How to Prepare for Migration to Newer Hardware with a system that is OLD but working fine
My ZT desktop is working just fine but it's over 5 years old and is my main PC. Im now running win10 64-bit.
I know how to make disk images and backups using Windows tools. I have my PC Hard disk organized so that the OS and ALL APPS are exclusively installed only on the C drive, but all DATA type files that I create or use with the APPS are stored on an entirely different physical drive. I use an SSD for my C drive and they are expensive in sizes greater than 256 GB, so this strategy not only helps me derive the SSD benefits (faster boot, etc) but doesn't require unnecessary large storage for the data files (pics, docs, music, you name it!)
So far I've been using the Win10's Disk Image tool to make IMAGES on a regular basis to an external USB drive, to protect me against the SSD failure or a virus. And I BACKUP all my data files (now on a D drive) to anpther external USB drive. But here's my concern:
I know that my DATA files (D disk) can operate on any pc. But my disk Images would NOT function on a newly purchased machine running win10 because the MOTHERBOARD and PROCESSOR will differ. That's why I purchased Acronis True Image; I had the understanding that I can use this product to prepare the proper type of disk image that will be capable of running on NEW pc hardware and have my current configuration of OS and Apps in tact.
Can you please give me the simple few step by step instructions on how to prepare THAT type of disk image. I get confused between your Backup Tool and the Clone Tool. I don't think I can use the Clone tool and have it work on another newer PC. I'm hoping the BACKUP tool can do that by having me use it ONLY TO BACK UP MY SSD. Like I said above, I already back up my DATA. I do not find the Manual clear on these points. It keeps talking about migration to a larger HD or SSD but fails to mention the Motherboard and Processor issues.
Thx Mr. Ftr Pilot. I will check that further. I'm new to Acronis and to this forum and the support tools and I also just found (after posting my question) a video that seems to deal with the topic in a nice form from which to learn: https://kb.acronis.com/content/56637 I plan to capture that videw so I can put it on one of my other PCs before it disappears. :)
Thx for your kind help.
Welcome to the Forum. I am new here myself, but have been using Acronis products for quite a while. Lots of good information and good folks willing to help.
Regards,
FtrPilot
You can put the SSD in a computer with different hardware and it will detect the new hardware without running Universal Restore. Windows 8 and Windows 10 will automtaically detect new hardware without blue screening.
Wow! That's certainly Big News!
Do understand you to imply that the whole issue of migrating the OS and Apps to new hardware has gone away in Win 10? Does it only work with an SSD?
this still leaves open the question of having a suitable "backup" or "image" of that drive. After all, I'm still desirous of having a suitable way to recover if that SSD should fail or become infected.
Yes, it has gone away. No, it also works for HDD. I'd recommend a disk and partitions backup of the SSD. I just did a restore of a backup to a smaller disk and to a larger disk. Acronis automatically resized the OS partition to fit the disk. This restore was performed from the application and not the boot media. I was very impressed.
If you change/migrate your OS and data to a machine with different motherboard, nic, and disk drives you will have to reactivate Windows 10. This is in most cases a painless process but still will need to be done.
Enchantech,
I have been wondering about the Win 10 re-activation issue when moving the OS to a New Hardware...
Glad you brought that up !
My Win10 upgrades are all based on Full versions of Win8.1 and 1 version of a Win7 upgrade for which I have keys for all.
IF the "Pre-Upgrade to Win10 OS" was a "NON-OEM Version of Win7 or 8" moving the OS to a NEW computer will NOT require an activation key but as you have said might very well require re-activation.
IF the "Pre-Upgrade to Win10 OS" was an "OEM Version of Win 7 or 8", then moving the OS to a NEW computer WILL require the user to provide an activation key because any OEM OS versions are intended for the "Original" computer only and cannot be transferred to a new computer.
Are my comments in line with what you are thinking in terms of moving the Win10 OS to a new computer ?
Steve
The way I understand it WIN10 is tied to your old hardware. You would now need to reactivate using phone activation. Same procedure we have always used after resoring a backup to new hardware. Let me know if you find any changes.
Guys, regarding reactivating Win 10: The most likely scenario for me, at least, is that I would be migrating to new hardware that already was running an existing (and probably newer) fully licensed version of win 10. It would be a NEW OEM version. So now I'm really confused about what will happen and how I should be preparing myself. The conundrum is this:
There will be two win 10 OS versions: one equipped with the new machine; one on the "backup" or "image" or whatever I should call this "migration data". My main objective is to avoid having to reinstall all my APPS and hardware drivers. I see no particular advantage to trying to also retain the former OS even though we can assume it's been kept fully updated and free of infection.
