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.

 

[Syti13]

Great. Thank you so much Kari, for all your help.

~Syti

 

[Kari]

You are welcome.

 

[freetvee]

transfer image to new computer

Kari-thanks for all of the great info! I have been scrolling through all of the great info on this post, but I haven't found anything exactly specific to what I am wanting to do...

I build HTPCs for folks, and am wanting to transfer over the exact same system image (including all of the non-windows software & programs) from the old PC to a new PC. I need the old PC to remain as is (fully functional), and then I want to activate a new Windows 7 product key on the new PC. Long story short this would save me a LOT of time if there was some easy/fast way to do this and allow both PCs to be fully functional...

Is this possible? If so, what method would work best or do you recommend going a different route? Would I need to reactivate Windows on the existing PC after every transfer or is there a way to leave windows on the old PC since I am reactivating a new product key on the new PC?

Much thanks for any assistance!

 

[Kari]

Hi Freetvee, welcome to the Seven Forums.

It's a no-brainer , really easy to do but you need to re-activate the old system plus have the product key to activate the new system.

I would do it following this guide: http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...pproach-installing-setting-up-windows-pc.html

As you are not setting up a new Windows per se, jump in at the middle of the Part 3 in above mentioned guide where you find this quote:

   Note

This is where you start if you are setting up a new PC with pre-installed Windows and you are happy with the default partitioning. When you boot your new PC first time it will stop here to ask your initial username and computer name. You can follow the rest of these guidelines from this point on.

If you want to do maintenance for your existing Windows installation, you can boot it to Audit Mode and continue from here.

Reboot to Audit Mode:

• Close all programs
• Press Win + R to open Run dialog
• Type or copy & paste this to Run dialog:
  

  %windir%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /audit /reboot

• Click OK

This will work:

• With OLD PC follow the guide mentioned from Part 3 where you'll find the above quote
• Skip Parts 4 & 5
• In Part 6 when asked to run and quit the Sysprep tool, you'll need to do it with one change: You need to select Generalize option, other options as told in this screenshot:
  
• Now create an image using whatever tool you'd like to use, as told in Part 6
• Reboot OLD PC, remember it is now generalized so it needs to be re-activated (old key) and all user customization is removed. You might also need to install some non-standard drivers although Windows 7 is quite good to find everything it needs
• Transfer the image you created to NEW PC, boot, activate with new product key

That's it. I have used this method to deploy the same image with software installed on three of my home computers, no issues.

Please let me know how it went for you!

Kari

 

[freetvee]

Well that is awesome news-don't know why I didn't think of that before?!? Thanks so much Kari for all of the details. I am heading out of town soon, so probably will not have a chance to give it a go for a week or 2, but I will definitely let you know how it goes. I would love to send you a donation, buy you a beer, or something else helpful... If there is some way I can do that-let me know. Thanks again! Brian

 

[Kari]

Well that is awesome news-don't know why I didn't think of that before?!? Thanks so much Kari for all of the details. I am heading out of town soon, so probably will not have a chance to give it a go for a week or 2, but I will definitely let you know how it goes. I would love to send you a donation, buy you a beer, or something else helpful... If there is some way I can do that-let me know. Thanks again! Brian

I'm a great fan of single malt whiskies, Laphroaig being my favorite label, so anything from here will do: Laphroaig Whisky - Buy Laphroaig Whiskies Online - Master of Malt - Master of Malt

Seriously, your thanks is enough. Take your time first time you do this; although not necessary it often makes a big difference if you can really understand what is happening and why when you prepare a system with sysprep.

Please keep us posted!

Kari

 

[LittleJay]

Just used this tutorial to sysprep a Windows 7 installation on my old computer so I could move the drive to another PC. Thanks once again Kari!!!

 

[Kari]

You are welcome Jay.

 

[freetvee]

help?!?

Hello! Giving this a try right now, but as I read through I am a bit confused at certain points. Can you please provide some more details around my questions below?

[*]With OLD PC follow the guide mentioned from Part 3 where you'll find the above quote
[*]Skip the Part 4
[*]Install / remove drivers and software as told in Part 5
Since I want to leave all of the old stuff as is on the old PC I assume I can skip this step 5 on the old PC too?


[*]In Part 6 when asked to run and quit the Sysprep tool, you'll need to do it with one change: You need to select Generalize option, other options as told in this screenshot:
View attachment 256330
[*]Now create an image using whatever tool you'd like to use, as told in Part 6
[*]Reboot OLD PC, remember it is now generalized so it needs to be re-activated (old key) and all user customization is removed. You might also need to install some non-standard drivers although Windows 7 is quite good to find everything it needs
Confused?!? I was just wanting to copy the image from one PC to another, this sounds like it is wiping it off of the old one... Am I missing something? or do I then also need to do a system restore on the old PC as well to get all of my stuff back?


