Migration Migraine

June 9, 2007 5:48 PM

Migrating to a new computer: Has anyone ever simply done the following? a) On old computer, install all the drivers the new computer would need ("install anyway" button to force it). b) swap the C drive from old to new computer. c) Turn on new computer and smooth out any other driver issues and 'refresh' the windows xp install if necessary. Would that work? Has anyone done this succesfully? What might cause it to fail? Thanks.
posted by jak68 to computers & internet (17 comments total)

I've done this before, but I don't know that I'd really recommend it.

There are lots of drivers that you're not going to be able to just 'install anyway'. For example, go into Device Manager and look at everything under 'System devices'.

When and if you do what you're planning on doing, the system will have a kind of seizure as it tries to uninstall and simultaneously install all this kind of stuff - PCI-Express root ports, ACPI stuff, numeric data processors...

Plus, if the old machine and the new machine have different HALs (hardware abstraction layers), I'm pretty sure you're not going to get anything but a black screen.

If it's ever a possibility, load the OS with the disk in the new machine.

You can try what you're describing.. I've seen it work to varying degrees.. I've seen it fail completely... but it's never pretty.
posted by kbanas at 5:56 PM on June 9, 2007

Oh, my, you're brave.

Short answer: No, this is not recommended. Hey, it might work, especially if the new computer is similar in many respects to the old one. But it probably isn't similar enough. You'll have a passel of non-working drivers installed for missing hardware, for starters. But I would only try this if you had very similar systems, e.g. same manufacturer, same brand line, same general hardware. Dell Optiplex GJZ64 to Dell Optiplex GTN43 (made-up numbers), for instance.

What will go wrong is probably that vestigial parts of the old install will create instability which will manifest itself in drawn-out and unexpected ways. Freeze-ups as a driver tries to access missing hardware, video glitches as display drivers compete, even nasty STOP errors. You might do fine with ordinary software, but have all sorts of headaches trying to use multimedia (music, games). Your registry will look like an archaeological dig.

As a tech of many years' experience going back to Windows 1.0, I simply wouldn't do it.

There are people who without changing their system reinstall Windows from scratch, just because a clean install works so much better. It's also a handy way to get rid of stuff you really don't need but can't gin up the motivation to uninstall or delete.

By "C drive" I assume you're talking about XP, but maybe you aren't.
posted by dhartung at 5:59 PM on June 9, 2007

Microsoft actually has a knowledge base article on this, which goes into a lot more detail than I just have:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249694

Also, you aside from the HAL issue, you might be able to use Sysprep and Ghost to turn the OS installation into an image that you can move onto the new machine.

This is usually done in environments where the exact same 'load' needs to be put on multiple machines.

It may not be applicable, but check this out:
http://blog.hishamrana.com/2006/02/22/how-to-image-windows-xp-with-ghost-and-sysprep/

Of course, we're getting well out of the 'load the drivers and swap the disks' territory, but you should know all your options.
posted by kbanas at 6:00 PM on June 9, 2007

@dhartung: "You'll have a passel of non-working drivers installed for missing hardware, for starters"

True, but you could theoretically, right before the swap, 'disable' all the old hardware in device manager, right?

I see that it might be problematic, though, and probably is an iffy thing huh?

thanks for the links kbanas.
posted by jak68 at 6:08 PM on June 9, 2007

I've done something similar several times with little trouble. I just put all the new drivers on the drive without installing them before moving the drive. Then I boot up on the new system (ignoring all the error messages), and delete the old drivers and install the new. It may require a safe mode boot but generally not.

I do take every opportunity to install a new o/s when I have a new drive on hand. If I am concerned about having a fall-back while migrating to the new install, I use the above method to keep the old one on hand and use bios to switch between installs.
posted by Manjusri at 7:14 PM on June 9, 2007

Installing drivers involves installing .dll files, .sys drivers, .inf files, and the like. Why would you want to swamp an existing Windows installation this way?

Do this, please, first:
Right-click My Computer. Select Properties. Select the Hardware tab, now select the Device Manager. Go to the View tab and select "Show hidden devices". The Device Manager now displays quite a bit more than it did before.

