Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer

Hi all

I am posting this as a possible solution only, based on the myriad hardware\software configurations which could influence the outcome of a SYSPREP exercise:

I helped a friend upgrade his buggy mainboard\CPU. The old and new mainboards both had Intel chipsets so I hoped we might avoid SYSPREP,,,. Alas, it was not to be, so after tripping over the WMPNETWK.EXE problem, we finally got an OOBE + Generalize SYSPREP to run through to completion.

We placed the prepped hard-drive into the rebuilt system and.... it halted with the dreaded 'Windows could not finish customizing your machine' error, followed by 'Will continue after restart'.

So - in the pursuit of insanity we re-booted 3 times and got the same gut-wrenching result.

We then tried Safe Mode only to be informed that this process cannot be done in Safe Mode.

In total desperation, I re-booted the machine and kept the LEFT-SHIFT key depressed.

I remember this from Windows 95 days of preventing startup items from interfering with problematic boot issues,,, and would you believe it - IT ACTUALLY WORKED!

The PC is now up and running perfectly after updating drivers.

I cannot guarantee that this will work for everyone experiencing these startup errors, but what have you got to lose by trying? After all the alternative is several hours of format\reloading Windows7 + apps + everything else....

https://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-...ml#post2296045

I keep getting an error from sysprep that says you cannot sysprep on an upgraded computer.
i did an in place install since there where some problems with the operating system it fixed this.
Now i need to upgrade the motherboard and processor.

i tried looking for "hklm/system/setup/upgrade" which has been stated that removing this would allow it to continue but the key does not exist i tried to put it in and remove it and it still give same results(i figured as much).
so windows moved/ changed how they determine an upgrade/in place install.

How can i go about making it think it is a clean install to use sysprep?

Kari,
Thank you for the information, that was the news i was expecting.
i will have to rebuild it because the old image is technically corrupted because windows was installed with a bad ram chip in.

They need to bring back the old xp repair.

Kari,

I've been away for a couple of days, the reason for my late response. Thank you for your advice... I've decided to go with restoring a system image via Win 7 DVD. I have the new (empty) HDD installed but when I go to the "select a system image backup" it shows my External HDD as Drive C: then I click>next>next which takes me to "Your computer will be restored from the following image" it shows "drives to restore" as \\?\Volume {26579eda-de02-11e0-aed3-806e6f6e6963}, C:. I'd like to know is this supposed to happen and if not, then what should I do.

~Syti

Ok, Kari, thank you. I will do that now

Just an update, what I had to do was install windows 7 onto the new HDD which changed the drives to the correct letter, my internal HDD is now C: and my external is now F: then I restarted the PC and now I'm currently running the image restore via the Windows 7 disk which now shows my external drive as F: which is now restoring my C: drive. This may help someone with the same problem I've ran into. Only problem was reactivating windows via phone support.

Hey Kari, I got everything I needed done with the help of this tutorial and sysprep. One question....When I need to delete the other user created during sysprep process (I used "Test" also) it gives me the option to delete files or keeps files, could you tell which selection I want to do.

Thank you again for your help and this tutorial.