Do I have to reinstall windows? The Answers HERE!

[Drakula]

This is the first time I have used Sysprep on physical drive, used once before on a virtual machine's Windows, as I have plans to upgrade and move couple systems around. Everything seems fine when I run it. When I put the drive into another system, at first boot, it had some weird error, but it was fine after another reboot. However, after the second and even more reboots, I have found out that I can access most of programs and files, but not the executable files at the root.

The Windows version is Windows XP SP3 and Sysprep is version 2.0. I did not check anything regarding the grace period and SSID and I click Reseal and let the Windows shutdown afterward.

Can someone shed some light on this problem?

Thanks.

 

[PingSpike]

So, regarding the plug and pray method...this actually used to work pretty much every time in Win9x...at least I never remember it not working. It was with the 2000 and XP it became a problem. The only real problem I found was with the hard drive controller drivers. If those didn't match the new ones (and they usually don't) windows blue screens when trying to load. I believe it says inaccessible boot device, which always struck me as bullshit because it was accessing that drive before it failed!

For whatever reason 9x seems to let you get away with booting with different HDD controller drivers, at least into safe mode where you could fix any driver issues. With 2000 it was a no go UNLESS you changed the controller driver to the generic microsoft one BEFORE you switch motherboards. Obviously this is worthless when the old motherboard is dead, but if you plan ahead and switch to that before shut down I've always been able to get things back going again. Once I can get windows to load to desktop its just going through the motions. The flip side, is without having done this I've NEVER gotten plug and pray to work unless switching to hardware with an identical/compatible controller driver.

Vista/7 are different animals though, I haven't done a lot with it but I've heard they are much better than the 2000/XP setup and you can actually get them back to life if your suffered a dead motherboard and your controller doesn't match the old. Why they broke this (and left it broke for nearly a decade) is beyond me.

I've often wondered if you could setup a hardware profile using the generic driver and have it available for when the hard drive failed, but I've never gotten around to doing it.

 

[Mark_K]

Really bad tilte for this thread

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Just fix the bootloader

 

[Gillbot]

Really bad tilte for this thread

So how about make some simple suggestions instead of comments that add absolutely nothing to the content?

 

[boozie]

While the system is quite sluggish due to all the extra bloat it has carried from system to system, all data and programs are intact which is more important to me than overall system speed.

I was considering deleting the OS off the HD and do a fresh install on a different HD but still keeping my programs/data on the original. Will things like my steam games (continue to) load slow even after a new OS if they are still on the unformatted old HD?

 

[Gillbot]

I was considering deleting the OS off the HD and do a fresh install on a different HD but still keeping my programs/data on the original. Will things like my steam games (continue to) load slow even after a new OS if they are still on the unformatted old HD?

It's unlikely your programs will work properly. You typically can't "move" them from drive to drive, they need to be reinstalled.

 

[boozie]

Technically nothing would be moved. I'd reinstall the OS on the new drive and keep most things the same on the old one. I realize this would create registry issues but I just meant my steam games plus any data/music/misc.

I just want to know if the sluggishness is due to OS, or if it's in all the files (or arrangement of the files) at this point. Kind of a dumb question, I just don't know how it works. Also, I have run the proper HD testing software to know that nothing is broken.

 

[mclaren777]

Conventional wisdom dictates that I should reinstall my OS if I jump from a P67 to a Z68, right?

If so, I'll probably just replace my P67 with an identical unit.

 

[PingSpike]

Regarding steam: I doubt any sluggishness would follow you with your suggested method, unless it was an issue with the drive itself. Steam is pretty easy to move, unlike most programs. I usually just installed the bare client and then copied the old folder over the new and it would work. Kept all my settings, downloads and updates to the games.

 

[boozie]

Regarding steam: I doubt any sluggishness would follow you with your suggested method, unless it was an issue with the drive itself. Steam is pretty easy to move, unlike most programs. I usually just installed the bare client and then copied the old folder over the new and it would work. Kept all my settings, downloads and updates to the games.

Well I wouldn't actually be moving the files if things work out okay. I can always just see for myself when the time comes.

 

[Drsignguy]

Now with the latest hiccup of the P67 SATA issue, I will be changing boards very soon. Right now I have the Gigabyte P67A-UD3P with a SSD using System builders Windows 7. I am looking to do a bit of an upgrade to the Asrock P67 extreem6 (B3) or possibly exchange to Gigabyte P67A-UD3P (B3). Either way, I would prefer to keep what I have on the SSD rather than a fresh install.

