Resurrecting previous Win7 install

I'm afraid I already know the answer to this ... but in the hopes that I'm wrong, I'm going to ask it anyway.

My five-year old PC motherboard shorted out this weekend -- leaving me with a dead box.

I have recent backups (using Macrium Reflect) of both my Vista install and my Win7 install, and BOTH are still resident on the main hard drive.

Problem is that since the Mobo is LONG out of production, I've bit the bullet and will be replacing is with a new Mobo, processor, memory, audio, and video hardware (new Mobos come with the latter builtin).

That means I can't simply plugin the drive, reboot, and be up and working.

I've read some info on Paragon's Virtualization Manager -- which appears to be able to migrate an install from one set of hardware to another -- but I'm guessing you need to do the "from" migration first, which I can't do because my machine is dead.

So, I have three questions I hope someone can answer:
1) Migration -- apart from reinstalling from scratch, is there any way to resurrect my previous install?
2) Installation -- I have both the 32-bit and 64-bit Win7 Pro DVDs, and am thinking about installing using the 64-bit. Have read the post about doing a clean install using an "upgrade" DVD (which mine is), so I presume that will go well -- as long as I don't enter a product key.
3) Reactivation -- I'm presuming this will fail (since I already activated the 32-bit version) -- but will an online attempt, or call to MS, take care of this for me? Or am I facing the prospect of having to buy a new copy of Win7 Pro?

Thanks in advance for any help in this.

gregrocker:

Wow -- thanks for all the useful feedback.

But, what can you tell me about my third question? This is an Upgrade DVD, not a full version. In the off chance I have to call MS, do you think they will honor my activation request? OR do you think I'll be forced to buy a new Win7 Pro retail version?

I'm asking because if I have to do that (purchase a new DVD), that drives up the cost to the point that it would be cheaper to just buy a new machine that comes with Win7 Pro 64-bit already installed.

Hello Mark.



If the version you have is a MS regular upgrade DVD you will have no problems when activation time comes using one of the work-arounds listed in the upgrade tutorial as long as there is only one Windows 7 activated with that upgrade key at a time and you have 120 days to activate.

Activation Trial Period - Extend Up to 120 Days

Bare Foot Kid said:

... as long as there is only one Windows 7 activated with that upgrade key...

That's the rub ... there already IS a Win7 version activated with that key -- the 32-bit version present on the hard drive.

So basically, I would be doing the following:
1) "Moving" the activation from the old PC to the new PC
2) Changing it from 32-bit to 64-bit

Actually, I tried calling MS earlier today but it appears you can't get to someone without entering the key info on the screen, and since this PC is activated, I didn't want to do anything that might deactivate it.

The actual issue occurs when both installs are online at the same time for the MS servers to pick up, if you install the 64-bit and the old 32-bit is 'history' you should have nothing to be concerned with.

If you are able to get the 32-bit running the key can be removed from that install from an elevated command window using this command, slmgr -upk

Bare Foot Kid said:

...If you are able to get the 32-bit running the key can be removed from that install from an elevated command window using this command, slmgr -upk

Wow -- thanks. Didn't know that.

Learn something knew here every day!

Glad I can help and be sure to post back with updates as they occur.