Replacing MB, CPU, and memory but want to clone HDD

Im sure someone else will post, but im certain you will have to purchase the Acronis Plus Pack add on, as this will allow you to restore to dissimilar Hardware, which is what you are doing.

Pete

I have purchased that as well as the full version. Is there a guide on this site on how to accomplish what I am trying to do?

Hi
This should help

http://kb.acronis.com/content/23561

But i would advise booting your pc from your acronis disk first to make sure that the disc can see all your drives in the pc.

Like i said im sure people with more knowledge than me will post here as well, but hopefully this will get you on the right track

Pete

I want to make sure I am following the instructions correctly for backing up my HDD before the installation of the new MB, etc.

1. Create a bootable media disk
2. backup the HDD to an external HDD
3. test the bootable media disk
4. test the backup
5. install the new MB, etc
6. boot from media disk - which include pointing to drivers folder on external disk
7. recover backup to disk (which I believe will overwrite the current disk)

I created the disk and it seemed too easy. Is this really a bootable disk? I want to know before I test it if I created it correctly. I am reading articles on creating a WindowPE disk and am confused. Is the disk I created going to work? I run Windows 7 64 bit edition. I am not sure if I need to include startup parameters or not. Any help would be greatly appreciated before I install my new hardware today.

To test if your recovery media disk is bootable, boot from it. :)

Make sure your BIOS is set to allow booting from CD-R prior to booting from the internal HD.

Be sure to perform a full disk backup, selecting the internal HD which will automatically include all partitions.

Once booted from the recovery media, try doing a file-based restore of a couple of files from the backup to the internal HD. if that works, that will give high confidence that a full restore would work.

When performing a restore to dissimilar hardware, you need to collect all required drivers in .inf form prior to doing the restore. However, in this case you're not changing graphics card, sound card, or other items that normally require drivers. If you're changing only the MB, CPU and RAM, I'm not sure any of those would require drivers. Perhaps someone else can comment.

Cori, you look like you have created the Recovery Disk correctly. It only take a minute or two to create it. It is based on a Linux kernel, and you should be fine with it. Universal restore can be tricky trying to get all the drivers loaded, but works well with some time spent following the directions in the other post. The reason Pete suggested you boot the Recovery Disk first after installing you new hardware is to see if the Recovery Disk you created can see all of your drives installed in your new system. If you can not see all of the drives, you will not be able to use the Recovery Disk you created, and must then create a WinPE based Recovery Disk and test boot that one as well. My suggestion is to create the WinPE BEFORE changing your system, and use it instead of the Linux based recovery disk.
You can find instructions on how to build the WinPE recovery disk here: http://kb.acronis.com/content/23882 . It has better driver support, and may recognize your new hardware. You will still need to have the correct driver(s) for your disk drive controller/chipset to be able to use the Universal Restore feature, which will still be available to you on the WinPE version of the Recovery Disk.

Thanks Tuttle. I found instructions on creating the bootable media and it states that this is the Linux version? So do I have to create a WinPE disk instead? I just want to make sure I am doing this correctly as the last time I tried to do this exact thing with WinPe and xcopy, it was a complete disaster and I had to re-install all programs.

I have created a backup of my drive on an external USB drive.

I have a folder on the external drive with all the drivers for the new MB in one folder. This includes the chipset. I have a feeling that is all I will need but I have copies of everything just in case.

I created a WinPE disk using AMD64 instead of x86 as I run Windows 7 64 bit edition. I have downloaded all drivers from Asus. I am doing a new backup right now to my external drive as I want the latest image of the drive.

How do I test this so I know it works? Do I shut down after the backup is complete and then boot from the disk and navigate to the external drive and the image that I created and go from there? Will this overwrite my current configuration on my drive which is the exact copy of what I am backing up. I just don't want to screw up my current configuration and just test this to make sure it works before I transplant the parts. I want to make sure I am understanding the steps correctly. I have built many computer systems in the past and even though I don't have an IT position at this time, I have my degree in IT and consider myself somewhat proficient. However, I have never been able to understand extremely technical instructions. I am more a visual learner and rely a lot on videos for learning how to do things computer related.

Stick with the x86 WinPE environment, and, in any case, make sure you test your WinPE disk (note: a WinPE disk is not necessary for UR. The UR function is available in the standard recovery CD you create after having installed the Plus Pack. That said, it is easier to add drivers to a WinPE disk if it fails to see your disks correctly).

To test any recovery CD, boot your computer on it and restore a couple of files from the backup you just did somewhere on your target disk.

If that works, then you can move on with replacing the components and stuff.

Also, make sure you have included the entire disk in your backup (in particular, the hidden partitions like system reserved, OEM, diagnostrics, recovery, etc.)

Thanks, Pat. I don't understand why I have to use the x86 instead of AMD64. I have some programs that are installed in x86 but there are a lot that are installed in 64 bit. I want to make sure I don't have to re-install anything. I want to replace the parts I need to and then recover the disk so that it is just as it was under the old components. Wouldn't I have to do the 64 bit version instead of the 32 bit version? When I originally installed Windows 7, I used the 64 bit version. Guess I am not understanding.

