Acronis Image Creation

John, welcome to these public User Forums.

How old is your 'aging' laptop?  This will determine what type of drive it is using - older laptops use an IDE / PATA type of 2.5" disk drives which are becoming more difficult to obtain, whereas newer laptops use SATA type 2.5" disk drives which are much easier to source and which can be replaced with an equivalent sized SSD drive if there is a need for better performance.

You can find the answer to the above question about the current disk drive by running the command: msinfo32 from a Windows command window or search panel.  Look at the report that this generates and expanding as shown in the image below will give you the model of the current disk drive(s), which in turn will show what type of drive it is.

The other factor that is involved with booting your USB rescue media is the BIOS mode used by your Windows 7 OS for this laptop, as this needs to be used when booting the rescue media.

The msinfo32 report - Summary page can show the BIOS mode which can be either Legacy or UEFI.

With the above information, it should be easier to advise you further on how to be able to recover your backup image to a new laptop drive, in the event that this is needed.

Note: I haven't got access to a Windows 7 system currently so the above screen images come from my older Windows 10 laptop.  If you don't see similar information or can't use the msinfo32 command, then please let me know.
The free Belarc Advisor program can find the same information on all recent versions of Windows.

John, in a nutshell, yes, this should all be do-able so long as you have a good full-disk backup of the drive that houses C:  (make sure you are backing up that entire disk, not just the C: partition - I wasn't sure if you did that already or not).

And, there are a few options.

1) You should be able to restore this backup to a new/different machine.  The caveats that Steve mentioned need to be considered though. 

- You do need to boot your rescue media in the same method that the OS was installed (usually).  If it is legacy/MBR, then you want to restore with the rescue media in the same way.

- Be ware of new system bios limitations / security.  New systems are typically UEFI/GPT and not older legacy/MBR.  In some cases, you can change this in the BIOS, but in some systems you cannot.  You'll want to make sure any new systems can use the older legacy/MBR option in the bios (just in case).

- Drivers for the new system.  Keep in mind that new computers are being built in mind for Windows 10.  If the hardware that comes with your new system is very modern, you may find that you have driver conflicts even if/when you can port the Windows 7 system over to it.  Remeber, your OS was built years ago and before some newer technology came out (like modern NVME hard drives).  There are hotfixes for these things in most cases, but it adds complexity to the migration task since you're using Windows 7 instead of Windows 10.

- Windows licensing.  Is the current system using Windows 7 Home or Pro?  Is it an OEM license that came with the hardware or is it a full retail box license?  It is usually not possible to activate an OEM license on new/different hardware so this is something to consider and be aware of.  Especially since any new system is likely to come with it's own OEM Windows license and likely to be Windows 10.  

2) Alternatively, you may be able to keep running your system "virtually".  Acronis can not only take a backup in its native and proprietary .tib format, but it can also convert them to .vhdx - which is a native virtual format that can actually be booted!  So, you may actually be able to migrate from a physical computer to a virtual environment that runs on a different computer.  Or, you could even restore your backup to a virtual system using VMWare or something else and run it that way too.  

- Again though, Windows licensing and drivers could be an issue as Windows OEM licenses are not usually activated when migrating them from the original hardware of a computer.  

Long story short, it is do-able, but there may be bumps ahead to iron out.  Best case is to keep backing up consistently for now.  While things are still working on the existing one, start practicing your migration or transition to a virtual environment.  It may take some tries and tinkering to get it just right, but since you have the old system working now, do it while you do.

3) Last - if this is business is your livlihood, consider if the new $1,000 is worth it in the long run or not to upgrade to Windows 10.  $1,000 in the grand scheme of things may be a drop in the bucket.  Once Windows goes "end-of-life" with Microsoft next year, it will no longer receive security patches or updates.  It will become MORE vulnerable to attacks from malicious software and ransom-ware, especially if this system needs to be integrated with the Internet. Is it worth taking that risk for your entire business vs spending the $1,000 to stay patched and compatible with current and modern Operating systems that are receiving security patches and updates?

