Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer

How to Transfer your Complete Windows 7 Installation to New Computer​

To start, a warning from Microsoft:

   Note

Important

You must use the Sysprep /generalize command to generalize a complete Windows installation before you can use the installation for deployment to a new computer, whether you use imaging, hard disk duplication, or another method. Moving or copying a Windows image to a different computer without running the Sysprep /generalize command is not supported.

This tutorial will show you how to do the transfer.

   Information

Windows 7 System Preparation Tool is a powerful, native Windows tool. When for instance used in so called Audit Mode, it let's you to freely configure Windows 7 to be then deployed to other computers as hardware independent image.

In this tutorial we use System Preparation Tool (sysprep) to prepare your Windows 7 installation to be moved to a new computer, keeping all your installed applications, program settings and user profiles. You can use this method for instance when you have bought a new PC and want to transfer your existing setup completely, without need to reinstall everything, or when you want to make major hardware changes like change the motherboard or GPU, which would usually cause Windows to stop booting normally.

   Warning

Using this method causes Windows 7 to lose all activation information, and it needs to be reactivated afterwards. If your Windows 7 is an OEM version, you might not be able to reactivate it, at least not without phone activation option.

I do not recommend to use this method on RAID systems. All experiments on RAID I know have failed.

With the speed of today's hardware evolution, most of us geeks are upgrading the hardware more often than operating system. Upgrading hardware can be painfully slow process if we need to reinstall the operating system and all our installed applications, plus transfer program settings and user profiles.

Using sysprep makes this easy. Changing the motherboard, or for instance an old ATI GPU to a new nVidia GPU quite often causes Windows 7 not to be able to boot anymore. This fact is usually accepted by the user, who then reinstalls the OS and all applications and transfers user profiles from a backup location.

Same thing when buying a new computer with completely different hardware setup compared to the old one, or trying to restore a system image to different hardware setup. Normally this would include a complete reinstallation of Windows 7 and all applications.

Why not use sysprep to avoid reinstalling? Here are the different scenarios where you can use it.

   Warning

An upgraded Windows cannot be sysprepped. As this method is based in sysprepping, this tutorial is valid only for Windows setups which have not been upgraded.

This means that if you have for instance in-place upgraded Vista to Seven, or using Anytime Upgrade upgraded for instance a Home Premium to Ultimate, you cannot sysprep and this tutorial cannot be used in your case.

Notice that a repair install is also an upgrade install, so if you have ever done a repair install (= in-place upgrade to same edition), you cannot sysprep.

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO CREATE A SYSTEM IMAGE BEFORE PROCEEDING!​

As you can read on this thread, on rare occasions this method does not work. If this happens, you can always restore your system using your backup image.

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery

IE10 Users: Please read this article first: Sysprep Fatal Error With IE 10 (FIX) | System Administration

METHOD ONE

Changing hardware components but keeping old hard disk(s)

Use this method if you:
- Change other hardware components but keep your old HD containing Windows 7
- Move the HD containing Windows 7 to another computer

1. Before installing new hardware, boot Windows 7 normally
2. Disconnect all external hardware except mouse, keyboard and main display. If your system folders are located only on C: drive, disconnect all other hard disks except that containing the C:. In case of relocated system folders, for instance the profile folder Users located in another drive and other system folders on C:, first move the relocated system folders back to C: then disconnect all other drives. Reboot after this
3. Run Command Prompt as administrator
   .
   
   .
4. Type to Command Prompt: %windir%\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe, and hit Enter
   .
   
   .
5. In sysprep dialog that opens, choose System Cleanup Action as Enter System Out-of-Box-Experience (OOBE), select Generalize, select Shutdown Options Shutdown. Click OK
   .
   
   .
6. Sysprep generalizes now your Windows 7 setup and shuts down your computer. Do not run any other programs during this phase!
   .
   
   .
   
   .
7. Switch the main power of your PC off and install the new hardware OR dismount the hard disk(s) and mount it (them) to a new computer
8. Boot the PC from sysprep generalized hard disk. You will notice Windows booting as if it was the first boot after installation, installing default drivers and updating registry. One or two reboots are needed, depending on your system specifications
   .
   
   .
   
   .
   
   .
9. When Windows finally boots up, you will need to enter all information as if this really was a new, fresh installation
   .
   