Well the 64 bit version did not work. I just burned a 32 bit version. This is crazy as I have 64 bit drivers. It would seem that this product would support 64 bit systems. I will give this a try and see what happens. The error I received was error code 0xC0000359 ; snapman.sys is missing.

This did not work either. I used the original x86 copy I created. I booted from CD drive, it booted up Windows and then brought me to a command prompt that I have dealt with before when I did a similar task then my old HDD crashed. I used imagex at that time and that did not work either.

I have recreated the x86 info and the ISO image and will try again. If this still fails, then I guess I have wasted my money and will need a refund and will spend several hours rebuilding my HDD!

Cori,

The Acronis Plugin for the WinPE is designed for x86 WinPE. This is completely independent of the OS you use on your computer and of the drivers you will use for universal restore.
One problem is to create a WinPE based recovery disk that can run ATI. This one has to be x86 when you produce the WinPE image. If the WinPE disk doesn't work, you will be able to inject x86 drivers for your motherboard in the WinPE image. Now you have a WinPE-based disk. It not necessary to have a WinPE disk to run Universal Restore!

Another question is Universal Restore feature. Universal Restore is available from the Linux-based and from the WinPE-based recovery disk. This is a feature of ATI running in Linux or in WinPE. .

Finally, ATI running in Linux or WinPE can universally restore any supported OS. Universal Restore will ask you for the drivers for the motherboard and for the OS (Windows/Linux, 32b or 64bit, etc) you will use on your computer.

I hope this clarifies.

I got the disk to work. I just had to be patient. I guess that the copy I made runs just like what I used for imagex. I tried to "recover" my documents folder onto the desktop. It says it was successful, however, when I reboot the folder is not there so I don't know what I did incorrectly.

Another question I have is when all the components are installed and I boot for the first time using the CD. When I "recover" the entire disk how do I know I am doing this correctly? Are there screen shots to show the procedure as I understand better with pictures....they are worth a thousand words! If there are not screen shots can someone give VERY detailed instructions as the drive letters are different and it can get confusing. When I just moved the documents folder, the original C drive became D drive. I do have the drive named so I don't get confused but I just want to make sure I am following every detail so that this works correctly.

Check out the many user guides and tutorials in the left column of this forum, particularly ATIH 2012 - Getting Started and Grover's True Image Guides which are illustrated with step-by-step screenshots.

I tried to move a file again and it did not work....or at least I can't find the file that I replaced. Now an interesting side note, when I was recovering the file I saw 2 "drives". C and D. C contained the documents and settings file that I tried to recover before. If D is on a separate partition, I don't know how it got there or where that partition came from. I think I tried the clone option first but it seemed not to work and then I started researching more and saw that it was best to do a backup of the disk instead. Did I create a partition on my C drive without realizing it? I can see the partition in disk manager and it is unnamed and the boot is on the larger partition. I do not usually set partitions when I install an OS on a drive. I allocate the full drive. If I did do something incorrectly is there any way to recover from it?

When I look at D it contains a Boot folder, Documents and Settings folder (empty), system Volume Information folder, bootmgr file and bootsect.bak file. I don't know how to get rid of the documents and setting folder in there.

C drive does contain a Boot folder as well. Inside that folder are other files with letters that make no sense to me.

The two drives (actually two partitions on your primary drive with two drive letters assigned) that you see are normal for most Windows 7 installations. The drive letters you see are visible in Acronis, but only the "C" drive is visible to Windows explorer. The "D drive you are seeing is the hidden, System Reserved partition created automatically when you did the Windows 7 install. Normally this partition does not have a drive letter assigned to it, but while in Acronis, the software assigns a letter to it for its use. As far as the documents and settings folder, you will have to assign a drive letter to the hidden partition, delete the folder, and then remove the drive letter. When you perform a backup in Acronis using the disk based backup method, it will backup the hidden partition, as well as your "C" drive. If you do a recovery, you would want to restore both the hidden partition, as well as your "C" drive. If you are just restoring individual files or folders, you would need to make sure your target is the corrent one, and not restore folders from your "C" drive to the hidden partition.

You should spend some time to learn how your computer is set up. Otherwise you're going to continue to see things, in such applications as Acronis True Image, and wonder how they got there when in fact they are how your Windows is set up.

Go into Windows Disk Management to see details of all drives and partitions on your system. You may even find that there is yet another hidden partition.

I misspoke last night. D contains that Documents and Settings folder that I tried to move before. C is the drive as it should be.

I did try to delete the folder in the D drive but I don't have permission. I tried to change permissions but it won't let me. I am at a loss of how to get rid of it. It is an empty folder but it doesn't really belong there. I don't think it is hurting anything but I would still like to remove it.

As tuttle suggests, it's probably a good idea to get a complete understanding of how your drive is layed out, and how the boot media displays partitions.  I'd recommend figuring out how to either remove the Docs and Setting folder from the Sys Reservered partition or reimage so this folder does not exist.  While it may not hurt now, at some point you might encounter problems if windows is unable to manage the reserved partition correctly. 

