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Copy image 1 PC to another - identical hardware

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Hi,

I have two "identical" PC's. They are both Lenovo ThinkCentre M92P's with identical model numbers and supposedly identical hardware components. I installed windows 7 and some other software on one of them and then used TrueImage 2014 to save a hard drive image. Then I restored this hard drive image onto the second PC. I restarted the second PC. Windows attempted to start but I got a message saying that there was a problem with the installation. The Windows 7 Repair utility automatically started, but it was not able to correct the problem.

I have done this procedure at least three other times and it worked. All I had to do on the second PC is buy another windows license and activate windows because windows showed up as un-activated (because it noticed that it was now on a different PC).

I am wondering what would make this not work now. The only thing I can think of is that even though I am quite sure that all hardware (motherboard, processor, etc) in the two PC's are the same, the second PC has an older BIOS revision than the first PC. Tomorrow I am going to try to update the BIOS so that it is the same as on the first PC, and I will try again.

I was just wondering if anyone here had any other ideas what may have caused my difficulty.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Paul

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Upload screenshots of Windows Disk Management screens so that we can see any differences between the 2 drives.

Did you recieve any error messages?

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your response. At the moment, I am not able to get into windows on the second PC, so I can't get a screenshot of the Windows Disk Management screen.

I'll try to update the BIOS to make the revisions of both systems match and then I'll try the copy / restore image process one more time. If that doesn't work, then rather than restoring an image from the first PC, I'll do a normal Windows installation instead so I can get the screenshot you asked for.

Thanks again,
Paul

Hi Bob,

I just wanted to report that I updated the BIOS revision of both PC's to the latest version. After doing this, I used TrueImage to save a drive image of my first PC and then restored this image to the second PC. Just like my first try, it didn't work - I got a message that there was a problem with the windows insatallation and the Windows 7 Repair Utility started automatically, but it was not able to correct the problem.

Next, I went into BIOS setup and restored BIOS defaults on the second PC. (As I had just upgraded to the latest version, I was surprised that all settings wouldn't already be at their default setting, but I guess the BIOS upgrade procedure updates the revision but retains your settings).

Anyway, after doing this, I tried one more time restoring the drive image from the first PC onto the second PC, and it worked!!

thanks again for your help!!

Paul