Can Disk Clone do THIS?

After doing some more reading from the VERY HELPFUL people here  and the YT videos it looks like I need to use Universal Restore Rather than Disk Clone.  I have never used it.  I'll continue reading but if anyone has tips I'd LOVE to hear them.  Maybe I won't lose Win 10 if I restore the Win 7 PC's 'stuff' to the Win 10 Machine?  This could present a problem and I'm OK losing Win 10 if need be - I can upgrade it - right?

Thanks again

Mike

Mike, some comments:

Please forget about using cloning for your scenario - it is a recipe for a disaster!

Do make several full disk backup images, especially if the data involved is critical / vital to be protected.  Put your backups on different external storage drives for added protection.

Acronis will only allow you to backup and recover / restore whole systems, i.e. OS plus Programs / Applications plus user data.  You cannot port just the Win 7 PC 'stuff' onto a Win 10 PC - it will never fly!

Finally, putting Win 7 on a newer Win 10 computer may also not work if there are no Win 7 device drivers for any critical hardware in the new machine!

You should check out what drivers are available for your 'new' Win 10 machine you bought last year, and in particular, what drivers are available for Win 7 (bearing in mind that Win 7 has been out of support for some years now!).

One possible option for you might be to go the virtual machine route, i.e. convert your Win 7 PC into a virtual machine that could be run using Hyper-V or VMware or VirtualBox etc on the Win 10 PC.

Thanks for the reply - you sure are a Super Star!  I watched a Acronis YT Video about Universal Restore.  It did mention putting drivers on the Boot Device (USB Stick in my case).  Would that be helpful here?  How can I get them all found and in one place - IF that's what I need to do.

The 'New' machine is a DELL Vostro 3888 with Win10 Pro.  I just haven't been able to set it up for work till now - very busy seasonal business.

I've never run a VM but not scared to learn.  I just wanted to update the hardware before I have an Old Age problem with it.  I like Win 7 more then 10 but I realize that it's fully phased out at this point.  One of the reasons for really needing to do this NOW is Intuit.  I did a QB update that broke my software because of Win 7.  I HATE Intuit and how they force my hand but that's just how they do business.  I'm looking for a replacement but... they ARE the 800# Gorilla.  I could always upgrade the Win 7 machine to 10 and replace the PS, add RAM, A large SSD, etc. 

Can you guide / coach me on the driver issue and let's see if I can pull this off.  My first choice is a 'Restore' vs the VM.  If it doesn't work I can restore the Dell to Factory settings and start over - till I get it right.  I admire your expertise and will do any homework you give me.

THANK YOU!!

Mike, I would recommend that you make a full disk backup of the Dell Vostro to capture the working / activated Windows 10 OS before doing any other actions.

Alternatively, identify what the current Vostro Windows 10 boot drive is and obtain a spare drive of the same type, i.e. if it has a NVMe M.2 SSD as the boot drive, get another drive of the same type to allow you to remove the current working drive and do any restore tests using the spare safe in the knowledge of being to put the original drive back to return to square one!

Next, according to the Dell Support webpage, there are no drivers for Windows 7 for that PC!

Thanks for the leg work - I'm lost a little on the importance of the Win 7 drivers.  The Dell HAS drivers for all the things it needs - Audio, Video, Network, USB, etc.  They all work and the PC sees other PC's on my work's LAN. The things I read are all about different hardware signature. 

The software I want to restore doesn't need drivers - only hardware does, Right?  I must be missing something.  I installed programs - ie Q-Books on both machines and they work on both.  Where does the driver enter and become a problem.  I just don't get it.  What am I missing?

Thanks again, sorry to need it a 'Barney Level'.

M

Mike, Steve Smith has given you some well thought out advice.

While the drivers relate to hardware, and do not directly impact on the applications being used, they can make the difference between a stable, bootable system and one that is not bootable.

Being a bit lazy, I would go the VM rout. Cannot remember if Steve Smith suggested this, but another possibility is to do an in-place upgrade to Windows 10 (it should be the same variety as the new PC - Pro or Enterprise for example, skip activation. [Before doing so, make a full backup!] Then create another full backup and restore it to the new PC. Make sure that you have already activated Windows 10 on that PC.