The most recent comments about retaining the older OS suggest that I don't even need Acronis to be fully prepared to migrate to a new win10 system if I simply do these things:
a) use win 10 DISK IMAGE to have a source of data that will fully retain the old OS and APPS
b) phone MS and deal with the reactivation, possibly giving them the license info that comes with the new machine
The advantage of this two step process (to me) would be no need to do anything with Acronis
If I've got this wrong, please straighten me and others out. How could such an important need be so poorly understood by those of us with aging machines?
Techno, I think you are correct about the phone activation.
I am still wondering about this New Hardware shift, IF one attempts to move a Win10 installation that was an UPGRADE from an OEM OS installation of Win7 or 8. Under those conditions, MS says you cannot move the license to a NEW computer (same as New Hardware) because the "original" OS was installed under an OEM license and is only good for the computer on which it was originally installed.
With that thinking, I suspect that moving an OEM based OS install to new hardware may fail when it comes time for activation. No doubt it may boot but may not activate because of license issues.
I suspect that a Non-OEM based transfer will activate just fine because the owner/installer had to have installed with original keys and has the right to move the software anywhere he/she wishes.
I guess, I will have to test this out by moving a working Win10 disk over to new hardware and see what happens. I just don't happen to have any OEM installs so I cannot make an OEM transfer test.
Steve
Steve, it's astonishing to me that we all seem to be wandering lost in a forest of options on something so important and governed by both MS policy and S/W technology. Does anyone on this Forum have a clear path to obtaining a decisive answer to my "preparation for disaster" question? I am going to take the proactive step myself next and contact MS with the question. If and when I get an answer, I'll post it here.
None of us should be required to experiment with our own machines to address this issue.
Gene
Have a look at the link below for an FAQ of upgrade/licensing answers, hopefully it will help with the confusion.
http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/windows-10-upgrade-and-installation-…
If you need to find your Windows Product Key including Windows 10 you can do the steps below:
Simply copy and paste the below script into a new notepad file. Name the notepad file what you wish, however change the extension from .txt to .vbs. Save and run the newly created Key Catcher on a toolset USB key or right on the newly upgraded machine itself and the true key will be provided.
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))
Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function
Steve is correct. All this information is located on the Microsoft website. The problem is that Microsoft was slow to release the information and also changed the information after it was released. You can't even download an ISO of the latest Windows 10 and do a clean install. It's ridiculous.
I'm still using Windows 8.1 Pro and see no reason to upgrade to Windows 10. I have a very complex system and everything is woking. If you use a program called Classic Start Menu in Windows 8.1 it makes the desktop behave just like Windows 7. Run GWX_control_panel to remove those nagging Windows 10 upgrade messages. You now have an upgraded version of Windows 7.
Microsoft has created a Windows 10 Media Creation tool for use to clean install Windows 10. The tool allows creation of the desired version of Windows 10 to be created on a USB stick for example for installation on a machine. Link to the tool appears below:
The media creation tool doesn't create latest version of Windows 10. There was an activation problem with the latest version of Windows 10 so Microsoft removed it. You get build 10240 instead of build 10586.
Ok, I followed your link and found a very long description of the convoluted MS process required for activating a Win10 system that has been "reinstalled". It certainly leaves my question UNanswered.
Then you included a script for obtaining the license of what's running. But to what purpose?
We all should know by now that the new process MS uses to verify authenticity of a license is employing technology that reads info off the Motherboard. This makes the license specific to a machine and allows them to enforce their convoluted rules.
It's too bad this series of recent posts (all about licensing and activation) is embedded in this series of posts because it's on a more specific topic that's probably of interest to many in its own right. Yes, it's certainly related to my original question. But now the entire issue of whether or not MIGRATION to new hardware is possible for anyone who upgraded to win10 for free from an OEM win 7 or win 8 is really the core issue. Can we please stick to that and get an answer?
Gene,
I really do not think you will have much of a problem moving your existing Win10 OS to the new machine. Just make sure you have a good image to fall back on it everything goes south. Placing an OS image on the new machine should leave you with but one issue, activation and as most of the experts have noted, that may not be much of an issue.
AND... your use of an OS disk or partition and a DATA disk or partition is exactly how I have mine set up. I have found that to be a perfect solution for quick backups and recovery of the OS and Data.
