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.

 

[Kari]

That's good to hear. I'm still very keen to hear how / if you can solve that profile issue.

Kari

 

[cyclometric]

Hi, I apologize if this question has been answered already, so here goes. I am replacing my motherboard, but nothing else, and would like to keep my Win 7 installation. Fortunately, my Win7 license is a retail version, so at least I will be able to activate after performing the sysprep on my HD. But I am concerned about losing all of my settings, though, so I was wondering if it is a good idea to run Easy Transfer before the sysprep, just to preserve my user account settings and personalization and such that is lost during sysprep. Obviously I wouldn't include libraries, and large files, just want to save the hassle of recreating my very organized start menu, and such.

Thanks,

 

[Kari]

At least Easy Transfer does not harm your computer in any way, it is 100% safe. I find it quite a good idea, to generalize the image and let Easy Transfer take care of the personalized stuff.

Please come back and tell how it went!

Kari

 

[cyclometric]

At least Easy Transfer does not harm your computer in any way, it is 100% safe. I find it quite a good idea, to generalize the image and let Easy Transfer take care of the personalized stuff.

Please come back and tell how it went!

Kari

Great, thanks. Before I spend much time looking around for issues with sysprep, are there any I should be aware of? I'm actually not that concerned about a total failure, because I could just do a clean install if necessary. All my data files are on secondary drives, and fully backed up with Crash Plan, too, and as a last resort, I like to save a text file listing of my Program Files folders.

Thanks,

 

[Kari]

All green lights from here, can't think of anything else

 

[exocet]

Excellent article

I was in the process of considering building a new p.c. and found this article to be very interesting.
I first tried method one on a practice run on existing p.c.'s and all appeared to go well apart from the issues that were explained.

I built my new p.c. and the day of reckoning beckoned, but somebody suggested to me that as my new build had an Asus board, it was likely to boot up without any problems. I found that suggestion a little suspicious. In the end the suggestion turned out to be very much true and everything booted up, even without pre-loading any other drivers onto my existing S.S.D.
So I never required to use any of the methods in this guideline

One other small tip that may be useful, if it has not already been suggested, regarding losing all the desktop icons (shortcuts etc). This can be helped if you move them all onto a separate folder before doing a system prep. They can then be recovered once everything is back to near normal and then they only require placing back to roughly where you had them before on your desktop.

I've only really posted to say thanks for an excellent article. It is appreciated.

 

[Kaktussoft]

I've cloned systems about 20 times and never had any problems!
Be sure to select "Standard VGA driver" before cloning (not really necessary). Also "Standard IDE" and "Standard SATA" before cloning. Be sure to delete non-standard IDE and SATA drivers.
After cloning, remove drivers not needed.

Why SYSPREP??

 

[Kari]

Why SYSPREP??

Because generalisizing with sysprep does all you mentioned automatically, plus resets rearm counter and SID.

Kari

 

[Frosst]

HELP!

I got the fatal error message. I did what the tutorial said and disabled the Windows Media process in command prompt, but it didn't work.

If I can't get it to work, can I just fresh install Windows 7 OEM with the discs that Acer told me to burn when I first bought the computer and installed the OS and then extend my activation to 120 days and have it work fine? Keep in mind I am dual booting 7 and 8 dev preview.

 

[Kari]

Yes, you can always do a reinstall. If you have those recovery disks burned then there's no problems.

Could you please tell the exact error message you are getting, and also at which point of the procedure you get it.

Kari

 

[kensiko]

Hi guys,

I'm here because I'm out of idea.

I'm replacing my motherboard and CPU this Friday. I don't want to reinstall. I never did this before and I can't loose time switching motherboards many times to make my installation work on the new motherboard, so I decided to test the different methods including sysprep before doing the upgrade. To test, it simple, I try to make my Win7 installation run on a virtual machine.

Until now, I always end up, after loading disk.sys, with a BSOD error code 0xC000021A. I tried putting MSAHCI driver instead of RST, tried sysprep and also just loading my original installation, same error.

Any suggestion ?

