How to make my Win7 OS drive work on new PC

You could sysprep-generalize the os, then capture it into a wim file, which could be applied to the os partition on a gpt disk.

gpt disk should have an esp partition which contains the boot critical files and an os partition.

wim file is typically 1/3rd size of the captured used space. But it depends on the type of files because some files hardly compress particularly video files and photos.

look up how to sysprep-generalize.

Microsoft:

Before you can deploy a Windows image to new PCs, you have to first generalize the image. Generalizing the image removes computer-specific information such as installed drivers and the computer security identifier (SID).

%WINDIR%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /shutdown /oobe

do not boot back into the sysprepped os. Because when it is booted into it will go through the oobe ( out of box experience ) and it will specialize again.

boot into a different os or winpe to capture the generalized os into a wim file.

dism commands or useful ui such as gimagex or dism++ can be used to capture or apply wim files.

https://github.com/Chuyu-Team/Dism-M....1.1002.1B.zip

bcd should be on the esp partition.

can be fixed sometimes with startup repair or with bcboot command

bcdboot driveletter:\windows /s espdriveletter: /f all

vostro 3681 is B460
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals...a8d&lang=en-us

vostro 3888 is also b460
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals...0dd&lang=en-us

vostro 3671 is b365
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals...bc5&lang=en-us

If you were attempting to transfer your current os to different hardware, it should be sysprepped. But it probably wont work just by being sysprepped because there is also lack of csm support and missing drivers to overcome.

You could only sysprep the applied image if you can boot into it. Cant be done from outside as far as I know. However there are 3rd party "adjust to new hardware" tools that can be used without booting into the os.

for example this one

Likely need to do both.

the bcd entry must be fixed so bootmgr ( or bootmgfw for efi ) can find the location of winload.

need to adjust to new hardware to hopefully avoid bsods when winload tries to load the os.

- - - Updated - - -

I just applied the 3888 image to a consumer b365 motherboard. After fixing the osletter it booted up fine, then after a reboot only a couple of drivers missing which was easy to sort out. Not necessary to use "adjust to new hardware module" in that case.



But applying the 3671 image to b375 consumer motherboard got stuck on the dancing balls, so adjust to new hardware module was needed.

Dancing balls, love it! That's where 3888 would crash for me and 3671 gets the following BSOD:


Before I go any further, can you tell me if this is normal? When trying to do bootrec /rebuildbcd I was told no OS was detected. Then I noticed there is no boot folder on the C drive and no BCD (it does boot it just gives the BSOD during the dancing balls). This is what they look like:

EFI drive

EFI>
Microsoft > Boot >
BCD, bootmgfw.efi, bootmgr.efi, memtest.efi (and a bunch of language folders)
Boot > bootx64.efi (757,760 bytes)

C drive
No boot folder

Is this normal?

Btw, what program is that for P2P OS Wizard? O&O or Paragon?