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Will this work?

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I need some help. Is it possible with Acronis to clone a hard dive on one computer and then install the cloned hard drive in another computer that has a different CPU and motherboard? I have several programs that I am not able to reinstall on a new hard drive. Thanks

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Cindy, the basic answer is yes.  It does this very well and we use Acronis in an office environment for this purpose, deploying images to multiple machines each day.  I also do this with peronal systems and transferring the to virtual machines (or from virtual machines to physical machines) for testing purposes.

Acronis can take a full disk backup and the backup can be restored to a drive in another system.  Before booting, you would then run Universal Restore to generalize the system drivers, making the image bootable on the new hardware.  In the simplest environment, this "just works".  You should also be able to clone a source drive on the original computer to another drive attached to it.  Then move that drive to the new machine and run Universal Restore in the same manner.  

HOWEVER...

It is the motherboard settings that can trip you up.  A few years ago, this was not much of an issue.  However, there differnent types of BIOS and/or ways to install an Operating system.   A) Legacy Bios - most systems from 3 years and back started with a Legacy Bios.  B) UEFI Bios - most systems in the last few years come with a UEFI Bios.  However thse UEFI Bios machines usually have the ability to turn on or use the older legacy bios as well, but not all of them.

1)  If the old machine OS was installed in Legacy/CSM/Bios mode, but the new machine motherboard is set to only boot in UEFI/GPT mode, your restored image won't work because of the motherboard bios limitation for needing to have a UEFI/GPT OS.  Most new motherboards allow systems to boot in UEFI or Legacy mode, but not all of them so it can be a tripping point.  Some motherboards can be set to either option at the same time, some have to be either/or (legacy or UEFI).  Again, most modern systems can do both options, it's just a matter of going in and making sure the proper settings are configured.

2) What type of original system OS do you have?  If it is an OEM Windows license (one that came with your Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc), that is tied to the original motherboard.  If you successfully transfer that image to a new hardware and boot Windows, the license won't be activated - even if your new system also came with an OEM license.  However, if you have the license key for the new system and it is the same OS that you had on the old system, you're good.  If both systems are Windows 10 (same version) and have already activated their licenses, this also works.  If you have a retail/boxed license, you're also good to go since that is transerable to a new machine so long as you discontinue using the license on the old one.

3) In some cases, applications are licensed to a the motherboard or NIC on one computer.  Transferring the OS with applications, even though successful, may not guarantee the registered/licensed software will remain licensed on the new system (same concept as the OEM Windows license).  It really depends on the software though and how the manufacturer license the software. 

These official Acronis videos on Youtube explain it to the T:  check them out.  

How to clone a disk with Acronis True Image 2016

How to recover with Acronis Universal Restore

 

This one is also good for explaining UEFI system BIOS changes (in case your newer system has it, but your old system doesn't).

How to Fix Issue Booting to DVD/CD with New UEFI BIOS Boot Order

 

Thanks guys, both machines are using windows 7 and the machine i will be transfering to is a BIOS motherboard not UEFI BIOS. So i would

1. clone the old computer hard drive with all the sofware i am trying to save.

2. make a UNIVERSAL RESTORE disk off of the new machine.

3. install the cloned hard drive in the new machine.

4. boot up the new machine with the UNIVERSAL RESTORE disk and restore from it.

am i leaving anything out?

Thanks again

 

 

Pretty much.  

Personally, since you are moving hardware though, I would not "clone" the old drive.  Instead, I would take a backup of the entire disk and restore that image to the new one.  Ultimately, the resultes are the same, but you can do either - it's entireley up to you.  If you do "clone" make sure to use your offline bootable recovery media to start the process - don't start it in Windows - it's just going to reboot and boot into the Acronis media on your disk, but using the offline recovery media is just cleaner.

Once you put the recovered or cloned drive into the new system, assuming the basic bios is similar (no secure boot, bios/csm/legacy mode enabled, and the SATA mode is the same... RAID/AHCI/etc) you could try to fire it up and see if it acutally boots or not.  If the hardware is similiar enough, it might actually boot.  If you get a BSOD though, then yeah, you'd boot into Universal Restore, run it to generalize the hardware drivers, boot into Windows and then apply drivers via computer management >>>> devicde manager.