[*]Transfer the image you created to NEW PC, boot, activate with new product key
[/LIST]
So how do I transfer the image to the new PC-using system restore and then point/restore the new PC off of the old saved system image or some different way?


Thanks again!

 

[Kari]

Your post is a bit difficult to read, so I take what I understand and answer that:

Your situation is a little bit different as you will be using the same image on two PCs, the old one and a new HTPC. That's why I suggested you combine two tutorials, this one to first create the general image of old PC, and the one i linked to set up the new HTPC.

First, yes of course you can skip installing software as told in that other tutorial I linked. You are generalizing existing installation, no need to install additional software. My mistake to add that step in my post, please forget it. I will remove that step from my post.

Second, when you generalize the old PC, sysprep removes all third party drivers (NIC, video, audio etc.) and uses Windows native drivers when booted first time. For most computers this is totally OK, Windows goes online and picks correct drivers, but I recommend to check the Device Manager after first boot to control no drivers are missing. If yes, then you need to install those.

About the license, the Product Key: I will copy here the warning from the beginning of this tutorial:

   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 afterwards, at least not without phone activation option.

What this means is that you will need to enter the valid, original Product Key to the old PC when you boot it first time after sysprepping it to create an image. The activation is lost, it really needs to be re-activated, so please be sure you have the Product Key before starting this procedure.

The same with the new HTPC where you will transfer the image, it needs to be activated with a valid, new Product Key (of course you cannot use the old PC's key twice!).

Please also remember that you cannot sysprep an upgraded Seven. If the Seven is installed as an in-place upgrade on top of Vista, or if the user has later done for a fresh install of Seven a so called repair install which is also considered as in-place upgrade, you cannot use this method. Sysprep only works on systems which have had a fresh, clean install.

Kari

 

[freetvee]

thanks for the quick reply Kari!

Sorry, I see that my questions didn't transfer over very well... :-( I think your responses clear up all of my confusion for now except one thing-what is the best way to do a system restore or whatever I need to do to bring my stuff back on each PC? What is the best way to transfer the image to the NEW PC-using system restore and then point/restore the new PC off of the old saved system image or some different way(hopefully it gives me this option)? Same question for the OLD PC as well? It sounds like the OLD PC is basically wiped clean, so no 3rd party software, VLC, itunes, etc. will be retained, right? I assume my system image will keep all of that 3rd party software (since they are all on the C: drive), so as soon as I figure out the best way bring that info back to the NEW & OLD PC I will be good to go!

I do have all of the different activation keys for windows 7, but they are OEM, so maybe a phone call is in my future... Sorry I am being overly cautious because I am still using all of the stuff on my old HTPC so don't want to lose anything-haven't messed much with system restore before. Thanks again for all of the assistance!

 

[Victor S]

I did similar recently - kept my old system intact and also moved it to a new PC.
Here's the procedure I used. All images and restores done with a CD that the imaging software will create.
It's called "cold imaging." Images are written onto an external HD.
1. Image the original existing system. You should know imaging up and down and that it actually works as expected by doing restores.
2. Sysprep the existing system.
3. Reboot to the imaging system CD.
4. Image the sysprepped system.
5. Restore the original existing system image taken in step 1. Your original system is back in place, and you have a sysprepped image of it on the external HD.
6. Connect the external HD to the new PC.
7. Boot the new PC using the imaging software CD.
8. Restore the sysprepped image from the external HD to the new PC HD.
9. Reboot the new PC from the new PC HD.

See what happens.

 

[freetvee]

I did similar recently - kept my old system intact and also moved it to a new PC.
Here's the procedure I used. All images and restores done with a CD that the imaging software will create.
It's called "cold imaging." Images are written onto an external HD.
1. Image the original existing system. You should know imaging up and down and that it actually works as expected by doing restores.
2. Sysprep the existing system.
3. Reboot to the imaging system CD.
4. Image the sysprepped system.
5. Restore the original existing system image taken in step 1. Your original system is back in place, and you have a sysprepped image of it on the external HD.
6. Connect the external HD to the new PC.
7. Boot the new PC using the imaging software CD.
8. Restore the sysprepped image from the external HD to the new PC HD.
9. Reboot the new PC from the new PC HD.

See what happens.

Hi Victor thanks for the additional info-much appreciated!

I am building a few PCs right now so will try this in a bit... In step 3, you are saying to reboot the old PC, but how does one select the option to reboot to imaging system CD/HD? I assume you mean the one I just created-seems odd but whatever works. I am reading things correctly that steps 1-5 are all on the OLD PC, and 6-9 are all on the NEW PC?