So, with that said, is it better to try to do the fresh install on the SSD and perhaps get the new licence for windows 7 or try to do the sysprep and hope for the best?

 

[Gillbot]

Now with the latest hiccup of the P67 SATA issue, I will be changing boards very soon. Right now I have the Gigabyte P67A-UD3P with a SSD using System builders Windows 7. I am looking to do a bit of an upgrade to the Asrock P67 extreem6 (B3) or possibly exchange to Gigabyte P67A-UD3P (B3). Either way, I would prefer to keep what I have on the SSD rather than a fresh install.

So, with that said, is it better to try to do the fresh install on the SSD and perhaps get the new licence for windows 7 or try to do the sysprep and hope for the best?

A fresh install is always best, but Windows 7 seems to handle the "plug-n-pray" better than other versions in the past. You would need to look into the sysprep steps for Windows 7 however and see what all it entails. Plus, you also need to consider the alignment of your drives as this typically is NOT retained when migrating from drive to drive when cloning.

 

[Drsignguy]

Well I decided to get the Asrock Extreme6 with another 2600k setup so I have 2 now. As for upgrade, I just switched from the problematic Sata issue( that I didn't have any as of yet) board to the Same board (B3) version. Put everything back in place and had no issues whatsoever. All I had to do was reactivate my windows key. Did without problems. Thanks Gillbot, appreciate your help and your time.

 

[Zenara25]

Tried sysprep but because I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 it wouldn't allow me to create the image. But Plug-n-Pray worked going from a P35 to an 1155 board Beforehand I did create an image backup and then tried to remove as many drivers as possible from device manager. Not sure if that helped the process or not. I will do a clean install at some point but not today

 

[Majic 7]

Plug-n-Pray didn't work for me going from B2 to B3. Everything was fine except sleep wouldn't stick. Sleep or hibernate would wake back up after two minutes. Tried multiple things including Bios update and nothing worked. Finally reinstalled and everything works as it should now.

 

[Drsignguy]

I found that most of the time the plug-n-pray works for the most part. But since I have done the upgrade, (B2 version to B3) I had to re-install the drivers as it just wasn't performing the same. Seemed sluggish and sometimes I got freeze ups. So, yes, all I had to do is reactivate windows PLUS re-install drivers. No biggie right?

 

[LongTimePCUser]

I tried sysprep. Maybe I chose the wrong options.
It was a total disaster. Plan B: Plug & Pray worked.

Swapped an Asrock P67 Pro3 with i5-2500K.
Started Windows. It appeared to work OK.
It had me create a new user.
When I rebooted my previous user name was there.
I started the previous user and Win 7 opened OK.
Except that all my settings and files were gone. No email. No spreadsheets. No documents.

I checked \users\oldName. Everything was there. But the oldName account did not point to c:\users\oldName.

I spent most of a day trying to fix this. Nothing worked.

I had a full Acronis backup from the previous day.
I did a restore. (8 hours over night across my LAN).

Plan B: plug & pray that Windows 7 is smart enough to fix itself.
It did.

I booted the Win 7 that was set up for the older mother board.
It started and installed a few drivers.
I rebooted and it then installed many drivers.

Net results: Win 7 is fine. All settings and files were back.
Lesson: forget sysprep. Let Win7 fix itself. Much easier and it works.

I did have to reactivate Window 7, Office and Norton Internet Security.

 

[Gillbot]

If you read the links above, this was written and primarily catered to Windows XP

How to use the Sysprep tool to automate successful deployment of Windows XP

It seems as though Windows 7 handles the plug-n-pray method MUCH better than XP did.

 

[Iron Woode]

If you read the links above, this was written and primarily catered to Windows XP


It seems as though Windows 7 handles the plug-n-pray method MUCH better than XP did.

this is true, but most of the machines I service are still running XP and their owners don't want to upgrade the OS; just the hardware.

I find this thread rather informative.

 

[CraigRT]

I'm going from P55 to P67 in the near future. I would normally format but because the chipsets are so close in age and all that, I'm going plug and pray this time. If it doesn't work, format time.

I've had plug and pray work flawless on similar product family mobo swaps before. Rarely does it not work, even with XP I found.