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Having a major problem migrating boot drive to new hardware

robphelan

robphelan

Diamond Member
I have a retail version of Win7 on an SSD in a custom built AMD phenom X6, GTX 970, 12 GB RAM etc...

Apparently my CPU was a bottleneck while trying to play some new games so I purchased a new pre-built PC locally.

Mini ITX, Core I5 6600, Nvidia 1070 GPU, 8 GB RAM.

It came with Win10 on an SSD and it boots up fine.

I had planned on switching out my Win7 SSD with the Win10 SSD and using the new hardware (after a new Win activation). However, I can't get it to boot properly with my Win7 SSD.

I know it's a lot of hardware to change out.. but shouldn't it at least boot to the desktop with default drivers?

Or, is changing from a full size ATX AMD to a mini ITX I5 too much?
 
robphelan said:
I have a retail version of Win7 on an SSD in a custom built AMD phenom X6, GTX 970, 12 GB RAM etc...

Apparently my CPU was a bottleneck while trying to play some new games so I purchased a new pre-built PC locally.

Mini ITX, Core I5 6600, Nvidia 1070 GPU, 8 GB RAM.

It came with Win10 on an SSD and it boots up fine.

I had planned on switching out my Win7 SSD with the Win10 SSD and using the new hardware (after a new Win activation). However, I can't get it to boot properly with my Win7 SSD.

I know it's a lot of hardware to change out.. but shouldn't it at least boot to the desktop with default drivers?

Or, is changing from a full size ATX AMD to a mini ITX I5 too much?
Click to expand...

Windows 10 is good about swapping out hardware and still getting it to boot with a new drive. However, Windows 7 not so much as you have found out. If you still have a Windows 7 DVD, you can boot off of it and select 'repair' and it will attempt to make your hard drive bootable again. You have to remember AMD hardware and Intel hardware are very different, so it's no surprise at all it won't boot.

http://www.dowdandassociates.com/bl...indows-7-install-after-replacing-motherboard/

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html
 
I didn't even think about the Intel V. AMD difference..

i'll see if I can track down the DVD.. however, the new machine doesn't have an optical drive! ack!
 
I found my install DVD and have a USB drive ready.. but I went back and read through your links.. do you think a sysprep would work?

in that forum, they mention it can be used for my situation, however, I don't see them explicitly mention going from AMD to Intel (or vice-versa)... just changing mobos.
 
robphelan said:
I found my install DVD and have a USB drive ready.. but I went back and read through your links.. do you think a sysprep would work?

in that forum, they mention it can be used for my situation, however, I don't see them explicitly mention going from AMD to Intel (or vice-versa)... just changing mobos.
Click to expand...

I think it would from what I read. Honestly, whenever I have built a new system, I have always done a clean install for stability and speed.

I have always found that a fresh install is the way to go for my needs.
 
y
UsandThem said:
I think it would from what I read. Honestly, whenever I have built a new system, I have always done a clean install for stability and speed.

I have always found that a fresh install is the way to go for my needs.
Click to expand...

You're certainly right about a fresh install...

I'm running Win7, but the new system came with a fresh install of Win10. and I really need to keep Win7 (for
 
ha.. i was murdered in the middle of submitting that last post...

anyway, what I meant to say was that I really need Win7 for streaming live TV to my TV on the patio. For now, until I come up with a better overall solution, I'm streaming to an Xbox 360 to that TV.
 
I backed up my C: drive onto an external HDD using just the windows utility..

If i use sysprep to remove the settings, move it to the new machine and it still doesn't work, can I put the SSD back into the old machine and restore my backup?
 
If you made a system image and things go badly, you should be able to restore that back to the original hard drive. Are you not wanting to reinstall Windows 7 because of activation concerns? Because even if you can get the drive to work with your current installation, it should immediately prompt you to reactivate it because it goes off of the motherboard.

Here is a little discussion thread on some of the error codes or messages you might run in to, and what to do:

http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2014/0...-internal-hard-drives-computers/#.V6p_qZgrJhE
 
One thing that works alot for me is put your Win7 SSD back into its old box and boot it. Then install all the drivers of your NEW Pc onto your old one, and then swap ir over to your new PC. New PC c
ant find the drivers it needs.
 
i'm not really worried about activation.. I just want to make sure I have a fully working machine before my trip on Monday.
 
You should have removed all the old drivers since most were for your AMD based machine. You are now trying to
put that same drive and drivers into an Intel based machine. Totally different. You can use Acronis to restore an Image to another hardware configuration. I have not tried it, but they claim it will work.
 
hi.. haven't done anything yet. but since sysprep won't remove anything but personalization and if the SSD doesn't take on the Intel machine, I'll just restore on the old machine if I really, really need to. otherwise, I'll bite the bullet and re-install everything.
 
Use this from from
Bubbaleone
Open Notepad and copy/paste the following:

set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
start devmgmt.msc

Name the file "setdev.bat", and save it to the Desktop as "All files" (not text document [*.txt]). Double-click setdev.bat and it opens an advanced MSC version of Device Manager. Select; View>>Devices by type>>Show hidden devices. You will now be able to see every single device that has ever been installed on your current Windows installation.

This view includes all currently installed devices, and all devices no longer installed or connected (non-existent). All the icons for non-existent devices will be "ghosted" (semi-translucent, pale gray color).

Starting at the top and working your way down the list ( click every + sign to expand each device), right-click each installed device icon, and each ghosted device icon and select "Uninstall".

Ignore any prompts to reboot the PC. When you're completely finished uninstalling all currently installed devices, as well as all non-existent devices, shutdown the computer, then remove the hard drive. It's now ready to install onto new hardware.
 
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