Thank you very much for your replies :)

My laptop is probably 8 years old - maybe more! It's quite a budget laptop purchased from Aldi stores BUT, it has performed flawlessly throughout the years :)

I will check the hardware and BIOS status later today and report back.

I'm very grateful for your replies.

John

John, 8 years will most likely suggest your laptop is a Legacy boot device but should have a SATA type internal drive.

If you can produce the information I suggested in my earlier post (msinfo32 or Belarc Advisor) this can help confirm this very easily.

I have several laptops of similar vintage which are still working just fine and another couple which are older and still working too!

Okay, this is the MSInfo32 details:

John, the msinfo32 data shows that you have an HTS545032B9A300 320GB SATA drive and are booting into Windows 7 in Legacy BIOS mode.

I'm pretty sure it's legacy bios - doesn't say in your version of system.information, but it's old enough and no bios update since 2010 from what I find from medion that I'm 99.99% sure.

http://www1.medion.de/downloads/index.pl?op=detail&id=8682&type=treiber&lang=uk

Looks like it was an Aldi buy? If you're a scotch drinker, try to get that $18 Highland Black at Aldi UK while you can. I'm trying to get family to get me some. Best in 2018... I dunno about that, but for the accolades it's getting, I'd get one to try and one to bunker.

Yes, it was an Aldi purchase :)

I'll look out for the Whisky - nearly popped into the store today :)

I'm guessing that Acronis 2019 won't do the job on this laptop - maybe the whiskey will help!

John, ATI 2019 can recover your disk signature and perform a sector-by-sector backup / recovery if this is needed, and this is an alternative to using cloning.

See forum topic: [How to] recover an entire disk backup - which I created originally for ATI 2017 but which is still valid for ATI 2019, especially when using the Acronis Rescue Media where the offline application interface remains much the same as it has for many years!

The PDF tutorial document shows the option to recover the disk signature in the image on page 4 of the document.

Hope you find it! I have family on the hunt for it for me while they're still overseas!

Acronis should work for this. Your challenge will be the OEM license though, I believe.

Acronis can definitely backup legacy OS installs and restore to legacy OS systems. Many new computers that come with UEFI can switch to legacy, but not all. If it can, this helps make it easier.

If not, Acronis can also convert a legacy OS to UEFi on restore. However moving an older Windows 7 system to new hardware just doesn't end there. You have to be able to get drivers for the new hardware and again, the OEM license can be an issue.

These are limitations in all backup products though. They'll take the data and back it up and move it for you, but you'll still have to have drivers for the new system. Acronis Universal restore will help with that part too.

We can help you if you want to try! My biggest recommendations...

1) backup the existing system hard drive first

2) backup the new system hard drive before you do anything with it too 

With both of those backups, you can always recover each frive as it was, in case something doesn't go as planned. Backups are key as you can always reset and try again if need be.

Thanks for the support you're providing - I'm grateful :)

My initial reason for taking the backup was to protect myself from the more likely scenario of a hard drive failure, I wasn't really looking passed this. Of course the possibility of the laptop failing in some other respect remains and I recognise the issues I might encounter in recovering to a replacement laptop - drivers and all that!

I'm guessing that IF I can boot the USB rescue drive I should be able to reconstruct the OS and installed software to a new, replacement hard drive - what do you think?

Regards

John

John, You're welcome!

Yes, absolutely. If you are just swapping a failed hard drive for a new one into the same system, using rescue media to restore your backup to the new drive is exactly what Acronis excels at.  This is very common when drives start to fail or when you need to move to a larger hard drive when space starts becoming too little. 

Only caveats:

1) Make sure that your rescue media boots and that once it does, it can see the drive where the backups are located and whatever drive you intend to restore it too.

2) If a drive is failing, it's possible the data on that drive is failing too (bad sectors / file corruption).  Your backups might still be fine, but restored data could be corrupted data.  Most of the time though, if the backup can complete, the data is fine - but not always.  So, if you can have a little retention (a couple weeks) at least you have some recovery points to revert back in the worse case scenarios.

