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
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4. Type to Command Prompt: %windir%\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe, and hit Enter
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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
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6. Sysprep generalizes now your Windows 7 setup and shuts down your computer. Do not run any other programs during this phase!
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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
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9. When Windows finally boots up, you will need to enter all information as if this really was a new, fresh installation
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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
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11. When login screen appears, choose your old user account to login
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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
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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.

 

[Kari]

Would really appreciate some pointers on this - I tried to going to Action>Scan for Hardware Changes and it gave an error that it had failed to install the hardware :S

The whole idea of using sysprep /generalize to make the Windows installation hardware independent is that it removes all hardware device drivers. On the new PC you need to install appropriate drivers for the new hardware.

Judging by your pic, you need to install at least the motherboard drivers and network adapter drivers for Ethernet and possible wireless adapters. You need to use another PC for that, download the drivers from the device manufacturer's site to a USB flash drive (or if USB is not working at all, to a writable CD or DVD), then install them on the new hardware.

 

[qwikpix]

Hi Kari thanks for your reply,

Forgive me if I misunderstood but after reading the relevant documentation I was under the impression that during the first boot of the installation, following the generalize state, the specialise pass would run (as it would on a fresh installation) and apply the default microsoft drivers. This is what I have experienced with previous new installations and provides the basic functionality that can then be built upon with vendor specific drivers (either from the motherboard disc or downloaded onto a USB drive). On this occasion it appears that process was not carried out or failed, leaving me with no USB or networking!!

How I managed to work around this difficulty was to pull out the optical drive from another computer (obviously without USB functionality my external optical/hdd/flash drives did not work), connect via SATA and proceed to use the motherboard disc. The autorun setup on the disc did not allow me to select anything via keyboard so I had to find the USB drivers via explorer and fortunately once that was successful I had the benefit of a mouse to complete installation of the remaining drivers - you don't realise how valuable a mouse is until it's rendered inoperable!

Thinking I had all but sorted my problems I found that the new machine would not shutdown windows would shut down and the hdd span down but the activity LEDs and fans kept spinning indefinitely without being forcibly switched off at the PSU. I hope I have now solved this with a flash to a newer BIOS.

You can put me down as another member who made it through the sysprep/generalize process, albeit with a few hiccups along the way. From here I'm hoping I can now pair this HDD and installation with an old 40GB SSD I have lying around as a cache via Intel SRT.

 

[Kari]

Hi Kari thanks for your reply,

Forgive me if I misunderstood but after reading the relevant documentation I was under the impression that during the first boot of the installation, following the generalize state, the specialise pass would run (as it would on a fresh installation) and apply the default microsoft drivers. This is what I have experienced with previous new installations and provides the basic functionality that can then be built upon with vendor specific drivers (either from the motherboard disc or downloaded onto a USB drive). On this occasion it appears that process was not carried out or failed, leaving me with no USB or networking!!

You are of course right, that's the basic idea and the way Specialize pass should work when an OOBE boot is run after the generalizing. However, not all possible hardware drivers can be included in the stock Windows install image, quite often Window needs to download missing drivers during the OOBE. Because this is done during the setup /OOBE, the user in most cases doesn't even notice Windows is downloading drivers even before it's fully set up.

In your case the issue was clearly caused by either the Windows install image missing a default driver for your specific network adapter, or its install failing. That causes a chain reaction: No network drivers = no network connection, therefore Windows is not able to download and install other missing drivers. Motherboard / chipset drivers were not installed, causing USB not to work, and so on.

Windows is quite well equipped with drivers, what you experienced is more an exception than a rule. Personally I cannot even remember the last time I've installed Windows with no working network adapter straight out of the box.

Good to know you got it resolved.

Kari

 

[Clyde54]

Confused

Hi, I don't understand what method to use. I want to move my windows 7 to a new pc with a new SSD. I don't understand what 3rd party imaging has to do with it.

I thought after generalizing my installation on my old pc I could just use my Windows 7 DVD to set up Windows 7 on my new computer. No?