Ian

Hello IanL.  Mr Smith's advice is always well thought out.  I've read a LOT of it.  Your suggestion is interesting and I will look into upgrading my Win 7 box to Win 10.  Makes sense.  I might upgrade the HDD and PS first.  

You guys make the VM thing sound easy.  I've never done it and am anxious.  Other than just searching for a 'how to' where would I learn the Ins-n-Outs of that configuration.  What is the advantage of that vs a true OS and Hardware upgrade?

Thanks again.  Let me do some homework.

Mike, what is the specification of your older Win 7 system, i.e. what type of CPU (Intel or AMD), how much memory, how many disk drives, what sizes, and how does it boot from the BIOS?

For the latter question, run the msinfo32 command in Win 7 and look at the BIOS mode value shown in the right panel.  Much of the other information can also be found in the report produced.

If Win 7 is already Pro or Enterprise edition, then assuming your hardware spec supports Win 10, it should be an easy first option, further assuming that none of the applications running on Win 7 cannot do so on Win 10!  Once you have everything working on the old PC with Win 10 then migrating the system to new hardware becomes a whole lot easier!

Please do make good full disk backups of the working Win 7 system before attempting any upgrade! 

Any VM potentially will be of lower performance overall than a true copy of the same OS running on its own dedicated hardware, but that can be offset by having a good spec host system to run your VM and allocating sufficient CPU and Memory resources along with running from an SSD rather than using a HDD.

I personally switched to using VM's some years back, initially running with VMware VM's but then moving to using primarily Hyper-V after investing in a new gaming laptop with an Intel i7 CPU, 32GB RAM, fast NVMe M.2 SSD and second HDD drives.  I run my Hyper-V VM's from a partition on the SSD and they are faster than the original older systems they came from.

You are welcome to take a look at some of my YouTube videos where I have used VM's in the process, including doing a restore of a backup image to create a new VM.

Thanks for that.  I will get you the info tomorrow - already left work.  You already know the specs for the Dell Box.  I know there is no Software on the Win 7 box that can't run 10. 100% sure.   I like the idea.

Thanks !!

I posted this earlier but it didn't show up here ??

Rather than wait I logged into my work PC - the Win 7 PC and got the Info you wanted, Steve.  I'm not sure where the Pic or the post went.

Mike, your image confirms Win 7 Pro running in Legacy BIOS boot mode with 8GB RAM which you should be able to update to Win 10 Pro.

Given the age of the BIOS at 2012 it looks unlikely to support UEFI BIOS boot so you will need to migrate the system from MBR to GPT (Legacy to UEFI) later by using Acronis rescue media booted in UEFI mode to perform the restore of the backup image to the new PC.

Note: for the above rescue media, this would be best to be created on the new PC so that it picks up device driver support for that PC from the current Win 10 Recovery Environment.

Steve Smith wrote:

......

Note: for the above rescue media, this would be best to be created on the new PC so that it picks up device driver support for that PC from the current Win 10 Recovery Environment.

+1 Doing this will definitely reduce the possibility of things going pear-shaped. This type of rescue media is called "simple" in ATI 2020.

Ian 

You guys are GREAT!  Let me get some RAM for the 7 PC and a SSD (it will become a Workstation) and get it all in line.  I'll get busy!!

Fantastic help here - I'm in LOVE!!

M

I re Re read this all.  To be straight... Install Acronis on the 'New' Dell PC and create the rescue media on it?  That media is useable on the 'Old' PC as well? Sorry to be so dense but this is a delicate thing here - to me anyway.  

My intentions are to upgrade the PS. RAM & Clone the HDD to a SSD on the OLD PC, All keeping WIN 7.  I will then upgrade that PC to 10.  Is any of that dumb or dangerous?  This may take a few minutes as it is a work PC and always being used - I will have to go early / late or a weekend.  And my next 3 are booked (Happy wife....)

I have a Lawn Service business and we are heading for the 'slow down'.  The office doesn't slow as much as the production side but I may have to get this all in order and make time in a few weeks.  We'll see...

Thanks so much for the help.  It means the world to me

Mike, the rescue media created on the new Dell PC should be fine to use on the old PC but its main purpose will be to boot the Dell in order to restore the backup from the old PC.  You would only need it on the old PC if you don't already have Acronis installed on it to make the backup images.  If Acronis is installed on the old PC, then make separate rescue media for that PC just in case you need it should any issues arise with the Win 10 upgrade and you want to put it back to Win 7.

