New hardware, migrate Win 7

[dgw]

I have Win 7 installed on a computer that dual boots with XP. Its been tweaked the way I want it.
I am getting a new MB, CPU, hard disk, and memory that I will install in a different box. This PC will only have Win 7 on it. I believe I need to do a fresh install of Win 7 because of the hardware changes. Assuming that is correct, after I have Win 7 installed and working on the new box, is there a simple way to migrate all my software and settings from the old hard drive to the new one or am I going to have to re-install everything and hope I remember all the tweeks I made since my original install?
I have another valid CD key to use so that is not an issue.

 

[gregrocker]

You can try creating a backup image of Win7 on your current setup with free Macrium Reflect, then reimage it to new HD to see if it will start up on new hardware as Win7 often does.

You can also try the built-in Win7 backup imaging to see if it will allow you to select only Win7 to image, which it may not if XP is your current System drive.

If Win7 starts up on the new hardware, it will change out all drivers with several requests for restart. You'll then need to use activation link at Computer>Properties to Change key to the new key.

 

[dgw]

I forgot a bit on information that may matter. XP was installed first on one hard drive, and then Win 7 was installed later as dual boot on another hard drive. If I create the backup image of my current setup, Win 7 hard drive only, then I assume two things:
-i reimage the new hard drive from the image by running Macrium on my current Win 7 install with the new hard drive hooked up
-I have to do the repair process I have seen elsewhere when I power up the new system with the new hardware in order to get BCD, boot and so on on the new hard drive.

Are these assumptions true? Anything else I should know?

another thing, I am going from a Core 2 Duo to a Core I7 -- two cores to four.

 

[gregrocker]

You reimage from a booted Linux disk which Macrium will make for you, or the Win7 DVD Repair console if you use Win7 Backup imaging.

Since XP is likely your System Active drive, to use Win7 backup imaging you'll need to use these Commands to image only your Win7 drive: http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...ckup-fails-error-0x8007007b-3.html#post457081

Macrium should let you select only the Win7 drive to image, and perhaps the MBR which is on XP.

Don't worry about the MBR, as after imaging all you need to do is boot the Win7 DVD Repair console, click through to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots, and it will write the MBR to the Win7 drive.

Be sure to unplug the XP drive before you reimage Win7 to the new HD.

 

[SIW2]

Macrium backs up the mbr with every image. It then gives the option of whether to restore it or not.

It won't matter if you are going to do the run startup repair repeatedly dance.

You will need to mark The 7 partition Active and Primary during the restore - Macrium gives you the option to do that. Also restore the image using the same drive letter as it has now - again - Macrium gives you the option.


Keep us posted.

 

[dgw]

I got the new box built and was ready to clone the hard drive and chickened out. I used Windows Easy Transfer instead, which actually worked much better than I expected.
Sorry to bother you with a question and then ignore your help.