 

[emi49]

Problems with sysprep/generalize thread

Hi Kari,
I am asking you to help me because i don't know how to solve the problems encountered applying your sysprep/generalize thread - method 1.
I am trying to update my PC, with Windows 7 Home Premium, installing a new M/B (ASUS Z170M-Plus) and new CPU (i7 6700) avoiding to reinstall Windows 7 and all other applications.
Your thread seems to me perfect to my case and relatively simple to implement, but unfortunately it doesn't work on my PC configuration and I don't know why.
I tried to implement your guide two times, step by step, and the system seems to react according your scheme; I stopped also the WMPNetworkSvc without problems, and also the sysprepping and generalize processes seem to be completed correctly.
The problem start after shutdown, installation of new hardware an booting from sysprepped generalized HD.
Windows 7 starts, updates registry settings but is not able to complete the devices installation. So the following warning popup appears : "Windows is not able to complete system configuration. Configuration will be completed after restarted the computer", or something like this.
In other words I am experiencing the same problem already encountered by ForrestHK.
I tried to solve the problem in the same way and also implementing the suggestion provided by xxxwea but without positive results.
I rebooted the system many times, also in "safe mode" but every time after registry settings the same warning popup appears.
Do you know some other procedure to be implemented to solve the problem or to complete hardware updating positively?
In your opinion do i have chance to get a solution or i have to go through a clean installation ?
Last question. In the forum someone refers to a "Method 3" but i am not able to find it. What is ? Could be applicable to my situation?
Thanks for your time and support.

 

[Kari]

In your opinion do i have chance to get a solution or i have to go through a clean installation ?

It looks as if your new hardware would require some specific drivers, not accepting the general Windows drivers in setup phase. I am sorry but I think your best shot is reinstall.

Last question. In the forum someone refers to a "Method 3" but i am not able to find it. What is ? Could be applicable to my situation?

Method Three was Method Two using Windows native Backup to create the image. As Windows Backup does no longer work in Audit Mode, I removed it from the tutorial as unnecessary.

Kari

 

[emi49]

Hi Kari, thanks for your prompt reply, although not fully comfortable.
It seems that i don't have chance to avoid reinstallation, however i would try again before with other method, if any.
Thanks a lot for your help. Bye.
Emi49

 

[Lazee]

Hi, new guy here. First, many thanks to Kari for this thread and all the additional input from other posters. I haven't read it all, if it's recommended, I will.

My query: I'm putting my old HD into my wife's laptop which has a new motherboard and a failed HD. My old HD, now taken out of my laptop, has a Windows 7 backup image of her machine installed. This good, working drive won't boot into Windows in her laptop, so I want to try sysprep (which I only just heard about!) Since taking that HD out of my machine (and getting a new drive for me) I've upgraded to Windows 10 and I don't want to disturb it, so my question is, what is the best option for running sysprep on my old/wife's 'new' HD:

1. In her machine running command prompt from Windows 7 Repair CD (it won't boot to Windows)
2. In a caddy as an external drive to my laptop
3. Other?

Not an expert here, all help gratefully received. Thanks.

 

[Kari]

1. In her machine running command prompt from Windows 7 Repair CD (it won't boot to Windows)
2. In a caddy as an external drive to my laptop
3. Other?

Hi Lazee, welcome to the Seven Forums.

It would be "3. Other".

To use Sysprep on Windows 7 installation on that HDD it must be used from inside that installation, meaning you need to boot a computer from that HDD.

The only option to use this method is to remove the Windows 10 HDD from your laptop, replace it with the old HDD booting from it, then proceed as told in this tutorial.

If you decide to do this, be careful. I would start with creating a full system backup of the current Windows 10 installation before replacing the HDD with the old one.

 

[Lazee]

Thanks Kari, I have a cloned HD of my shiny new windows 10 so I will try your suggestion.

 

[Kari]

Let us know how it went

 

[Lazee]

Let us know how it went

I didn't use sysprep in the end as there's something wrong with this Windows despite much repair efforts (not asking for help at the moment.) I think I'm looking at needing a clean install. Thanks for you help though, and as my posts aren't related to sysprep perhaps a mod could delete to keep the thread clean. No doubt I'll be back again sometime .

 

[Kari]

No, let's keep your posts here. You brought up an interesting scenario where you had already replaced the hard disk and wanted to make Windows in old hard disk transferable.

