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BACKUP TO DIFFERENT MACHINE?

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Hi all!  Newbie here.

I bought Acronis because it supposedly backs up everything on my hard drive, software etc. I'm using Cloud Backup.

The last time my computer hard drive failed, the machine was so old I figured I might as well buy a new computer, a newer version of Dell Inspiron. I was using Carbonite at the time so thought my data was safe. The techs at my computer shop (Staples) where I bought my machines told me it was illegal to download the same software I backed up, to a new machine, supposedly to prevent bootlegging. It took weeks to re-load and/or re-buy all my software and get the new machine functioning. I'm using Windows 7 and have no wish to deal with 10, so I hesitate to buy a new computer with 10 pre-installed

If this happens again, hard drive failure, is it better to install a new hard drive on my current machine and then do my full restore onto  it, or can I buy a completely new machine and do my restore onto that? Would I need to have Windows 10 removed first? Will Acronis download my whole range of software, or will it download just my data files onto a new machine?

 

Thanks for any hints!

Jessie

 

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Acronis is a backup and recovery software, not an application or user profile transferring software.  It does not allow you to pick and choose apps for recovery as it only deals with raw data (blocks / sectors ... 1's and 0's).  You can recovery just files and/or folders, but if you tried to this for an application or user profile, let's say some application folder in "C:\program files" or "C:\program files (x86)", it won't work because it would not include any additional registry keys or services that might be tied to something elsehwere on the OS drive such as hidden folders in the users profile appdata directory, registry, etc.

You can use Acronis to take a full disk backup of your current hard drive and restore it to another disk into the same computer - this is the easiest method and would be ideal if the rest of your hardware is in good shape and you just need to replace the hard drive. Restoring your backup image to a new hard drive and using that hard drive in the same computer is generally a very easy task and the simplest to accomplish.

Likewise, you can use Acronis to take a full disk backup of the current hard drive and push it to the hard drive of a new computer.  HOWEVER, if the new computer does not support the OS (drivers primarily), that's going to be a problem.  Also, you have to manually check the bios and make sure it's compatible and configured correctly.  For example... some new systems are strictly UEFI.  If your old system is legacy/MBR and the new system is only UEFI, you may have an issue.  Let's assume the new system can do either UEFI or Legacy... most likely it will come with UEFI enabled and legacy disabled (secure boot on too).  You have to be able to sort that in the bios on your own first.  You also need to make sure the SATA mode is set the same on the new system bios as the old system.

After you push the image of the old system to the new one, you will then need to run universal restore to generalize the Windows drivers or the machine will try to use the old system drivers and you'll get a Blue Screen of Death when attempting to boot.

Let's assume you get past all of that and have successfully moved the old system to the new one and can boot Windows.  What type of OS license is the old one... a boxed retail version, or the OEM license that came from the manufacturer of the old system?  If it was OEM, it won't activate on the new hardweare as OEM licenses are tied to the original hardware they were purchased with.  If you have a retail version, it should activate on its own, but if not, you can call Microsoft and go through the phone prompt to get a re-activation key using your retail license.  

In a nutshell, it's possible to push any OS backup image to a new computer, but there's a lot of other user requirements in addition to what Acronis can help you achieve.  If your current computer is in good shape, it may just be simpler to restore a backup image to a new hard drive and swap the new one in for the old one and call it a day. 

Assuming you successfully transfer the intallation to the new laptop, I cannot see how you will get over the problem of OEM Windows licence. There are some vendors still selling Windows 7 on the internet - you get a licence key and downlaod link. There is no way of knowing which ones are scams and which are not. Some are OEM rather than retail versions, and will be tied to your new machine.

Ian

THANK YOU, Bobbo_3c0x1 and IanL-S!

You guys have nailed it for me. I never thought about the license for the old Windows 7 OS. I special-ordered it for this machine when Windows 10 first came out, but I hear it can no longer be special-ordered. So it was OEM when I bought the machine. If it can still be obtained legitimately via retail...will check on that, then I would have the correct license and drivers.

This presents a whole new set of wrinkles, but answers my primary question, which was, will Acronis be useful to me when I need it? I think I can work this out.

Very much appreciated!

Jessie