Macrium Free --Restore to totally different hardware --Working !!!

q9q said:

Hello, I've been wondering about the topic of moving a complete windows installation including programs:
Moving one's windows installation can save a dozen or dozens of hours of configuration work (programms settings, etc etc.) that has been done ove the course of the years on the old, previous system, and (at least in Germany where it's legal to move a license) it can even save money in the case where Macrium ReDeploy is not needed and where the user bought a system without pre-installed OS.
Yet only 0.1% of people make use of this possibility. Even professionals don't, often.
Can anyone explain this?
(I mean, the idea of a "fresh installation" sounds like snakeoil to me. I doubt Windows 11 runs slower after some time because of some misterious "junk" in the registry and elsewhere that supposedly slows it down, or even if so, I'm convinced it's hardly noticeable, or can be easily fixed.)

Thanks for you comments.

Well it mostly comes down to drivers in the end.

Simplest option - restore an image backup on new pc, and let Windows 10/11 sort out drivers. In majority of cases this will work but most likely failure is if new pc requires drivers not in image. Typical case os if new pc has an nvme drive and requires IRST drivers. PC will fail to boot.

Next layer of complexity is using Macroum Redeploy. Another approach is to create custom install.wim and inject drivers.

In some cases, even if you have transferred OS and drivers ok, pc may suffer inexplicable crashes. In tgis case, try a repair upgrade first, and then clean install if that fails.

I personally never clean install. The clean install brigade never provide evidence of performance increases and if any arises, it is probably because old installation had become messy due to lack of maintenance.

As far as I am concerned, a clean install is a last resort. I see no logic in doing a clean install without trying a transfer first.

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q9q said:

Hello, I've been wondering about the topic of moving a complete windows installation including programs:
Moving one's windows installation can save a dozen or dozens of hours of configuration work (programms settings, etc etc.) that has been done ove the course of the years on the old, previous system....

cereberus said:

Well it mostly comes down to drivers in the end.
Simplest option - restore an image backup on new pc, and let Windows 10/11 sort out drivers. In majority of cases this will work but most likely failure is if new pc requires drivers not in image. Typical case os if new pc has an nvme drive and requires IRST drivers. PC will fail to boot.

Next layer of complexity is using Macrium Redeploy. Another approach is to create custom install.wim and inject drivers....

There's a level of complexity between those two, which I used to move the installed Windows 10 and programs from my old 'main machine' (a Legacy bios/MBR install on Intel based hardware, System One below) to its replacement, a UEFI/GPT AMD based laptop.

The first step was a clean install of Windows 10 on the new machine in order to create all the correct partitions for a UEFI install. The second step was to restore just the C: partition from the old machine's image to replace the C: partition created by the clean install. Finally running 'Fix Windows Boot Problems' from the Macrium recovery environment to get the transplanted system to boot. At no time was redeploy ever needed.

bege said:

Thank you for this interesting thread. Is it possible to just put the drive from one computer to another one and continue with step 4 instead of restoring a backup to the drive of another computer?

Well (mostly) yes, but consider this if buiding a new pc.

The component most likely to fail is the hard drive. It is a false economy really buying all new parts, then scrimping on drive costs.