 

[Jambox]

Hi thanks for posting this.
Sadly, its gone wrong for me. Sorry if a similar problems has already been solved in the thread, just point me to it if it has.

I syspreped my system to move to a new motherboard. First problem was it was failing on the boot up (preparing) in the new system. I hadn't seen in the thread the solution of booting in safe mode, so I used a command pane solution "oobe>msoobe".

Then, everytime I boot up it takes a very long time on "updating registry entries" (think that's the right wording). When I then log onto my old user I get quite a few missing registry key warnings and windows starts a temp user.

I tried to reinstate the user with a fix by adjusting the prefix in regedit (renaming temp and deleting .bak postfix) but on restart windows just duplicates the temp user and resets the postfix.

Also, the computer renaming exe is not found and in the manage users menu when you click on the run as administrator option for add/remove users nothing happens so I can't add another user. The same happens if I try to run admin to get access to the user's files in the file system.

Is this a common problem with sysprep. Am I going to need to do a repair or is there a fix.

Thanks

 

[Razzle308]

Hey.
I signed up just to say a MASSIVE thank you for this article.
That saved me so much messing around.

I did have the error message come up - so I booted into safe mode and when I re-booted normally it all went swimmingly.

Thanks again.

P.S. Maybe make a note that when you boot to safemode it may fail there too and still work afterwards. I thought once it failed there i was done for.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hey.
I signed up just to say a MASSIVE thank you for this article.
That saved me so much messing around.

I did have the error message come up - so I booted into safe mode and when I re-booted normally it all went swimmingly.

Thanks again.

P.S. Maybe make a note that when you boot to safemode it may fail there too and still work afterwards. I thought once it failed there i was done for.

I'm sure Kari will be delighted with your comment mate and I am sure eh won't mind me putting this in here -
take a look at this it may help you out further too.
Just a little something that will make your machine a little faster and more efficient is this Optimize Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
It is my bible when installing an OS on my machines and also when I am fixing friends and family machines too.
Now if you go through it slowly you will find lots of tweaks and they are all really thoroughly done by the authour Brink a fellow who is in my mind brilliant and if you need to ask questions he is just the most obliging person around.
The other thing is that you may lose some of the "bling" such as transparency (you don't have to I find it unnecessary) and all the tweaks are reversible.
If you do get stuck just post back in that tutorial and you will get help. Another bonus using this tutorial is that it helps you find your way around your machine and Windows 7!
Just one tip I would say you start with is do this Registry - Backup and Restore - Windows 7 Help Forums do this and it will save you a lot of grief if you are ever doing things in the registry and even if you don't it is a good back up to have if your system ever gets corrupted.
(pretyped to save time)

 

[win7guy284]

Hello all,

Whilst trying to opt for the second method listed in the tutorial/booting up the rescue CD provided in the macrium tutorial (from the link in the first post) as soon as the cmd appears in windows PE i get the following error message:

A winpeshl.ini file is present, but no commands were successfully launched. This could be caused by incorrect formatting or an invalid executable name. Please consult the documentation for more information.

It seems that for some reason the windows PE environment fails to load up the macrium GUI here as it should normally do. I tried re-burning the iso with different GUI files/configurations included and also directly via the macrium PE creation wizard too but alas to no avail, macrium just refuses to start up on the PE CD no matter what.

Right now i'm thinking about employing an "altered" version of the first method for the migration of my OS to the new machine without the need to reinstall everything - Basically i'd keep my current HDD at first and once i've sysprepped + transfered it to the new machine via method one and finished configurating all the basic drivers/customizations etc i'm then going to clone the transfered old HDD with the OS on it directly to a newer (and bigger) target HDD plugged into the new machine at the same time, which of course (or at least in theory) also means i won't have to sysprep again since the OS would have already been transfered and recognized the new hardware at that point... Afaik going about it this way eliminates the need for a windows PE environment CD too depending on the disk cloning program but i could be wrong of course, i haven't looked that much further into it yet.

