Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer

ah sysprep is what I meant and searching further I found the KB article that explains step by step along with the statement that is not in the manial: sysprep and Acronis Univeral restore may be used together. Thanks !

I have all the luck. I too am now in the reboot loop. I was able to sysprep per the instructions but am getting the "Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer." error message when putting the drive in the new computer. In a nutshell, I followed the steps until sysprep shut down my computer. (I am assuming that is what was suppose to happen since I selected "shutdown") I removed it without restarting in the old machine. I built the new machine with a new motherboard, processor, memory, my old video card, etc., in a new case. It started up just as everyone has described previously until it gets to the Starting Services then errors shortly thereafter.

I read posts of xml files I know nothing about as well as hot fixes. I don't know how I would get a hot fix on there now that I've run sysprep, but maybe there is a way.

I haven't given up hope yet. Has anyone figured out what causes this?

What think ye?

Thanks kari. I was afraid this would be the case. But I did have some luck as it were. I continued searching on other blogs and found this:

The problem seems to be the registy entries made by sysprep, which probably should have, but didnt, change at the first reboot.

To confirm, after a clean image capture with WDS and install, upon the first reboot the system will not go past the message:

"Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer."

THE SOLUTION THAT WORKED

1. When the error message appears, open up a command window with SHIFT + F11
2. open the REGEDIT
3. navigate to hklm\system\setup
4. change CmdLine to blank (no value entered) (was oobe\windeploy.exe)
5. change CreateNewQueueOnFirstBoot to 0 (was 1)
6. change OOBEInProgress to 0 (was 1) (i am guessing that might be AUDITInProgress if that was your sysprep choice)
7. change SetupPhase to 0 (was 4)
8. change SetupShutdownRequired to 0 (was 1)
9. change SetupType to 0 (was 2)
10. change SystemSetupInProgress to 0 (was1)

11. exit REGEDIT and reboot

It Worked!!!! You can't believe how relieved I was and it went right to my home home screen with all my icons and background intact but at a low screen resolution. I couldn't believe it at first because I put about 7 or 8 hours into it with most of that being trying to find a solution.

I only want to point out one observation with the above process and that is item number 5 did not exist in my hklm\system\setup folder so I revised the rest and voilà!!

I post this solution that may work for some others here and considering it only took about 10 minutes to make the changes, it is certainly worth the try if you're still stuck.

Thanks again Kari. Your tip sheet saved me massive amounts of heart ache.

Regards,
Paul

Hello,

I want to upgrade from a nVidia i780 S775 chipset (QX9650) to an Intel P55-GD65 S1156 chipset (i7 860). I want to keep my Windows 7 Prof. installation with as much settings and programs as possible. I replace the motherboard, CPU and memmory. The rest stays active.

I've created a full system backup as described here: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Must I take extra steps coming from nVidia and going to Intel?
Could I choose for the simple standard drivers replacement (nvidia nforce Serial ATA to standard IDE) and go ahead or is the Sysprep method safer but give me more lost settings? Windows must be (re)activated with both, I know that.

Any help will be appreciated.

With Greetz..

Thank you Kari, I will go for the safe(r) way then. I will give feedback after the upgrade process, lets hope it will be from my "new" system

With Greetz, Ad

Hello there Kari,

the first reply from my "new" system. All is well and activated, no errors after finishing Windows setup. Just a telephone call to reactivate Windows 7 Prof.

I should let you know that I first got a error when starting sysprep. The error that more users get in some circumstance; "sysprep cannot run on a computer that has been upgraded from a previous version".
That error is valid as my Windows 7 Prof. is an (unofficial) upgrade from a Windows Vista Ultimate installation (for keeping my old settings and programs, again). I disabled the error by the deletion of the upgrade key in the registry (Google is our friend).
Although I selected the "shutdown" option in sysprep, my system didn't shutoff after the completion of sysprep. I've checked all the active processes and saw nothing that indicated that sysprep was still running. So........, I shut the system down myself. Hope was high.

After that a Philips screwdriver (and my hands) did the rest :)

Starting the "new" hardware give me the screens you have put on the first page in a slightly different order, but he, what do I care, I'm happy

Thanks for the very useful information in this topic.

With kind greetings, Ad