Enchantech,
Perfect timing for your reply. I just finished testing the media creation tool and saw your reply.
You are exactly correct. It works... I created an ISO file using the media creation tool, then created a Win10 pro install disc and then inserted a new HDD and booted with the new install disc. It created a perfect Win10 pro running system. Since I used my MS login during the install process, the new Win10 system was already activated. Now I have a fresh Win10 that I can set aside for testing. But, this little test does not resolve the idea that more may be involved had I used the newly created OS disk on a new system that contained an OEM OS key embedded in the chips of the new machine. I suspect that my newly created disk booted pre-activated was becasue it was created from an install disk that originated from the OS that was already activated and it was installed on the same system and not a different computer.
I wonder if I had placed the new disk in a new machine that already had an OEM OS key imbedded in the chips, and the imbedded key was for the same OS version, i.e. Win10 pro or home, then the new disk should boot fine and simply use the embedded key for activation. Wish I had an OEM machine to test that theory. ---Gene should be able to test that out ??? ----
I'm sure we will hear from our MVP's/Experts concerning this issue.
Enchantech, I used your .vbs script and obtained the OS key, however, I also used a product called "produkey-x64" to obtain the key. The produkey-x64 program gave me a key listing of all my software that had keys but the OS key was different from the one reported by the .vbs script. That was confusing. The keys reported by produkey for my MS Office and Adobe Suite were accurate. I should just be happy and quit messing around when all is working good... BUT , nothing wrong with being prepared.
Steve
No, you can not legally upgrade to new hardware if you have an OEM license.
Gene,
I really do not feel you will have a huge issue...
Consider, the machine you are migrating TO may be OEM but it DOES have a KEY, either chip embedded or you have it on a sticker..
I think the issue will be that you need to migrate the SAME OS to the new machine. By that, I mean if the OLD machine is running WIN10 PRO and the NEW is Running WIN10 Pro or both are running HOME Version, there should NOT be an activation problem. Your OEM key for the new machine validates the right for you to RUN Win 10 on that machine no matter where it came from.
Just get a spare drive, backup the NEW machine to the point you are TOTALLY satisfied you can restore and take out the disk, insert a test disk and let her rip.... Do the restore and see what happens and how to deal with it. If everything turns to crap, you have your original to turn back to.
I am very interested in following your experience. One day, I'll have a similar issue but right now I have no OEM machines to test with.
Steve
Techno, My media creation tool created a Win10 ISO file that when restored to a new disk resulted in Win10 Ver 1511 Build 10586.0
Maybe it is based on when the ISO was created ?
Gene, that is a good tool to create an Install ISO or Win10 Install disc. With the disc you can install a fresh copy of Win 10. My install of Win10 pro took 16gb and the install disc had both Pro and Home versions as a selectable option during the setup.
Steve
This most recent comment about legally upgrading is missing my point, so I will repeat the most important facts you should assume:1
1) The NEW PC to which I will want to be able to "migrate" my existing Win10 APPS will already have on it a fully licensed (probably OEM) Win 10.
2) My existing PC is using a free Win 10 upgrade from an OEM version of Win7 and right now that PC is running just fine
3) I'm just wanting to be able to get my current APPS onto a new PC with Win 10 if my existing Win10 machine fails and I want to do this without having to go through the effort of reinstalling all my APPS. I have the disks and I CAN do the reinstall, but my goal has been to avoid that because of all the updates to those apps that have already been taken and are current.
Clearly, I'm not trying to bootleg a Win 10 OS. The new machine will have Win 10 on it already! The issue that seems to have come up is that when I make an IMAGE of the existing Win 10, it may or may NOT "transfer my APPS" in running condition to the new PC.
Also, may I ask for clarification once again on this matter of making the proper kind of Backup or Image---
4) I have used Acronis Media Creation Tool to create the machine-specific ISO for this aging machine. Is that the only part of this Acronis package I should employ? That is to say: Can I use the Win 10 Disk Image along with that special ISO created by Acronis and is that what you are saying will work?
It will really help me if you would reply by enumerated item because we have several people answering questions and I can't always determine if the answers are in agreement.
Thanks,
Gene
Gene, I am by no means an expert but have done many backups and restores with TIH 2010 -2016.
4: NO, that is not part of your issue here. I simply used the MicroSoft media creation tool to create a Win10 install disc should I ever need to install a FRESH copy of Win 10. I see no need for you to be concerned about the media creation tool at this point. I threw that in just for info and future value. That distracted from your original question and I apologize for that !