About 75% of what you see here is mainboard-related. You are going to change your mainboard, and this will disable the old drivers, without removing any of the files.
And a fair bit of these "hidden devices" are devices that aren't plugged in -like old printers, that dead digital camera, etc. that the system isn't detecting (but they might someday be detected, which is why the devices are "hidden" from you).

I really recommend using this technique:

Install your new C drive in your old computer as a secondary drive. Format it using NTFS.
Use the Files and Settings Transfer wizard in advanced mode ("Let me select a custom list of files and settings when I click Next") and store the transfer file on the secondary drive. When the transfer is done, locate the file "migwiz.exe" on your old computer and copy it to the secondary drive as well.

Install the C drive, for all that's holy, don't format it when you install. Install your applications, run Windows update. Use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" to restore your settings and files. If it fails because the versions are different, find the file "migwiz.exe" on the new computer, copy the one from the old computer over the top of the new one and try to run the wizard again.

Yes, I have done it your way. In all three cases, I ran into significant problems later (usually days or weeks later - the installs usually work fine) with crashes, registry problems, and driver problems (mostly mainboard related). Unless there is a really, really good reason (like you don't have any of the installation disks for your running software), it's always a best practice to start clean.
posted by disclaimer at 8:01 PM on June 9, 2007

This link has more information along the line of disclaimer's post. I've done this a couple of times, with no ill effects.
posted by hedgehog at 8:12 PM on June 9, 2007

Why screw around doing something that might, or might not work, when in the same time, you can simply do a Repair Install, which is the recommended way of upgrading hardware under an existing Windows XP installation? This is the method which preserves your registry back to the last known good boot, keeps your files system permissions and user accounts entirely intact, re-probes your new hardware entirely, reconstructs your HAL if necessary, installs the correct drivers, and performs various registry maintenance functions, including setting a new restore point.
posted by paulsc at 9:35 PM on June 9, 2007 [3 favorites]

Actually, I meant to link to this procedure for a Repair Install, sometimes referred to as an "in place upgrade."
posted by paulsc at 9:45 PM on June 9, 2007

Seconding repair install. It has never failed for me (well, when the hardware was good).
posted by sockpup at 10:19 PM on June 9, 2007

wow, such differing responses!
I've actually tried it too, once it worked fine, the other time I had enough problems over a week or so that i wiped it and started over.
So was wondering what others experiences were like in that regard.
Thanks for the responses and the links, all.

@paulc, i will definitely try the repair install next time, just for grins and out of curiosity. :D Thanks.
posted by jak68 at 12:46 AM on June 10, 2007

When I build out a new machine I take the time to think about how close to MTBF my boot drive is, and whether it is time to replace it. The answer is usually yes.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:52 AM on June 10, 2007

well i guess mainly my thought was that doing this (perhaps via a repair install) would save me hours and hours or a) reinstalling dozens and dozens of applications b) setting them all up again, settings and config and so on. Thats really the much more time consuming aspect of migrating to a new computer, much more time consuming than the install/updates of the OS itself.
posted by jak68 at 2:16 AM on June 10, 2007

Why would you not use the files and settings transfer wizard?
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:37 AM on June 10, 2007

files and settings wizard doesnt transfer applications. Just windows settings and data files. As far as I know anyway. My big time consumer is installing all the apps.
posted by jak68 at 3:23 AM on June 10, 2007

Your registry will look like an archaeological dig.

Haha... This is true. If you can, start with a fresh install. Seriously, there are ways to create install disks that will essentially load all your popular software, with your favorite settings, all scripted for remote deployment. Yes, it takes some time to put all the apps together, but once you're done, it's trivial to change system configurations and still have a "fresh" base-install.

Read more about BartPE and PEBuilder.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:42 AM on June 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Anecdote: Having totally failed at this once before, I recently put a hard drive with my Windows install in a completely different machine, and it booted up no problem. Then installed all the missing drivers and it was good to go, like I had given my Windows install a whole new set of hardware.
posted by awesomebrad at 10:17 AM on June 10, 2007