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.

 

[P8triot]

Thanks Kari

Just wanted to thank you for posting this. It worked like a charm ONLY after I connected my SATA Optical DVD drive to the motherboard. It error-ed out 6 times+ in a row until I reconnected the DVD Optical Drive (which didn't contain a disk) and then rebooted. It completed the entire transition without a hitch and I was off and running.

Great work to everyone in this community, the best I've seen on the internet. Very thorough and detailed.

 

[Kari]

Hi P8triot, thanks and welcome to the Seven Forums.

Kari

 

[woogetybop]

Thanks Kari,

for this very informative information.
I followed this guide, but had the fatal "Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer." Looping over endlessly.
I looked though all the posts and on post #193 Paul RJ's solution saved my bacon. Thank You Paul. Just a note: his guide said to use SHIFT F11 but for me it was SHIFT F10 to get me to the windows Command Processor window.

The rest was easy and my son with his new motherboard with AMD APU and all his games on his old hard drive was up and running. That was two days ago with no issues.

Thanks again Kari for the guide and Paul for your post.

 

[GFdS]

Hi, I'm from Italy and just registered to this forum. I have carefully read this interesting tutorial since I have plans to change only motherboard and cpu and hoping that win7 pro installed on an SSD will recognize the new HW.
On a Command window I have just tested sysprep.exe which immediately returned an error message saying the following (I have to translate from the italian text): Impossible executing sysprep in a computer upgraded to a new Window's version. It is only possible in a personalized (clean) version of Windows.
What should I do?
Thank you for your help.

 

[GFdS]

Solved, I deleted the registry's key called "upgrade" on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\setup
I wonder why my system was considered "upgraded"! Perhaps because it was sold along with some hardware, so like an OEM version. Is it possible?

 

[Bartart]

Hi Guys
My problem is a little different. The old motherboard is FUBAR so I am unable to change the system to a generic windows system with sysprep. I found an interesting article that uses DISM to replace the drives of the installed windows system Here.
However after adding all the new drivers using my new MB driver disk the system now get stuck in the repair loop. I have also followed the other article in this site about the repair loop where I have replaced the registry with the backup copy. which took me back to the blue screen I got after booting the first time on the new hardware.
So in my wisdom I decided to try the following:
Restore old registry
use DISM to add the new drivers to the windows
Restart
No joy
The system still wants to try and repair itself and fails with the following message
Problem Signature
Provider Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 21200305
Problem Signature 05: AutoFailover
Problem Signature 06: 17
Problem Signature 07: NoRootCause
OS Version 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID 1033

So the question is how can I prevent the system from going into thew repair loop
Thanks for you help

 

[GFdS]

I'm again up and running but had to solve another bug of sysprep; try to go on Services (services.msc) scroll down to Windows media Player Network Sharing Service and disable it. Click OK and reboot. Run again sysprep and now it should work. In my case the sysprep routine took 4 hours!!!

 

[Kari]

I'm again up and running but had to solve another bug of sysprep; try to go on Services (services.msc) scroll down to Windows media Player Network Sharing Service and disable it. Click OK and reboot. Run again sysprep and now it should work. In my case the sysprep routine took 4 hours!!!

Hello GFdS, welcome to the Seven Forums.

You didn't read the tutorial to the end? This quote from my tutorial, first page on this thread:

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.

Kari

 

[GFdS]

Hello GFdS, welcome to the Seven Forums.
You didn't read the tutorial to the end? This quote from my tutorial, first page on this thread:

Very sorry! yes, I also saved and printed your tutorial, but since I decided to go for Method One I was silly enough not to read your excellent tutorial to the last line

The system is OK but there is a glitch which I'm going to explain in a dedicated topic.

Thank you again!

Gianmaria

 

[iFeelLikeANoob]

I'm starting to loose it...

If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. i bought an HP Pavillon 6000 series about a year ago and over time needed to upgrade. So i started with a new GPU (everything worked fine) now recently i tried adding a new Motherboard. (not working out) I installed all the hardware properly and then followed this tutorial.

I wanted to transfer my HD without reinstalling my OS so i was exited to find this tutorial.