1:, 2: & 3: Since you have a legal copy of Win10 on both machines, licensing should not be an issue. The only issue might be that BOTH versions are the same...Win10 Pro or Home on BOTH MACHINES. My idea here is to have a NEW, SPARE HDD on hand for this test. Create an OS image using TIH2016. You should only need the OS partiton, not the entire source disk. After you have created a TIH2016 image of your SOURCE OS, Remove the "Destination OS" disk from the NEW machine and insert the NEW HDD. Boot TIH2016 with the TIH2016 recovery media and restore the "TIH2016 created Source OS image" ,that also contains ALL of your Apps, to the NEW machine, remove the TIH2016 recovery media and boot the new machine.... See what happens... You may or may not have to install drivers for the NEW machine... i.e. Sata, Audio, Networking drivers, etc. Some report not having to and some report the need to install drivers. If you can get the Test HDD to boot ok then you are home free with all of your Apps.
I am sure there are loads of technical issues I have forgotton and the real techies and MVP's can add to and correct my blunders but this basic manuver has worked for me many times.
I guess the most important thing for me was that I only used a test HDD to test the procedure and to avoid destroying the original destination (new machine) disk until all was proven and I had verified (tested) backups to fall back on. By verified, I do not mean TIH verified, I mean actually tested... smile.. You know what I mean. When the software says "verified", I still do not believe it.
Steve
Steve, that's great! I'm glad microsoft fixed that problem.
Alwaysfixing, OEM OS's are legally locked to the hardware they are installed on.
I will only add here this:
With the release of Windows 8 Microsofts EULA changed. So, if you upgraded a Win 7 install to Win 8 you now have a new EULA that replaces the old license so you would in effect have a retail license of Win 8. A free upgrade to Win 10 then would retain the previous Win 8 Retail license EULA.
It is unclear how the above relates to an OEM Win 7 license. Reason being that up to and including Win 7, OEM licenses were tied to the original machine on which the licensed Windows copy was installed. Starting with Windows 8 that has changed and licenses are now maintained on Microsoft Servers and verified when an install is performed. Product keys are now stored in the UEFI firmware on such Windows installations.
For informational purposes only here, you can now perform a clean install of Windows 10 on a machine that has an already activated Windows 10 installtion by simply reinstalling the software and skipping the product key input screens during the install process. Once the new install is booted and the machine is online the OS will automatically check Microsoft servers and activate without user intervention.
Steve, yes, I completely understand the importance of moving between identical TYPES of OS; Win 10 home to Win 10 Home GOOD POINT!
I like your suggestion of first totally backing up (I'd use an IMAGE) of the drive from the NEW machine so I can be sure not to lose THAT and then try taking that HD out and using a SPARE HD with my IMAGE FROM MY OLD PC that has the same type of OS. I'm just confused about the next step:
1) You refer to using "TIH2016" and I'm uncertain what that is! I use the built in Win 10/win7 Disk Image Tool now to make my images and I could also now use my recently purchased Acronis True Image 2016 (which is probably what your TIH2016 refers to). It has machine-specific tools, including methods to include drivers for my hardware (eg HP Printer and other externals). One such tool, of course, makes the RECOVERY MEDIA, which I've made.
2) it's the use of that Recovery Media to BOOT thereafter that has me confused. Since my IMAGE has a boot sector, why do I need to boot from the Recovery Disk? Is that the "secret handshake" that has to occur to accomplish the "migration", after which I'll supposedly be able to boot normally? I'm guessing!
Lastly, I appreciate everyone's comments but it still seems this is a "might work" status and I want a "will work" solution so I know I'm prepared if disaster strikes. Therefore I'm going to pose a well formulated question to MS. When I get a reply I will put it here.
Gene
OH...OOPS...Now I am confused.
I thought you were using Acronis True Image Home 2016 software for your backups. I think I understand that you are not even using TIH2016 or 2014... My error. Please disregard my entire suggestion. My suggestion was based on thinking you were using the Acronis True Image Home software for the backups. My entire suggestion was based on using TIH2016 and the TIH2016 rocovery media. If your using Windows backups I will have to let others chime in. Never used windows backup system for a recovery or total restore.
Steve
Steve, I have TIh2016 (now that I've confirmed the acronym) and I'm perfectly fine learning to use it instead of the Win 10 tool. It wasn't clear to me earlier that you assumed that's what I was already using. I bought it to use it but I'm new to it.