For the upgrade of the old PC, I would suggest using Backup & Recovery to migrate from the HDD to a new SSD as being the safest method.  It will require use of the Acronis rescue media for doing the restore but allows you to set the HDD safely aside then restore the backup to the new SSD installed in place of the HDD.  I would also suggest doing the RAM upgrade as the first step on its own - reboot and check all is good before moving on to the HDD - SSD action. Having more RAM will also speed up the further actions.

When doing the restore of your backup, this needs to be done as a Disk & Partition restore and at the top Disk selection level.

Please see forum topic: [How to] recover an entire disk backup - and in particular the attached PDF document which shows a step-by-step tutorial for doing this type of recovery / restore.

10-4.  I'll report back when I get it done.  Thank you SO MUCH for your time & talent.

Hello Steve & Ian

I told you I'd report back and here I am... I have not done this restore yet - I am still gathering knowledge and I may need a part or 2.  Here's my issue (other than suffering from 'Paralysis Through Analysis')..

I've read most of the things you all linked to.  One of my concerns is the Old machine runs a 1TB, 4 Partition HDD and an old BIOS (the C: partition is 314GB with 59 Free).  The new machine has a 512GB NVMe SSD as the boot & Recovery drive and a 1 TB HDD - D:  Here's why I'm stumped

1- The OLD machine will get converted from Win 7 to Win 10.  It has only one drive that is larger than the boot drive on the NEW one.  During the restore will I be able to do it in sections?  All the OLD won't fit on the NEW's SSD.  Can I restore a partition one at a time? (Win7 drive is C-Boot, D-Programs, E-Data and R-Recovery (Which I probably won't need))

2- The NEW machine CAN boot from the rescue USB drive I made on Win7 machine.  There is no provision in the EUFI to add legacy support but it does recognize the USB stick and boot from it.  Will that matter?  The NEW has a pop up box that lets me choose the Acronis UEFI loader and choose 1 for ATI

3- would I be smart to replace the 512 NVMe drive in the NEW machine NOW with a 1TB SSD (NVMe).  Then Restore the entire 1TB OLD HDD drive to the NEW 1TB NMVe?

See what I mean by Paralysis Through Analysis?  I think too much!  But I want as few hiccups as possible while keeping this simple and safe.

I have some screen shots of the New Dell UEFI bios pages if you need to see them.  Sorry to be so Anal but this is my business's data and I have to get it right.  I've read A LOT and am worried about this.....

"Dell UEFI and no alternate boot options in Bios"

Thanks for any help - I REALLY appreciate you guys and your time.

3- would I be smart to replace the 512 NVMe drive in the NEW machine NOW with a 1TB SSD (NVMe).  Then Restore the entire 1TB OLD HDD drive to the NEW 1TB NMVe?

Mike, doing the upgrade of the 512GB SSD to a 1TB one will make the other issues / questions less of a concern, and will allow you to do a whole disk restore rather than having to manage restoring individual partitions.

1- The OLD machine will get converted from Win 7 to Win 10.  It has only one drive that is larger than the boot drive on the NEW one.  During the restore will I be able to do it in sections?  All the OLD won't fit on the NEW's SSD.  Can I restore a partition one at a time? (Win7 drive is C-Boot, D-Programs, E-Data and R-Recovery (Which I probably won't need))

I would recommend trying to clean up the old machine as much as possible then perform the upgrade from Win 7 to 10 and confirm that all then works fine before doing further clean up to remove the Windows.old folder that holds data to allow the roll-back of the OS from 10 to 7.  This will make the subsequent actions easier by removing unnecessary data.

Note: make sure you have a full disk backup of the old machine before starting an upgrade etc!

Reference your R-Recovery partition, check what this actually is?  Is it a larger partition for doing a factory restore to how the PC came from HP some years back, i.e. with Win 7?  If so, then you could take a backup of the partition then remove it using a Partition Manager application, so that the freed space can be allocated to another partition.

Factory partitions are typically around 10-15GB in size whereas the Windows Recovery partition is normally around 500MB up to 1GB in size.