   .
10. Because your old user profiles already exist, Windows does not accept your normal username, but instead you have to create a new temporary user. I use username Test for this purpose
    .
    
    .
11. When login screen appears, choose your old user account to login
    .
    
    .
12. Windows boots now to default OOBE first boot desktop, with default 800*600 resolution and default theme. All your installed applications are there, as well as your old user profiles and folders. Windows has installed the default drivers for your setup, you can update them if needed
    .
    
    .
13. Go to Control Panel > User Accounts and delete the temporary user account (in this case Test) that you just created

METHOD TWO

Change the hard disk(s) or move Windows 7 setup to a new computer using third party imaging software

Use this method if you:
- Replace the HD containing Windows 7 on your old computer
- Move Windows 7 to a new HD on another computer

1. Follow steps 1 through 5 above (method 1)
2. Boot PC with an imaging CD/DVD (Paragon, Macrium etc.). See Macrium Reflect Free:at our sister site TenForums.com: Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials . Also see this post for a practical tip to create a Macrium system image.
3. Create an image of your system
4. Turn PC off, change the hard disk(s) and reboot with imaging application, restoring the image OR boot the new computer with imaging software and restore the image
5. Continue from step 7 above (method 1)

This procedure is failsafe, and works every time. There is nothing to worry, but of course it is recommended to make a backup before trying this. I have even used this method when some serious driver issues caused the PC to constantly crash (BSOD), to reset all drivers to Windows defaults and then reinstalling them one by one to find the culprit.

   Note

What does Sysprep generalizing do to my Windows 7 setup?

• All system specific information is removed or uninstalled
• Security ID (SID) of your hardware setup is reseted
• All system restore points are deleted
• All event logs are deleted
• All personalization is removed (taskbar, toolbars, folder options, start orb etc.)
• Built-in administrator account is disabled (if it was enabled) and needs to be re-enabled after the transfer if needed

What happens when booting first time after sysprep generalizing?

• First boot configuration is run
• New SID is created
• Re-arm counter is reseted if not already re-armed three times
• Windows 7 is booted using first boot default drivers and settings

I have tested all above mentioned methods with all versions of Windows 7, from Starter to Enterprise. It works every time, with one exception: for reasons unknown to me, sysprep seems sometimes dislike Windows Media Player networking service, which is by default started every time Windows 7 starts. In about every third time I've done this, I've got an error message when trying to generalize:



However, this is not a big problem. You just need to stop the WMP networking service, and run sysprep with generalize option again. You can stop the service in question by typing net stop WMPNetworkSvc to command prompt, and hitting Enter:



If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.

Happy computing!

Kari

EDIT: A Useful tip from xxxwea, as later confirmed by Victor:

Kari, just a suggestion.

You might note in the tutorial that if on first booting Windows can't finish configuring, a reboot into safe mode, then a normal reboot will allow it to finish successfully.

This has happened to me both times I used a sysprepped system drive in a new computer. I found the answer to this problem buried deep in this thread the first time I ran into it, and the same thing happened yesterday on a different computer.

It's a seemingly very silly solution, but it works. I do believe many people have abandoned their sysprep work when they encounter the problem.

I think the solution deserves more visibility.

 

[CRz]

Hi,
I've looked thru your sysprep guide and it seems quite straite forward...

It does not seem to work in my case since I didnt make a clean installation, in my case I installed from IBM recovery DVD with drivers. And then modify according to my customers requirements, network settings and software.
As I mentioned in my post it starts using IBM sysprep answer file, don't want OOBE at all when I start.
It would be nice if I didnt have it, only want to transfer local admin profile to default user and have have normal login screen when I start my image on new computer that I have recovered to.

 

[jogi]

this is very useful, thx

 

[bullfights]

Well unfortunately it didnt work for me, not sure why not but i kept getting a BSOD on windows splash screen. I did follow the steps, but before I did the sysprep I cloned my Hd (from a 150gb 10k to a 300gb 10k), so I did the method 1 and after the sysprep I shutdown, built the new pc installed hd, booted and was welcomed to the please select safe mode, etc. Selected normal windows and splash screen came up and just as it was going into the login it gave me a BSOD, but so fast that i couldnt read it. I tried it a couple more times and same thing, I tried safe mode and nada.

I then re-installed windows (clean install) since I did clone the original drive.