This type of migration is complex and you're bound to have a few hiccups along the way. Try not to get discouraged. You are making good progress.

Tip: Try slaving the disk on another machine in order to change permissions.

Cori, to delete the folder you probably need to change the security settings. Right click on the folder, choose properties, go to the security tab, choose advanced, go to the owner tab, click on edit if the owner is not you, make the owner yourself, save this. You should be able to delete then.

Check out these posts: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

Thanks, Pat. I will try this and see if I can rid of that empty folder. If I can delete it, then I will backup again and make sure it is gone before I transplant the parts.

I tried to change the settings and take ownership of the drive. Currently under Owner it is system. When I try to click edit I get a popup stating "You only have permission to view the current owner on Local Disk (G:). G is the drive letter it was given when I mounted the disks. I went into effective permissions and that did not work either. All boxes that would normally allow me to change settings are grayed out. Guess I am stuck with a stupid folder in the partition that can never be removed unless I go ahead and format and start over!

Cori, if you made a full disk or multiple partition backup with the "System Reserved" partition included in it before the document and settings folder was restored to it, you could just restore the "System Reserved" partion from your backups. Setting permissions, and taking ownership of this folder can be tricky, but can be done with some patience and research on file and folder permissions, esp. about inherited permissions (they must be removed in your case). The fact that this folder exsists will not hurt your operating system installation, but I would still remove it if possible. Do not leave the "System Reserved" partition assigned a drive letter for normal use, only for troubleshooting and diagnostic work.

YAY finally got the folder deleted from the image. I will report back when the build is complete and let everyone know whether or not this worked! I am SOOO hoping after all these headaches that it did!

After you change your hardware out, you may want to go ahead and try to boot the system. Sometimes, but rarely, Windows will boot up and load the necessary drivers that are missing for you during booting. If it does not boot, than use the Universal Restore feature of the boot disk to restore, and be sure you have Windows 7 64bit drivers for your hard disk controller and chipset handy if needed. You may have to try several times to get the drivers you need to load with Universal Restore. Do not panic, just make adjustments to the drivers and try again. Worst case is you can go back to your old hardware and restore your backup and be back up and running with your original hardware. If you succeed in using the Universal Restore feature, you would than have learned a great deal about this feature, and wil be able to do this again in the future withaout near as many concerns or issues. The first time I tried to use Universal Restore, I went through a lot of the same issues and had many of the same questions as you. Good luck.

Well I finally have the new parts installed. First problem was that our extra keyboards are all PS2 and we needed a USB so borrowed my mother-in-laws. Second problem is my existing optical drives are IDE and the MB doesn't have any IDE connections. So......can I copy the restore disk I made and put it on a USB flash drive? It is a 16 gig drive.

Is the recovery CD a WinPE based disk?

yes

You can copy the files to the USB stick. You may have to use the Windows diskpart command line utility to make the USB stick partition active. Try just copying the files and using the stick as is. Be sure to set the BIOS to boot to the USB device first, or select the USB stick as your boot device if you have a boot selection menu you can access.

Ok will do. Thanks James.

Good luck.....

Good news.....HDD came up after a couple of tries! Now I have to wait for my new SATA optical drive to come on Wednesday so I can install the MB drivers, etc and enjoy having a new computer in an old skin! I will continue to do regular backups so that when I go to build my completely new system (this system will become the file server) I can have another rewarding experience.

One quick question on that. I want to just transfer the image of this HDD to a new SSD when I build the new system. This current HDD will be wiped and a clean install of Win7 will be done since it won't need all the applications I currently have loaded. How is this accomplished with taking an image from an old drive to a new drive?

Also can I use my copy of Acronis for my laptop? I saw on the purchase page 1 computer and 3 or more computes but nothing on 2 computers.

I'm not clear on your first question, but you can perform a full disk backup to an external drive, and then put your new SSD drive in the system, boot to the recovery disk, and restore the full disk backup from the external drive onto the new drive, resizing the partitons to fit the free space on the new drive. You could also do a clone of one drive to the other, but if you have an external drive to use, creating a full disk image on it and restoring to the new drive works much more smoothly.
Concerning the license of ATIH 2012, you can only use a single copy per machine. If you didn't buy the 3 computer Family Pack, you only have one license and would need to purchase a second. You could perform backups and restores with your recovery disk on a second system if needed.
I'm glad your hard work has paid off for you.

Just to add my tuppenceworth :) , don't be surprised if Windows itself demands re-activation - this depends on the type of activation your copy of Windows has, but Microsoft generally consider a new motherboard = a new computer and expect you to purchase a new copy of Windows.

This may or may not happen to you, if it does, it is not TrueImage causing the problem but Microsoft.

In answer to your last question, you could clone the drive, but the method James F mentions is the way i would go as well.

Make sure though you have made a complete disk image, your mentioning of retrieving the My Documents folder has me concerned you've made a Files and Folders backup which is not the same as a complete disk image, though you can copy individaul folders and files from a complete disk image as well.