I have a:
Compaq Presario CQ 61 Notebook PC
Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD Athlon II Dual Core M320 2.10 Ghz
3.0 Gb RAM, 240 Gb Hard drive
64 bit OS
The video card is dying. (Did this last year and had it replaced. Seems to be a recurring problem) I want to clone my hard drive and migrate it to:
HP G62 Notebook PC
Windows 7 Home Premium
Pentium Dual Core T4500 2.3 Ghz
3.00 GB RAM, 300 Gb Hard drive
64 bit OS
I have used MinTool Partition Wizard to copy the drive onto a Seagate 1TB external hard drive, preserving the original partition sizes. Will not boot. I think because I need BCD files. I have tried at the Command prompt to "xcopy /h boot.ini." however the "source" of this file in Windows 7 seems to be \Device\Harddisk Volume1, and the copy command fails. (Though, Bcdboot C:\Windows /s G: to copy the boot environment files did not give error message.) It seems as if Windows 7 is doing a great job of hiding the files and the directory.
How do I get the needed boot files to the boot directory (G:)? BTW, using the MiniTool Partition recovery disc, my *.SYSYEM directory shows "Active & Boot" whereas its counterpart on the Seagat just says "Active."
I have considered Acronis software. Would this require the purchase of the "migration" package? Is that usable more than once? Does it work well? Is there relatively inexpensive hardware that will let me clone reliably?
Thanks.
BTW, my computer skills are limited and I will not be offended if you talk to me as if I am a complete idiot. :-D
Thanks!
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy and welcome to the WTT forums.
Sorry to hear of the hard drive problems you are experiencing.
From your post I understand that you are trying to use an image of an existing hard drive or partition from computer A and then trying to put the same image on computer B …if that is so then its going to be a difficult job unless the two computers are identical with exactly the same hardware….( clearly they are not identical from what you say)
It would be far simpler for you to carry out a fresh install of Windows and your Applications to Computer B and considerably quicker than the route you propose….
Explanation
The image taken of computer A is based upon that particular hardware set up and the drivers are specific to Computer A…… trying to use that same image on a different computer with different hardware has been done…………………. but involves a great deal of detailed work..including as you have found, getting it to boot, and then a complete Repair install to try and get the correct drivers loaded to enable the new hardware to work……. Often times its a time consuming job to get it to boot and work sufficiently well for you to obtain the correct drivers from the individual component manufacturers and install them….. if you do manage this then the order of install is important;
1 Chipset drivers
2 Video Driver
3 Audio Driver
4 Network adapter drivers ( wired and wireless if applicable)
It is often best to use another working computer to download the drivers to removable media…a memory stick for example.
Finally when trying to get your computer B to boot up (if you decide to persevere with the "clone") make sure that the bootable CD that you made to access the image on your external hard drive does in fact allow you to do this…if you have separate partitions on your Computer A for your Boot partition, Data partition and a final one for your System images then it's usually better to just reimage Computer B with the boot image to try and get it to start up…….. once you have done this you can start looking to reimage your other partitions
Regards
paws
Thanks for your reply. If I am correctly reading between the lines, you are telling me that what I want to do is difficult, time consuming, and likely to be very frustrating, and possibly not successful.
Ok, accepting the above, is there a way to transfer my programs, downloads, etc. so that I don't have to reinstall them, even if I can. For instance, I'm not sure that I have another license for Microsoft Ofiice. Also, over the last few years I've downloaded several programs that will be a big pain to go back and find and redownload. In otherwords, is there a way to transfer my current work environment to another computer?
In your message you said:
It would be far simpler for you to carry out a fresh install of Windows and your Applications to Computer B and considerably quicker than the route you propose….
I'm betting I can't just copy over my "Programs" and "Applications" directories, can I? (You know, there are times when I miss MSDOS!)
Hi Jeremy
I echo your thoughts on DOS…. but alas with Windows its best to do fresh installs of all your applications….. its not very very practical to try and copy across applications/programmes…
The applications embed themselves into the deeper recesses of Windows…alas .its not as simple as copying across a directory/folder or two.
Hopefully you have some of the downloaded executables in your back up files…and a cardboard box somewhere with all your install Cds or DVD's…?
If I am correctly reading between the lines, you are telling me that what I want to do is difficult, time consuming, and likely to be very frustrating, and possibly not successful.
I couldn't have put it better myself….. sorry.
The last time I attemped this for a customer was with a Vista installation and I tried everything I could to dissuade him from that course of action…… however he was adamant. I tried to frighten him off with a huge price estimate…he said the price was fine… I told him it would be several days of non stop work for one technician…he said that was fine….. I asked him to sign a disclaimer to the effect that he appreciated that there was no guarantee being given for the proposed work, that the system might be thereafter inherently unstable and or unreliable……. that it was against the advice he had been given and that there were easier simpler, quicker, and better ways of dealing with the issue…… he just signed on the dotted line and asked me to go ahead…..
it worked, and we certainly earned our fees….. he has not been back so I dont know how long the system remained usuable……..
Regards
paws
You can use Windows Easy Transfer which is part of Win 7 (and Vista). It will transfer data and settings, not programs.
Click on the Start orb, type windows easy transfer and press Enter to start the process. You can use a flash drive or network as the transfer mechanism (since both computer are laptop they have connect wirelessly).
Paws,
I'm glad to encounter someone who actually agrees with me about DOS. I had more control of my computer 25 years ago! I knew where everything was because I put it there. And I could take it out again. was it a pain editing the CONFIG.SYS, AUTO.EXE. files? yes, but worth it.
I do have some of my program CD's, however these days most things are downloads. Another trend that while convenient in the short term is a pain at times like these.
You mentioned "downloaded executables" in a backup file….I take this to mean that I can copy over the *.exe files from my "Downloads" folder and reinstall those programs….great idea…thanks!
If I am smart, which remains to be seen, I'll record the steps I take to make the new computer as much like my old one as possible and work out a strategy to make this easier the next time around. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Jeremy
Jeremy, you could take a slightly different approach this time and using the knowledge and experience you gained from the previous PC, setup the new one differently perhaps? Don't install all the software you had previously. Instead, wait until you actually need it, then go get the latest version instead of reusing the one you downloaded previously.
Also, as much as possible, stay with native Windows 7 look and feel. Don't try to make it look and feel like XP.
Just my $.02 worth
