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Using Universal Restore

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I'm getting ready to build a new system and install the OS (Win 10 Pro 64) cleanly from a new install disc. Can I duplicate (copy) my programs from an existing computer (the one being replaced) backup to the new system taht would include the software settings? I want a clean install of the OS as the previous was an upgrade from Win 7 Pro 64 and I want a clean Win Registry. I hope this makes sense.

I'll also be wanting to move over the settings and programs from an older observatory computer (Win 7 Pro 64) to the computer the above is being replacing. Both have current either Acronis 2016 or 2015 full backups. As you can probably tell, I haven't used Universal Restore before.

Thanks,

Steve

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Steve,

The first request... NO, not really.  Once you do a clean install, moving apps and profiles is possible, but in my experience, it usually doesn't end well.  By bringing in older apps and or profile data (full profiles) your bring in inheritied problems as well.  If you really want to do that though, make sure you take a full disk image of your system "as is" before you do anything else.  That way if you try the migrations, and it turns out to cause problems, you can revert back to your new base image.

You can try Microsoft Windows Transfer - it only does profiles and settings (no apps).

There are tons of other third party tools that claim to move profiles and/or apps - I have not had great success with any of them though.  

Even though it's a PITA, I would recommend that you build your base image wiht Win10 install and manually set your configurations and settings and image that.  Then install all of your apps and configure them and take a another full image.  Then copy any profile data into your new profile (pictures, documents, etc) and take a third image of the system like that - now you have 3 base points to work from moving forward at anytime.  It is a longer process, but should help ensure better stability with the system in the long term.

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For your second scenario, if you have full images of the other PC ot put on the new one, that "should" work too.  Just use UR to generalize all drivers and don't try to add any driver in it unless it wont' boot because of missing drivers (like a special raid controller).  If it doesn't boot after generalzing, take note of the BSOD and then fidn the driver it's looking for and slip that in wth UR later.

You also need to be aware that comptuers had different motherboard and bios settings.  Just because ATIH can push an image from one computer to another and generalize the OS so it can boot, doesn't mean it will.  The bios SATA settings need to be the same in both systems (SATA, AHCI or RAID usually).  Both bios' need to have the same boot mode as well - MBR or UEFI.  If the old sysetm is MBR (which it probably is) the new system should be set to MBR too - even if it supports UEFI (if it does both MBR and UEFI, then that should be fine too).

Long story short, it should work, just make sure the systems you're moving the images to are compatible as well.

On a last note... if your OS is originally OEM (say it came with your Dell or HP), that license is tied to the orignal motherboard.  You may find that the image deployment will work, but that your license is no longer registered with microsoft.  if you have