Considering i've never done something like this before, did i think this de facto "third method" for transfering into a new machine/hdd through properly or is there any reason this possibly wouldn't work out in the end? The reason i badly need the OS on a completely new HDD in the first place is because the current one (while still working properly) is quite old and shows the usual signs of a slowly failing HDD such as wrong space sizes et al.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kari]

Whilst trying to opt for the second method listed in the tutorial/booting up the rescue CD provided in the macrium tutorial (from the link in the first post) as soon as the cmd appears in windows PE i get the following error message:

First, thanks for reminding me that the link in tutorial you referred to must be changed. Tutorial was written six and a half years ago, at that point the Macrium Rescue disk provided in that link was the current one but it is today compoletely outdated.

I have now fixed the link, replaced it with a link to a Macrium Reflect tutorial at our sister site TenForum.com. That tutorial contains download link to latest Macrium Reflect which stays always current.

I have never seen Macrium giving such an error you got. Anyway, you can easily solve the issue by adding Macrium Reflect to Windows boot menu and selecting it after you boot up after Sysprep. This tip is from the above mentioned Macrium Reflect tutorial at TenForums.com, it shows how to add Macrium Rescue to Windows boot menu and boot from it (RAM disk) instead of Macrium Rescue CD/DVD/USB. Notice that screenshot are from Windows 10, yours might look different but works exactly the same way:

   Tip

OPTIONAL:

If you want to you can also add Macrium Rescue to Windows boot menu. It is a very practical option to be used when you want to restore an image or reset Windows boot records in case Windows refuses to boot normally.

To add Macrium Rescue to boot menu select Add recovery Boot Menu Option from Other Tasks menu:



Select Windows 10 PE, click OK, accept all following prompts:



This will add Macrium Rescue to your Windows boot menu:

(From Macrium reflect tutorial on TenForums.com: Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials )

Be sure you have the latest version of Macrium Reflect installed before creating boot menu entry! You can check updates from Macrium's Other Tasks > Check for updates link.

The second screenshot in above tip is for Windows 10, you should select Windows PE 3.1 instead which uses Windows 7 kernel. Do not select Windows PE 10 as shown in screenshot! Third screenshot shows Windows 10 boot menu, it looks different in Windows 7 (white text on black background).

Doing this, you can select Macrium from boot menu and create your system image without issues.



Kari

 

[win7guy284]

First, thanks for reminding me that the link in tutorial you referred to must be changed. Tutorial was written six and a half years ago, at that point the Macrium Rescue disk provided in that link was the current one but it is today compoletely outdated.

I have now fixed the link, replaced it with a link to a Macrium Reflect tutorial at our sister site TenForum.com. That tutorial contains download link to latest Macrium Reflect which stays always current.

I have never seen Macrium giving such an error you got. Anyway, you can easily solve the issue by adding Macrium Reflect to Windows boot menu and selecting it after you boot up after Sysprep. This tip is from the above mentioned Macrium Reflect tutorial at TenForums.com, it shows how to add Macrium Rescue to Windows boot menu and boot from it (RAM disk) instead of Macrium Rescue CD/DVD/USB. Notice that screenshot are from Windows 10, yours might look different but works exactly the same way:

Hello again, unfortunately the (quite old) HDD i had originally planned to conduct the sysprep with suffered a critical hardware failure just after my new system arrived the other week - Luckily i did manage to pull off most of the data before it died for good though...

Right now my Win7 installation runs on another spare HDD i still had lying around for cases like this, however said disk (while still perfectly fine hardware-wise as far as i can tell) is pretty slow in terms of r/w and definitely slows my new build down noticeably (programs and thumbnails load very slow for example) so i am soon getting a new SSD which i will put into this system.

I'm wondering whether or not i will have to repeat the whole sysprep process all over again for this or if i can just directly clone the OS from the original HDD to the new SSD without doing any kind of sysprepping beforehand and then just booting that image up right away or if this would cause any problems.

Like i said, nothing else would be changed hardware-wise except for the substitution of the old HDD with the new SDD.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kari]

I'm wondering whether or not i will have to repeat the whole sysprep process all over again for this or if i can just directly clone the OS from the original HDD to the new SSD without doing any kind of sysprepping beforehand and then just booting that image up right away or if this would cause any problems.

You should be OK simply cloning the HDD. In any case that would be the first thing I would do / test, before even considering Sysprep process.