 

[Kaktussoft]

try uninstalling special sata drivers in device manager (like intel sata driver). just upgrade that driver in device manager to "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA controller"
Also set all ide-drivers to standard. then shutdown and DON'T reboot. instead start in virtual machine

 

[Kari]

try uninstalling special sata drivers in device manager (like intel sata driver). just upgrade that driver in device manager to "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA controller"
Also set all ide-drivers to standard. then shutdown and DON'T reboot. instead start in virtual machine

Exactly. Thanks for jumping in

Kari

 

[Kaktussoft]

or even simpler: remove sata and ide drivers from device manager and shutdown. DO NOT reboot

try uninstalling special sata drivers in device manager (like intel sata driver). just upgrade that driver in device manager to "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA controller"
Also set all ide-drivers to standard. then shutdown and DON'T reboot. instead start in virtual machine

"Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA controller" -> Done before, without success
"Also set all ide-drivers to standard" -> Not done, but I think it's already in ide standard MS driver.

And when I want to try, I shutdown, backup the image of my HDD with snapshot, then restart in Windows and try the image in VirtualBox.

Here are a couple of screenshots:






search on google for to stopcode. it's a logon process problem!

 

[kensiko]

Ok ok look guys, my testing method was not working because of snapshot. It seems it didn't do well the partition resizing. I have just been able to create the partition in the virtual hard drive the same size as the image. After that Windows started (the sysprep image).

It could be due to snapshot not being able to work well within windows 8 preview.

Thanks for the help anyway

 

[AllOnTheBus]

Great tutorial

Now that I know this level of expertise is here the tutorials
may be my new place of worship.
Does this mean I can turf Acronis and Norton Ghost

Adding to rep now kari - cheers

 

[popeye1953]

Thanks so much for this. Getting a new laptop and didn't want to got through the experience of reloading all my programs again. Seems very straight forward from your tutorial. Never knew the power of sysprep. Thanks again Kari.

 

[kensiko]

Update: I installed the new motherboard yesterday, everything is fine. I've got a couple of softwares that behaves strangely since but I will probably find the cause later.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Great work Kari!

Please note as Kari has stated:

All personalization is removed (taskbar, toolbars, folder options, start orb etc.)

This is one of the major problems with sysprep that computer techs have complained about for years. In major deployments we NEED the personalization to stay in the image.

Another note: If you have the Built-In Administrator account Enabled it will Disable it. If you have any custom settings for the Built-In Administrator account those are wiped out too as it is part of the personalization removal process. Very annoying. -WS

Geat tutorial!! Some questions:

• Do I have to reinstall all windows updates?
• All program settings are still active?
• what is meant by "personalization"? Also mousepointer, screensaver, background image, etc?

What exactly is lost?

 

[Kari]

Geat tutorial!! Some questions:

• Do I have to reinstall all windows updates?
• All program settings are still active?
• what is meant by "personalization"? Also mousepointer, screensaver, background image, etc?

What exactly is lost?

Here's an extract from the original tutorial, explanations answering your questions added in blue:

   Note

What does Sysprep generalizing do to my Windows 7 setup?

• All system specific information is removed or uninstalled
  • All system / hardware specific drivers are rolled back (changed) to general Windows drivers. For instance your graphics card driver is changed to a general Windows display driver
  • I recommend re-installing all hardware specific drivers like chipset, video, audio, NIC's etc.
• Security ID (SID) of your hardware setup is reseted
  • What this means: Security Identifier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• All system restore points are deleted
  • After generalizing it is not possible to do a system restore to an earlier point. This is why it is extremely important to do a backup prior to generalizing
• All event logs are deleted
  • Windows starts "from beginning", event logs are cleared as if the PC was a new computer booted first time
• All personalization is removed (taskbar, toolbars, folder options, start orb etc.)
  • Absolutely every change you have made to change Windows appearance and feel is lost. This includes your personalized themes, self made Start orbs, color changes, personalized pointers etc. When booted first time after generalization Windows uses default factory theme, colors, sounds and pointers
• Built-in administrator account is disabled (if it was enabled) and needs to be re-enabled if needed
  • If you have enabled built-in administrator account, it will be disabled

What happens when booting first time after sysprep generalizing?

• First boot configuration is run
  • Windows boots in so called Welcome mode (OOBE)
• New SID is created
  • What this means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_Identifier
• Re-arm counter is reseted if not already re-armed three times
  • If Windows was not yet activated when generalized, and if the max amount of rearms (3) to lenghten pre-activation period were not yet used, Windows starts as brand new installation meaning you have 30 days time to activate and you can rearm (= get another 30 days grace period) total of three times
• Windows 7 is booted using first boot default drivers and settings
  • Windows uses built-in defaults in every aspect; a generalized Windows 7 is, feels and looks as any brand new Windows 7 when booted first time. Only exception is user-installed software and user files and folders, as well as installed Windows updates; all these remain

Kari