Now my question is since I upgraded the system, changing the MB, RAM, and Video card, I would like that PC to be the main PC, but I need to transfer files from the original hd (150gb) to the new one. Secondly, I can boot back up with the 150 in another case with the same setup as before, installing device drivers of course...and with that I can back files up for transfer but how do I transfer, pull the drive and put it in external enclosure? which i normally do or hmm

 

[bullfights]

It simply means that if you want to transfer your Windows installation as it is, with applications and user profiles intact, to A) a new hard disk in your old computer, or B) to a completely new computer, you should do this:

• Boot your old computer normally to Windows
• Follow the steps 1 through 5 in method 1
• When sysprep is finished and computer shut down, boot it from an imaging CD/DVD. DO NOT BOOT NORMALLY TO WINDOWS!
• Now create a system image. Notice that this image contains at this point a complete image of your generalized Windows, ready to be booted "first time". Use external HD to store the image
• Shut down the computer

Now you have two choices, depending on what you are doing:

1. If you are changing hard disk to your old computer, do it now, then boot again from imaging CD/DVD and restore image to this new, virgin hd in your old computer. Boot then your computer normally from HD which now contains a generalized image of your old Windows setup
2. If you are transferring you Windows setup to a new computer, boot it with imaging CD/DVD and restore the image to its HD. Boot then the new computer normally from HD which now contains a generalized image of your old Windows setup

In both above mentioned scenarios you have restored a generalized image of your Windows setup to a new HD. Go back to tutorial method 1 following it from step 7 to the end, and you are done.

Kari

ok gonna give this a shot, creating an image and boot to imaging cd, and restore....had to think about those steps first and think I have an idea of how to do it.

keep ya posted

 

[bullfights]

Well that didnt work either, off to be try again in the morning

 

[bullfights]

Got the problem solved!! Finally...

I actually don't know how it worked, but i did the following.
1) installing the following hotfix on my another system on the same computer:
A Windows 7 or a Windows Server 2008 R2 image deployment process stops when you try to deploy the image on another computer

(I think it is irrelevant but worth a try, if you got no working system on your new computer just leave it alone)

2) bring up the Windows 7 installation disk, enter repair mode, for me it first only indicated there is one system installed and a window popped out asked me an error is occurred should it repair, click ok, and two systems appeared on the repair screen. then when i clicked to repair the system with my moved HDD it said no problem found, then I clicked restart.

3) This time even i didn't change the Bios to set my primary device as the moved harddisk, the installed windows on my computer detected my system on my moved HDD, and it enters the selection screen between the 2 systems. I booted it in Safe mode, same error. then restart.

4) Select the Moved system on the selection screen with the "down arrow", press F8 on the selection screen, then i pressed "Enable Boot logging". Then the moved system runs the screen just as previous boot ups (like the screens on step 5), but this time, without any errors!!!

That's what i did to make it work, i believe there are a lot of steps unneeded, but just in case i typed it all out. You know, Windows...

Thanks Kari for the tutorial and quick support, and good luck for tarrax.

Forrest

Well I tried this and didnt work either, #4 kindof threw me off but figured it out, though results was still the same BSOD. Not having any luck here.

 

[bullfights]

Ok let me put down what I am doing maybe there's something else not right....

1) First I cloned my drive onto the new drive, so I can have a backup in case of failure, which has happened three times already.

2) I booted, in the same PC (not the new one) with the newly cloned HD and logged in and everything else, waited til all was up and created an Image Boot CD with Acronis

3) Then I started shutting down startup files, and all that was open in the task bar, as Kari said might be a good idea to do that.

4) Ran Sysprep tool to a tee, well prior to that I stopped the WMPnetwroksvc. System shutdown and I pulled the drive out and put it in New PC.

5) Boot up PC, with Boot Image CD and get the following:

Starting Acronis Loader
Acronis Loader fatal error: Boot drive (partition) not found. Press enter to try to boot your OS...

6) I rebooted (c+a+d) with W7 install dvd and clicked on repair, it came up with couldnt find partition and asked for repair which I did and restarted, but at Boot up to the Boot Image CD still got the same error "Boot drive (partition) not found", tried to go to OC with Enter and now get the "Windows error recovery" screen.

