ive got a metric fuckton of applications i really cant be arsed to re-install, but im changing from an AM3 platform to a c602 platform, which means i need a new HAL at the very least. short of "if you had used sysprep.exe to prepare a generic image to start from you wouldnt have this problem", how can i best migrate to the new hardware?
ive got software on the main drive, software on other drives, and i dont want to spend all day waiting for visual studio, adobe CS, etc to all install sequentially. i also dont want to find myself hunting down odd programs i forgot to install for the next couple of months.
I've been able to transplant installations from one machine to another, or have swapped out mobo/cpu quite a few times with Windows. Just take a backup and set a restore point to be safe and off you go.
There are a couple of things to watch out for with Win 7. One is that if your new mobo is USB 3 only and there are no USB 3 drivers loaded you can find yourself without a keyboard/mouse working. The other is to make sure AHCI mode and drivers have already been enabled and installed on your existing system else you will need to disable it on your new mobo and setup the drivers before re-enabling.
I highly advise against this practice. I did it when I was moving from a 775 platform (Q6600) to a 1150 one and Windows was a total mess. I was only able to see 4 cores instead of 4 cores + 4 threads, the drivers weren't installing correctly and overall the old installation was a bit dirty to begin with. Just start from scratch because the sysgen (or however is called in this new OSs) is not able to run again from the ground up on an existing istance of the OS installed.
Topic Name: Migrating windows 7 installation to new chipset? theres got to be some way of doing it
So you answered your own question. Use sysprep and generalize the image. It can and probably will fail so have a backup plan.
c:\windows\system32\sysprep start sysprep.exe, check the checkbox, change to shutdown. Move the HD and boot it up. Be prepared to reinstall if sysprep fails (very common), make sure you're not changing boot mode (bios/uefi) unless you know what you're doing.
I have a feeling its not going to end well, its hard enough for a system to go from one chipset to another made by the same person but going from a AMD AM3 to a intel Server chipset C602 is a large jump.
So your moving to the chipset C602 huh? Happen to be a dual Xeon E5-2670? Thats where i am going with my server and am wondering how to migrate Windows server 2012 from a Z87 to a C602. A few options i am weighing is do a fresh install on server 2012 then demote the old domain controller and transfer all the roles over to the new server (this is the long way). The second option is to convert the server 2012 to a vm then run that vm on the new server. I would have to pre install the drivers for the VM network and the C602 chipset otherwise server 2012 will deactivate and want me to activate before allowing me to log in.
holy shit, by some miracle the old installation booted, so i just used windows upgrade to take care of everything
im just rocking a single chip because i didnt have the room in my case for one of those dual socket monster boards. if you can boot the old installation like i did, and the image contains the upgrade tool, do it that way.