Similar question for step 7-how does one select the option to reboot to imaging system CD/HD? Also, do I need to be in sysprep mode for step 7 to work and at what point do I do step 7? Before installing windows 7 at all or after installing but before setting up the PC name, etc.?

Thanks for any additional info, cant wait to try this out!

Brian

 

[Victor S]

freetv,
You are exactly right about which steps apply to which PC.
Step 3 requires setting bios to boot from CD. Whichever computer you're booting to CD. I use imaging so much that my default boot is to the CD, but unless i press a key within about 5 seconds the boot sequence moves on to the C drive.
The only time sysprep comes into play is when you do it in step 2. All else is making or restoring images, or plugging in the external HD and the imaging software CD to the computer that needs it. You really have to be familiar with imaging to use the above method.
Your last comment makes me wonder if I understand what you are trying to do.
I thought you wanted to "Transfer your Complete Windows 7 Installation to a New Computer."
So there is no need to "install" Windows anywhere. I can't help with the registration part, because I never did it. I just made sure the process worked, and that Win 7 booted on the "new" PC looking like it had on the original PC, then reverted the "new" PC back to its prior system with an image I had previously taken.
It was all for "contingency planning" in case my primary PC goes kaput. I now keep a sysprepped image handy in case that occurs - and i had to know the process works. It does.

 

[freetvee]

Now create an image using whatever tool you'd like to use, as told in Part 6

Was finally able to find some time to go through this process but windows froze up on me in the middle of it... I really want to get this done but first I will need to recover my system image-which doesn't seem to be working to well. Any help would once again be greatly appreciated.

I did do a system image of the old PC before starting the process. Then I did the sysprep w/ generalize all is going well. I then tried to do another windows system image in sysprep mode (as quoted in your step above). It seemed to be going well, until ironically i got worried about the new image replacing the old image so i went into windows explorer created a new folder and moved the old image. I then tried to system image and windows popped back with an error (sorry cant remember the specifics). I closed out of windows back up and tried reopening it numerous times. then it froze up as did windows explorer (they were all just blank boxes) so I had to do a restart. When I restart it was setting up windows again which I got out of and into recovery mode.

I have tried several different ways to boot into the recovery and restore the original system image (even after moving it back to its original location) and windows just cant find it. I can actually find that image on my external hard drive, its now in the right spot even, but Windows just cant find it?!?

Can anyone please give me some pointers on how to get the original system image back, so that I can start over and finally get this done? I am excited to get this done but need to get past this bump in the road first... Thanks much!

 

[Kari]

Post your issue on Backup and Restore - Windows 7 Help Forums, you get better help on your imaging issues.

 

[freetvee]

Kari[/QUOTE]

Post your issue on Backup and Restore - Windows 7 Help Forums, you get better help on your imaging issues.

Posted there, but nothing yet... thanks

 

[freetvee]

system restored, so back to square one and will try this again tomorrow!

 

[freetvee]

I didnt use a imaging CD but an External HD (since the image is 30GB with all of the software I want to keep on there). So I have used Aomei to backup a regular system image and a sysprep system image too both to my External HD. when I go to the new pc I load windows 7 first, install the LAN driver from disc and then install Aomei.

Do I need to be in sysprep mode again before doing the Aomei system restore on the new PC? I am confused about the method for "transferring" the system image to the new PC-any more details you can provide-should I be using cloning instead of system recovery since I am just wanting to copy everything to a new PC and leave the old on the same: http://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-data-backuper.html Is there an easier way to do this when I can somehow boot to my external HD on the new PC and initiate a system restore-like this but I need more than a CD: http://www.aomeitech.com/features/create-bootable-disc.html

BTW-the old PC seemed to keep most of the system image without me needing to do a system restore?!?

 

[freetvee]

I didnt use a imaging CD but an External HD (since the image is 30GB with all of the software I want to keep on there). So I have used Aomei to backup a regular system image and a sysprep system image too both to my External HD. when I go to the new pc I load windows 7 first, install the LAN driver from disc and then install Aomei.

Do I need to be in sysprep mode again before doing the Aomei system restore on the new PC? I am confused about the method for "transferring" the system image to the new PC-any more details you can provide-should I be using cloning instead of system recovery since I am just wanting to copy everything to a new PC and leave the old on the same: AOMEI Backupper ? free disk imaging and cloning software, backup and recovery for your computer. Is there an easier way to do this when I can somehow boot to my external HD on the new PC and initiate a system restore-like this but I need more than a CD: AOMEI Backupper Helps to Create Bootable CD

BTW-the old PC seemed to keep most of the system image without me needing to do a system restore?!?

btw- I am all for paying someone if I can ever get this figured out correctly and efficiently. If anyone has a suggestion on how to best do this and get this done please let me know! thanks.