2- The NEW machine CAN boot from the rescue USB drive I made on Win7 machine.  There is no provision in the EUFI to add legacy support but it does recognize the USB stick and boot from it.  Will that matter?  The NEW has a pop up box that lets me choose the Acronis UEFI loader and choose 1 for ATI

You should not be trying to boot the new machine in Legacy BIOS mode as the NVMe SSD normally requires UEFI to work correctly, and you would also not be able to upgrade from Win 10 to 11 without having UEFI too.

When you boot the Acronis rescue media in UEFI mode and restore a Legacy system backup, it will automatically convert that restored system from Legacy / MBR to UEFI / GPT during the recovery process.

The key check point for you to action is that the Acronis rescue media will see the NVMe SSD when you boot the media on the new system!

You should be able to continue using the old machine for your business needs while going through the process of establishing the new machine with doing the restore etc.

Thanks Steve!  Some good input here....

upgrade of the 512GB SSD to a 1TB 

I will order one today!

 full disk backup of the old machine before starting

Already did a test and validated it - I will make a more current one before actually pulling the trigger

Reference your R-Recovery partition, check what this actually is?  Is it a larger partition for doing a factory restore to how the PC came from HP some years back

It is 15 GB.  Good idea to back it up & Re-Allocate just to free up space.

You should not be trying to boot the new machine in Legacy BIOS mode as the NVMe SSD normally requires UEFI to work correctly

This whole Legacy Thing has me concerned.  I've read a LOT of posts about how everything seemed to work but can't boot.  It is often the culprit.  I saw some videos of the Dell UEFI  and how to enable the Grayed Out Legacy option.  Mine does not have it at all.  The Rescue Media WAS able to work - took a while to figure it out - but I'm still a bit nervous.  I guess that as long as ATI rescue loads it will be good on either box?

You should be able to continue using the old machine for your business needs

This will take some time.  Data changes constantly during the work day.  Unless I can hit a home run on the first swing my work system will be down till I can get it up and running again.  I talked to our software vendor and he suggested that I NEVER have both old and new on the LAN at the same time - GOOD suggestion.  Apparently, when someone has a crash they do a restore (if they have one) to get them back up.  Very similar to what you are planning here. 

My Plan is to Back up (Twice) then install a 1TB SSD in place of the Spinning HDD, Do the restore and see if it works, THEN do the Win 10 upgrade.  I've done a few before and it always had a hitch in the middle and I had to mess with it.  If it does work with the SSD and I cannot get the NEW box to 'take' the restore I can have a faster Win 10 'OLD' machine.

I assume I can use the same BackUp data to restore to both the SSD in the 'Old' machine and the larger replacement NVMe SSD in the NEW one?

Thanks again for all you do here.  I would think there's a big 'S' on your chest.

Mike,

You have received some good advise here on how to migrate your system.  I would offer the following in addition to that advice:

To begin from an elevated command prompt run the following command: SFC /scannow.  If this scan finds errors after it finishes run the command again and again until no errors are reported.  This will repair any filesystem errors found ensuring your filesystem is not corrupted.

Next, make a complete full disk backup of the entire HDD (all partitions).  You may leave out the recovery partition if it is decided that it is not needed (likely).

• Since your Win 7 is several years old and is on an SATA HDD spinner disk you would be well advised to run the following command from an elevated command prompt on all partitions of that disk (ie. C:, D:, E:, and R:).  The command is chkdsk X: /r where X: is the target drive letter.
• Next run the following commands again from an elevated command prompt:  DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth.  You should get a message that "No component store corruption detected"
• Next run the following from an elevated command prompt: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth.  You should again get the same message as above.
• If errors are reported in the above command runs then run the following: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth. In this pass it may take some time to complete and may pause for long periods of time before progressing.  Be patient and let the process complete.

The above DISM commands will ensure that your OS installation is healthy.

The above steps are necessary to ensure that any corruption that exists on your source disk has been corrected and it then can be reasonably expected that a backup and recovery after these steps above will be successful.  Not following these and leaving disk and/or filesystem corruption unchecked/repaired is a recipe for failure.

Bob, thanks for you added input / advice for Mike in this topic.

In my notes from dealing with a Win 7 system recently, I have noted that only the
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
command was recognised on Win 7, not the /CheckHealth or /RestoreHealth options.

