Windows 7: Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer

A question Kari,
used METHOD ONE:did everything as you said in"command prompt" typed in %windir%\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe, the OOBE came up as you said.Even a fatal error occurred box came up also,clicked OK,tried what you said typing> net stop WMPNetworkSVC comes up invalid command; then tried> NET STOP WMPNetworkSVC and it comes up with system error 5 has occurred.
Have you got any ideas to help me as I want to change my motherboard as part of a computer upgrade.Am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 bit.

I still have one question after reading this tutorial. I have a laptop wit windows 7 Home Premium on it can I completly romove windows 7 off it and put it on my desktop? My laptop right now I about to bite the dust, and I built my desktop from scratch. Right now my desktop has windows xp and i was looking to upgrade it.

You cannot do that if your laptop has an OEM Windows 7 license, which it probably does. OEM licenses are tied to the original machine---which means the original motherboard.

If you have a RETAIL license of some type, yes, you could do it. Retail licenses can be installed to any number of computers and motherboards, BUT ONLY TO ONE AT A TIME.

I would appreciate it if anyone could answer this, as i am having the same issue.

Thank you.

Hiyya and welcome Isyther as ignaztsonic says - slightly different though is that I had an OEM on a refurbished machine in which the motherboard died and a phone call to Microsoft and they let me transfer the OEM to another machine that had previously been Vista (the other machine I had slipped in a SSD of course).

My point is for the cost of a local phone call what have you got to lose ?

I think the key points here are yours originally came with Vista, so your OEM was a separate purchase.

The OEM ignatzasonic is speaking about is the one that originally came with Isyther's laptop.

So, if it is like yours, sure it's worth a call.

If it's what ignatzasonic is referring to, it is indeed tied to the motherboard.

If it is a separate retail license, none of the above matters, it can be freely moved to another computer.

I have been on holiday, only checked in for personal messages. I will read recent posts and will try to answer them when I have time.

Sorry.

Kari

Hi Kari, excellent tutorial!

I have a question though. When I installed Windows 7 on my system I followed some of the ideas I found on this forum and installed Windows on a SSD while moving the Users, Logs, and some other folders on a HDD. The rational for this was to avoid frequent writing to the SSD.

Now, I bought a new motherboard and a new processor, but would rather keep my old SSD, basically just now I have no time to reinstall all of the programs on my computer and redo all of the personalizations. Sure, some of those will be lost as you've described, but at least not everything.

Now, given that the system installation is spread between two drives, what would be the best way to proceed: try to plug both drives in similarly numbered SATA ports and hope for the best, or should I first move the files back to the SSD and then proceed with the transfer?

Thanks in advance.

Hello unifex,

I would recommend to move them back to their default locations on the SSD first to help make sure that would be one less possible issue during the transfer.

Second what Brink said. Besides hearing that "excessive writes" isn't a practical issue with SSD's, putting system folders on a non-system drive greatly complicates imaging.
When I tested sysprep, restoring an image to a PC with very different hardware, I didn't notice loss of personal settings. Didn't dig in hard, but the desktop had all my program shortcuts and I did use a few. Tweaking my single account back to admin was the only task, as I recall.