.
• Attach the external hard drive containing the most recent backup image of my old computer to my new Windows 7 computer.
• Run Windows Explorer on my Windows 7 computer and use this to find my data files on my old computer’s backup image on the external hard drive. Move these to my new computer’s hard drive.

Yes, this approach takes a bit more effort to re-install all of the application programs on the new Windows 7 computer, but, I think I’ll end up with a cleaner running system.

Sounds like a good plan. That gives you a good way to browse through a copy of the old drive at your leisure and make sure you get everything you really need from it. It also give you a backup of your old system and user data.

I'm not too sure what you mean about ending up with a cleaner running system, as there really isn't a way around that; whether you like it or not you have to go through the steps to reinstall all your programs and set them up all over again. The one "cleaner running system" option you always have no matter which route you take is determining one by one which programs you really do want to have on your new system and drop the ones you don't want to really bother with.

One thing you might want to do before moving (or copying) your user data to your new drive is to consider partitioning the new drive to separate your OS/apps from the user data. That way you can routinely create images of the OS/apps in case of disaster and use a standard backup app for your user data. This will allow you to restore either (or both) to a working condition in a snap if the need ever arises (failed hard drive, malware, accidental deletions/modifications etc.).