If/ when it's time to retire the actual laptop, in this case, it's probably better to move forward with making the change and bringing over data from your backup (things like music, documents, favorites, pictures, can easily be copied from the backup into your new system).  You just have to make the leap to make your user profile and settings your own and get applications installed.  Once that's done, you can migrate the easy data and once you have it set up, then you're good with backups for the life of that system for another many years again.

Windows 7 support ends with Microsoft this year.  It won't make sense to move it to a new system that comes with Windows 10 in the near future - especially if both of them have OEM licenses that only activate on the system they were activated on. 

Unfortunately, John does not have the option of upgrading to Windows 10 as the software is mission critical and will not run on Windows 10.

Given the security and other concerns with continuing to run Windows 7, the only viable long time solution would be to use virtualisation. This will presumably require a new windows 7 licence. While you could get away with replacing the HDD in the short term, in the longer term you will need to find a more permanent solution. It is still possible to buy Windows 7.1 Pro, just did a quick internet search and found Windows 7.1 pro for A$59.99.

Cannot remember if you have the installation media for the software, if not you would need to convert a backup to virtual drive, which can be done with ATI. If you need to go down that rout, we will be able to assist you with doing so.

Ian

The other option here, apart from purchasing a later version of the commercial software currently used, would be to investigate what other products are available that are capable of doing the same tasks, and which will work with Windows 10 or which may use a different OS platform such as Linux or Mac OS.

Yeah, totally spaced on the need keep this on Win 7 for the software - too many forum threads lately to keep track of.  Sorry about that.

It's going to be tough keeping win 7 safe when Microsoft support ends this year.  Combine that with the latest news on intel chipset hardware flaws in the news today again (spec-exec is sounding a lot worse than Spectre) and these systems are going to have a tough time not getting compromised.

It would be entirely possible to migrate with a stand-a-lone Win 7 license to a VM or another piece of hardware, but still the security risk.  

One obvious mitigation against such risks is to completely isolate the Win 7 laptop, such that it has no network connections and extreme care is taken when importing any new data from USB or other media.

The one aspect that cannot really be protected is the possibility of hardware failure for the core laptop components, i.e. motherboard, CPU etc.  Any such major component change would impact on software activation as well as potentially requiring re-activation of the Windows license.

That said, some hardware can live on for years and years with care, lots of luck and a following wind!  I have an old IBM PS/2 Model 30-286 in my loft (20MB HDD, 9MB RAM) that was still working on Windows 3.1 when I last gave it an airing!  Dates back to the 1980's..! plus an older Apple II+ (no HDD) 5.25 inch floppy boot or cassette tape - both museum pieces by modern standards.

Have to thank everyone for their help and suggestions :)

Just a few points to mention so you can understand where I'm coming from and the reasons I wish to preserve my current Windows 7 laptop installation and software.

This computer is used to connect and print to a 'direct to garment printer' the NeoFlex. The software I use to RIP and print the artwork onto t-shirts etc is called NeoRip Pro by a company called Kothari Print Pro, this software is dongle protected and without any doubt is the best software out there. The software will not run in Windows 10 unless I pay for a new licence and dongle - approx. £1200.

Using Acronis TI 2019 is just a bit of insurance that might allow me to recover from a hard drive failure and as I purchased 5 licences £10 per licence has gotta be worth a shot.

I came to this forum to discuss whether what I've done with Acronis TI 2019 on that laptop will give me the best chance of recovery and the resulting discussion has been so helpful - thanks :)

John, the only other question that may be worth asking here is:  can you transfer your NeoRip Pro software and license to another Windows 7 PC (provided it is used only on just one computer)?

If this is possible, then it could be worth investing in a spare Windows 7 laptop while such can still be had.

Yes, I do have a couple of Windows 7 laptops squirreled away somewhere and this is an option - I can't remember whether I can simply install to another PC and it'll work. Even though the software is dongle protected, somewhere in the depths of my ageing memory I seem to recall having to provide a number from the PC (maybe a GUID) in order to receive an unlock code! Of course if this is the case and the hard drive is part of the GUID creation, I might be totally snookered!