Mike, a late thought / question:  Is your Win 7 box running with 64-bit for the CPU or is it only 32-bit?  If you look at the Properties for Computer (or System in the Control Panel) it will tell you in the middle System section for System type:

Steve,

If you run SFC /scannow do you get any errors?

Do the DISM commands result in an error 87?

There are a number of conditions that cause the error 87.  They are:

• Corrupted Windows system file
• Improper command syntax
• use of a non-elevated command prompt
• A pending Windows Update needs to complete installation.
• Incompatible DISM version.  DISM version needs to match the installed OS version.

I would suggest that you first run Windows Update to see if any update file may be pending.

The error 87 message suggests that a system file may corrupted.  In most cases this corrupted file is a log file.  The CBS.log file at C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log is a commonly corrupted file.  The fix for this is to delete the CBS.log file.  Windows will replace it anew usually after a restart.  If that fails then SFC /scannow will replace it.  After that the DISM commands should run fine for you.

If these remedies fail then an In-Place-Upgrade of the OS is recommended.

Bob, sorry but I am not seeing any issues to warrant the remedies being advised.  I was just commenting that some of the DISM commands are not recognised on Win 7.  There are minimal Windows Updates now being offered for Win 7 other than MRT.

Steve,

The DISM commands listed should work on any Win 7 or later OS.  If they do not work for some reason that suggests a problem with the OS image itself or one of the other issues I listed.

When you run the /ChealthHealth option what exactly happens on your machine?

Does SFC /scannow run for you without errors?

One last thing to fix Win 7 issues with DISM again relates to Windows Update.  Win 7 Update has a tendency to buggy.  MS has what known as the System Update Readiness Tool.  Running this tool can fix many Win 7 update issues.  Link provided below:

System Update Readiness Tool

Hope you can resolve this issue.

Bob, I do not have any issues with my Win 7 machine (Hyper-V VM) so this discussion is purely academic.

If I try to use DISM with either CheckHealth or RestoreHealth on Win 7 then it does give error 87 with the additional text that the option is not recognised in this context.

See webpage: Can dism be run with all features on windows 7 which has the following answer that echoes my own experience:

The /RestoreHealth option is only available since Windows 8. For Windows 7, Microsoft backported the /ScanHealth option which does the same like RestoreHealth with the update KB2966583.

Steve,

I do not have a Win 7 installation to test this on however, from past experience I can tell you that the CheckHealth and RestoreHealth options have worked for me. 

I think the issue here is that Win 7 being run in a VM does not respond to these DISM commands.  In such cases it is likely that the reason for this is a mismatch in DISM versions.  If the DISM version being run is not the same as the installed OS version then these options fail. 

A possible way around this would be to use the /Image option rather than the /Online option such as {DISM.exe /Image:D:\mount\win7.vhd /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Run the above may also fail due to the mismatch problem. 

When you experience these failures are you running the commands from inside the booted VM?

This is all great advice - Thank you SO much!!

My Win7 is 64 Bit.

I'll look up 'elevated command prompt' - never heard that term before.

I do get a Win7 Nag Screen asking me to do updates but i ignore it.  I kinda thought that might be opening a Can of Worms.  Maybe not?

Thanks again

M

Mike, ref the elevated command prompt.  This just means launching the command prompt window using the option to 'Run as administrator'.

Type cmd in the Win 7 search box then right click on the option when shown and take the run as administrator option.

Well, today I did step 1.  Restored the Win 10 machine to the new 2TB SSD.  It was no fun till I figured it out.  Because of y'alls advice I wanted to restore rather than clone. Both the 500GB with the OS and the new 2TB are NVMe.  The Rescue media stick drive was created on the Win 7 box.  The software would NOT see the bare metal drive or the OS drive.  Finally I decided to re-create the Boot Stick from the Win 10 machine (It Has ATI on it) and BINGO!  It worked, saw all the players.  Now I see why you all fuss over drivers so much.  The Win10 version of ATI in Linux has a newer fell and better UI too.  Live and learn, right?

I'm logged into my work Win7 machine now (LogMeIn - use it a lot!) to do the scannow and Chkdsk stuff so I can save some time in the morning.  I'll let you know more hard lessons learned.  I sure hope this thread is helping others - It is priceless to me.  Learning and liking it!!

