Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer

PaulVdB said:

... but for my case, I can't use the tutorial discribed at the start of this thread ?

The answer is a very clear Yes and No :).

Yes:

If your wife and you are happy for her to continue using her existing 32 bit Windows on the PC which currently runs the 64 bit Windows, you can use the Method One in this tutorial to simply generalize her existing Windows HDD and move it to your son's PC. Her Windows would be the same, all her software installed and intact as well as the personal files, your son's old PC would now run the wife's old 32 bit Windows using the HDD from her original PC.

If the son's old PC has better / bigger HDD and the wife would like to get her Windows to that HDD, you can use Method Two.

No:

If your wife would like to start using a 64 bit Windows currently installed on your son's old PC, the correct way is to create a user account for her on that PC, make it an administrator account, delete your son's account and then install all software she needs on that uninstalling the software from your son which she do not need. Finally, copy her files from the old PC to this new PC.

Kari

:) I'm an insomniac, that's why I hang here.

PaulVdB said:

There is just one more question that I would like to ask you : will the old computer still be 100% functional after doing the "Sysprep" etc? In other words: Does Sysprep make changes to the OS, installed apps, etc? And if it does, are those changes easy and 100% reversable ?

What the procedure does is it removes all hardware related information from the system. This includes hardware drivers, hardware entries in registry and so on. The only thing that happens to the old Windows PC is that when it will be booted next time, it has lost its activation and performs a so called OOBE first run boot as if it was a new PC booted first time.

The OOBE boot means it will start almost from the beginning, from Step 11 in this tutorial: Clean Install Windows 7

It will ask the main user's name and creates an account for this user. Because the system already has existing user accounts, it does not accept any username already present. Using myself as an example, I have a user account Kari. When I generalize Windows and then boot it first time, I arrive to that dialog shown in Step 11 in tutorial I linked to above. Now I can't use username Kari, so I create an account named Dummy, and finally when in Windows, delete this Dummy account. You just need it to get through the OOBE boot.

Windows will now reinstall those hardware drivers it can, check the Device Manager if something is still missing and install the drivers. All software and personal files are still there and intact and the PC is as it was before.

About activation, you noticed this warning at the beginning of the 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 it, at least not without phone activation option.

PaulVdB said:

You see : Before I decide to do this transfer I want to take in account the worst case scenario : Having TWO unusable computers, ONE angry wife and MANY hours of work to get at least one computer working again ... :) If nothing changes on the old computer, then I can experiment to your heart's content...
Thanks in advance, Kari !

I always recommend making a full system image before doing this, to be sure that you can restore the PC as it was if something goes wrong.

About the angry wife issue, I'm four times happily divorced so I know what you mean...

Kari

Windows native backup has issues in creating the image in Audit Mode. I just removed Method Three from the tutorial, I will rewrite it as soon as I find some extra time. In the mean time use the Method Two.

Your fix for now is to reboot normally, let Windows go through the so called OOBE boot and restore everything as it was, then follow the steps in Method Two and create the system image with Macrium Reflect Free. You will find a link to Macrium tutorial in Method Two part of this tutorial.

Welcome to Seven Forums goWarriors. Just had to commend you on your user name

A Guy

Hi Allowingtoo, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Just my opinion, other geeks might say something different: If Windows 8 is not for you, get a copy of Windows 7 and downgrade. Buy an external USB case for your old laptop's HDD, connect it to your new laptop and copy your personal stuff, then reinstall all your software.

Kari said:

Hi Allowingtoo, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Just my opinion, other geeks might say something different: If Windows 8 is not for you, get a copy of Windows 7 and downgrade. Buy an external USB case for your old laptop's HDD, connect it to your new laptop and copy your personal stuff, then reinstall all your software.

As Kari say mate I would not be mucking around trying to downgrade. My brother in the UK has done a lot of playing around with 7, 8 and 10 and has finally come to his senses and gone back to 7