After finishing the tutorial i booted up my computer everything was loading properly until windows began "Setup is Starting Services" a message pops up asking to reboot my computer.

The following boot, i loaded up windows safe mode same thing then tried to load it normally again same problem. I keep trying the safe mode technique but no Luck.

Someone please help!!! I really want to get my HD back

 

[DAH]

I have recently purchased a motherboard and new CPU so I was going to use this guide to get windows moved over. Followed all the steps and received the fatal error message. I saw your solution for this message and ran sysprep again. The error occured again only taking longer to appear this time. I am not sure if anyone else has experienced this issue since there are 30+ pages of information. I will start reading and hopefully I can find something.

Dean

 

[weedoo]

Wow

Thank you so much !!!

 

[weedoo]

Thanks !!!!

@xxxwea, thank you so much

 

[Dinwiddie]

Impossible executing sysprep in a computer upgraded to a new Window's version. It is only possible in a personalized (clean) version of Windows.
Solved, I deleted the registry's key called "upgrade" o
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\setup

I wish I'd skipped to the end of this thread yesterday. I never thought to look for a registry entry.
I am running an OEM Win7 64bit, but did a 'repair' reinstall about a year ago . I am guessing the reason for this is you have also done a 'repair' reinstall of Win7 in the past ?
I would like to have done the sysprep, just to get things a bit cleaner, but -

I still managed to get my Intel HD4000 graphics fully operational. It took a while to stumble through it, but I'll try to get the order of events correct.
-After imaging my old Win7 (AMD machine) I did a very thorough uninstall of all drivers and as much cleaning as possible, before moving the new drive to my new machine.
-I moved the SSD to the new machine and installed all the new drivers and left the ATI graphics drivers (HD7970) till last (old was Nvidia),
-Then as expected (because I'd been there before) the Intel HD4000 had a Code 12. Booting with BIOS set to Integrated graphics I reinstalled the Intel HD graphics drivers again. After another re-boot this allowed the Resources tab to display the conflicting I/O (10000-1FFFF).

- There are a lot of posts that mention the AMD 3GIO filter so I uninstalled that - no benefit.
The Fix :
-There was also talk of AMD PCI bus (didn't write down the whole term) in System Devices . I had nothing AMD/ATI in System Devices but clicked on the tab for PCI bus and found a conflicting I/O in the Resources tab.
No, it was not the same I/O number as the one in Intel graphics. The note pointed to - ACPI x64-based PC -
I decided to try an update of the driver anyway.
-In the - "Let me pick...my computer" I found both the AMD 3GIO filter and an Intel PCI bus driver.
I selected the Intel PCI bus driver and hey presto. I have a fully functional Intel HD4000 graphics.

-Oddly the conflicting I/O in the PCI bus is still there, but the conflicting I/O in the Intel HD graphics is gone.
I assume the AMD 3GIO filter is part of Windows as it re-installs automatically after re-boot as well (off line).

btw - I had no issue with booting into Windows with either of the two system images I have done
using OEM Win7 HP 64bit. Re-activation was done on line as well.
.

 

[Eugentshkurti]

Help ???

 

[CheshireCat289]

Kari,

Does this work when changing chipsets, say P45 to a Z77 or X79?

Thanks,

 

[Kari]

Hi Cat, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Honestly, I have never tested. But why not, it should work, for basically changing the chipset is as if the MoBo was changed.

 

[CheshireCat289]

Thanks for the reply. I am just trying to minimize headache when upgrading my core 2 quad. It looks like if I save MY DOCUMENTS and settings in a seperate folder it should be all set up without issues.

Thanks again. I am bookmarking this tutorial for sure.

 

[burko01]

Thank you Kari and xxxwea !!!

Wishing you both, Happy and Healthy New 2013 !

Never before I accomplished transferring hard drive with existing OS into a new computer;

I'm just a computer enthusiast and a family IT guy in the end - until I found your tutorial, which

worked flawlessly - at this point enormous gratitude to xxxwea and his 2 cents; without it wouldn't have

a clue how to proceed ...!

Thanks guys once again and all the best to all the curios who'll read this post some day and find it reassuring !

 

[Kari]

It is always nice to hear about success! Thank you for sharing.

Kari