Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Transfer OS and APPs. from one laptop to another

(1/3) > >>

Armando:
Hi everybody,

I think I'll have to send my laptop to Dell before my warranty is over (too many BSODs — memory parity errors).

However the idea of loosing more than a week of work, waiting for a replacement laptop and than reconfiguring everything makes me shiver… The reconfiguration part is actually the part I dread the most. So, here are my questions:

-In the eventuality Dell sends me a slightly different laptop (different Mother Board) are there any effective ways to transfer my actual system (win XP) or configuration (with apps, etc.) to the new one ?

I know a bit about solutions like PCmover, and Universal Restore by Acronis… But I wonder if they really work. Any experiences to share? I know ZRidling wrote about some…

Thanks a lot ! I'd really like some advices on this one...  :-[

mouser:
i have succesfully made an image of my entire system (xp) on my desktop, and restored it onto the laptop, with great results.

so rather than "moving" apps and stuff, i suggest making a complete drive image of your laptop hard drive onto an external usb drive. and then you can restore it again if you need be.  A good app for drive imaging is Acronis True Image, but there are others (see https://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/BackUpGuide/index.html).

by the way i think your instinct to back up your entire drive before sending it to be repaired is a very good one, definitely do it.

Darwin:
I just did this last week with True Image for the Windows/Programs partition and Ashampoo Burning Studio for the Documents partition (I was in a hurry and couldn't get Acronis to burn to DVD, initially). I've had to access both "images" to grab files for my wife and had no trouble. Given that I backed up to DVD, though, I may not be a happy camper when I get her notebook back as it has been noted by Carol that restoring from DVD's with TrueImage is molasses slow. Unfortunately, I wiped the harddrive before I sent it in and reset it to a virgin XP install (I'm paranoid) so it's inevitable that I'm going to have to face this!

Armando:
i have successfully made an image of my entire system (xp) on my desktop, and restored it onto the laptop, with great results.

so rather than "moving" apps and stuff, i suggest making a complete drive image of your laptop hard drive onto an external usb drive. and then you can restore it again if you need be.  A good app for drive imaging is Acronis True Image, but there are others (see https://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/BackUpGuide/index.html).

by the way i think your instinct to back up your entire drive before sending it to be repaired is a very good one, definitely do it.
-mouser (May 03, 2007, 12:27 PM)
--- End quote ---

Thanks Mouser.
Backups are not a problem in my case. I have multiple backups of everything on my computer : https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1999.msg58886#msg58886. I'm a bit paranoid... :)

So I guess you just used True Image -- did you have to use the Universal Restore option ?


I just did this last week with True Image for the Windows/Programs partition and Ashampoo Burning Studio for the Documents partition (I was in a hurry and couldn't get Acronis to burn to DVD, initially). I've had to access both "images" to grab files for my wife and had no trouble. Given that I backed up to DVD, though, I may not be a happy camper when I get her notebook back as it has been noted by Carol that restoring from DVD's with TrueImage is molasses slow. Unfortunately, I wiped the harddrive before I sent it in and reset it to a virgin XP install (I'm paranoid) so it's inevitable that I'm going to have to face this!
-Darwin (May 03, 2007, 12:42 PM)
--- End quote ---

I feel for you... i will definitely wipe my drive before sending it. "Sensitive" (not that much...) info will not fall into Dell hands  ;)
Will you have to restore on a NEW computer, or just a repaired one ? In the  second case it should be pretty easy -- even if quite slow... but it depends : restoring from DVD is not that bad, I found. It's the first case that frightens me : restoring on a new computer with a different MoBo.

cthorpe:
In the event that they send you a different machine back (even if it seems only slightly different), I'd recommend getting on another computer, getting on Dell's website, and downloading all of the drivers you can find for the new system.  Even if something looks the same as what you had before, you should still download all the drivers there.  Burn all the drivers onto a CD, and you should be ready to restore the image to the new machine.  Everything should boot ok (though you might have to reactivate Windows with MS if there is enough of a hardware change), and you should be able to install any new drivers.

Good luck!

Carl Thorpe

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page