7) In the windows error recovery screen I clicked on Start Windows normally and get to the Windows splash screen as it is loading, then the circled dots (that turn to squares) stopped and it gave me a BSOD, which was too fast to read. It rebooted and came to the same screen as before and selected safe mode, which looked like it was going to work but stopped at disk.sys and BSOD with which I stared at and it looked like it said "stop 0x00" or something like that.

and thats about where I am at the moment, STUCK. and I am broadcasting live on justin tv so I gotta have this thing working, though I still have the back up which I will use. until I get an answer or some HELP!!

Gerry

 

[gregrocker]

Kari may have better advice but when I can't get SysPrep to work I move the HD or it's image to the new hardware, then run Paragon Adaptive Restore CD on it to Adjust to New Hardware.

Works every time, unless the install has been corrupted by bad SysPrep.

 

[bullfights]

ok but isnt that also booting up to an image boot cd? already done that.

Hd is already moved, does it have to be Paragon? why?

 

[gregrocker]

If Win7 stalls at the boot animation on new hardware it is because of driver or other conflicts which are removed by successful SysPrep, or by Paragon Adaptive Restore CD.

The only other method is applying an image with Acronis True Image 10+ with Universal REstore, however it only works about half the time for me.

 

[bullfights]

Well thats just lovely, looks like I will have to go back to a clean install, oh well guess I need one anyways.

 

[Kari]

I'm with Greg in this. You might have better luck with Paragon. I've had one system where nothing else worked. Don't know why.

I'm sorry this did not work for you.

Kari

 

[theog]

Hi Kari

I personally always always do a
1) Norton scan.
2) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html?ltr=S
3) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html?ltr=D
4) Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tool.
first.

Ray.

 

[Pknut]

Thanks Kari for all the info. This article has brought me to this site (via google). Kari, I have a question.

I an HP running Win 7 Pro (OEM) x86. And I have a few others that are exactly the same. On my reference computer, my plan to deploy was to remove the "bloatware" then load my companies software. After that I wanted to make an image file of this computer and copy the image to the other computers. Keep in mind all the other computers are identical (model, make, and with Win 7 x86).

I want to do it this way, because I don't want to keep taking off the same bloatware and loading the same software over and over again. Would your method to use sysprep a better choice for me? Or am I totally missing the point and barking up the wrong tree?

Again, thank you for the great article

 

[Kari]

Hi Pknut, welcome to the Seven Forums.

I would do it like this:
- Prepare your "Master computer", the first HP laptop as you want. Install and uninstall as you wish, set up user accounts and so on.
- Follow the tutorial > Method 2 or 3 to create and move the image to other laptops.

That's it.

Kari

 

[gregrocker]

Clean up factory bloatware

 

[Pknut]

Keri and Greg, Wow Thanks! You guys are awesome...I'm glad to be a new member of this community.

Greg, your method to remove the bloatware is thorough. I was using decrapifier then ccleaner...I think I got mostly everything off, but I like your procedure much better. I will try it

Keri, one last thing. On the reference computer. If I have, say 3 partitions a
C: (main boot drive)
D: (temporary backup incase anything screws up...let's say this is an image of C: after removal of bloatware)
E: (HP factory recovery)

Will sysprep affect my backup and recovery? Also, when the image is made and moved over, is it for the entire drive (every partition bit for bit), or just the main drive (C?

 

[Kari]

A personal opinion, other geeks might or might not agree:

Using this method to transfer a Windows installation to a new computer should only be done when all system files and folders as well as user profiles and folders are located on default locations i.e. on the same partition where Windows is installed. If this is the case, generalizing Windows with sysprep only affects system drive (usually C, leaving other disks, drives and partitions intact.

In other words, if you have relocated for instance your Documents folder or complete user profile to another partition or disk, I recommend first moving them back to system drive before generalizing windows setup.

Kari

 

[7mustang4]

motherboard replacement

Thanks for the rapid reply.

 

[quiznos]

For an OEM

Following this tutorial allowed me to swap a HD to a new machine while it had an OEM version of windows on it. However on the first run after sysprepping and putting the HD into the new machine I was prompted to enter a new product key or purchase one. upon doing so I was up and running without losing a single setting or bit of data.

If you skip that (or missed that chance) a repair with a new OS Disk also does the trick.

Just thought those who may go through the "I don't want to reinstall EVERYTHING just because I want to upgrade my coworkers [Dell, HP, etc.]." situation would like to know this.