Dear Mike Foose,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

Happy to help, Daria.  I participate in many forums.  Usually asking questions.  I JUMP at the chance to give back when I can.

Here's an update...

I did the upgrade of the Win7 box to Win10.  There were a few things that broke during the upgrade.  some of the network shares got wonky - I fixed them and the LAN is actually faster and more predictable now. All the printers are good too.

My proprietary business software got weird - I can only launch it as an Admin.  But is still works and all the workstations can get and use data from my PC.  I am getting a call from their Tech Support today to fix it.  It is probably something simple that Win 10 does differently. 

In the mean time I have a back up of the Old Win 7 machine and a back up of the proposed new server - both validated.  I am going to 'practice' using Universal Restore today.  If it goes south I can put the Dell system back on, figure out why it didn't work and try again.  At least that's my plan.  As usual, there is work being done to the 'live data' and the restore will be yesterday's. 

Do you all see any problem in putting the Dell OS back on more than once?  Restore has been pretty solid so far.  I still DO have to figure out how to NOT put the HP recovery partitions on the Dell and to keep (or restore individually) the Dell's recovery stuff.

Thanks for all the coaching here - stand by...

Dear Mike Foose,
Good luck with the Restore. Keep us posted. In case of any questions we suggest not to forget about our knowledge base

So... Building the driver index for Universal restore, It stops and is looking for "hpUIMDDialoq20.dll".  That's not a 'g' in dialog - it's a 'q'!  It won't let me skip past it and I can't find it.  I've drilled down to C: windows and loaded EVERY DRIVER in that folder (I started with System32 only).  If I search online for that driver I get thrown out of all the websites by my ESET Virus software - it seems like it is sketchy?!

I am a little confused on this whole driver file thing anyway... I assume I need the drivers from the TARGET machine on the USB recovery boot stick?  Is that right?   Universal Restore is kind of tough - but I may be over thinking.

Thanks for any input on this....

M

Mike, there should be no need to add in lots of extra drivers for the AUR media, attempting to do can cause different issues and normally end in failure!

The key drivers needed are those for any new disk controller / drives that may be in the new PC but not known to the old one.

One of the methods of identifying required drivers is to build the AUR media without adding any drivers, then boot it on the new PC (after restoring an image from another computer) then see what drivers it asks you for? 

Windows 10 & 11 are very good at detecting new hardware and finding drivers as needed, so always worth trying a boot into Windows after restoring the image!  You can always replace generic drivers with more device specific drivers later.

Hi Steve - Thanks for all this help!! 

I've read KB Article - 69330: Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office: Restoring to dissimilar hardware with Acronis Universal Restore -  MANY times and still have questions...

I did not get to do a test run yesterday - will try again today. 

What it sounds like is that I do a Full restore to the NEW Dell PC - just like I did when switching from the Spinning drive to the SSD prior to the Win10 upgrade on the Old one.  Do this from the Boot Stick made from the Dell on the Dell.  THEN Re-Boot the Dell from the Stick and run AUR?  You make it sound like I have a good chance of it finding the needed drivers on it's own and there is no need to add them to the USB Stick.  There were literally a thousand drivers in my search yesterday but, like I said, it got hung up on one HP dll and I couldn't skip past it.  It looks like that will happen again so I'm gonna put Zero drivers on the USB and let windows find them?  Is that what you are saying here? 

I just completed a backup and am in the Validation process - 3 days, 11 hours remaining!! That has been part of the time eater to get this done.  I DO want to have a validated BackUp but Damn!  I have an automated shut down task (not through ATI) that I'll have to disable.  I think it has shut off mid validation and re-started it in the morning when I turn it on.  I'll see how that goes tonight.  Validation takes a LONG time!

Thanks again - I'll be back

You make it sound like I have a good chance of it finding the needed drivers on it's own and there is no need to add them to the USB Stick. 

Mike, to clarify the above, AUR will tell you of any drivers that it cannot find but needs!  If it discovers hardware that it can use generic drivers for, then it will do so silently.

Validation is another subject but in a nutshell, it only validates that the file written to disk storage remains as it was written, i.e. hasn't been altered, corrupted etc.  It does not guarantee that what you backed up was free from any file systems errors, virus infections etc!