OS Transplant

TechnoMage2021 · May 19, 2023

We've all heard of organ transplants, and I'm sure that someone in this group has already had one.
But, has anyone heard of an OS Transplant?

Here on this desktop PC running Win-11 22H2, I've run into a problem with Windows not wanting to do a System Restore. In my little world, that's a major system failure. Googling for a fix kept pointing to an MS Update problem. But, my MS Updates are turned OFF!
I tried several things, including a Backup/Restore, going back a month, but still no fix.

This PC has an almost twin sister, sitting in my living room, that I affectionately call my MAIN PC.
I checked to see if System Restore worked on that PC, and it DID!
Program wise, the two PC's are about 99% identical, so I did a backup of C: to a little laptop HD, using Ghost.
I then carried the little HD to my second PC and did a Ghost/Restore of the image of C: to the SSD on this PC. Just C:, because all my data files are on D:.
With just a little tweaking and updating, I now am running a 'Clone' of Win-11 from my Main PC, here on my Bedroom PC.
I'm thinking that the secret to my success is that both PC's are using Gigabyte motherboards, AMD cpu's, and Crucial SSD's.
However, one PC uses an NVIDIA GeForce Video Card, and the other uses On-Board video. That doesn't seem to be a problem for Win-11.

So, here I sit, in my Bedroom, running Win-11/Pro/64 that just 24 hours ago, was on my main PC in my living room.
I doubt that would have worked for any OS prior to Windows 8.1. It seems like as of Win-8.1, Windows gained the ability to migrate from PC to PC, with minimal effort. I've done that, a few times now.

Cheers Mates!
TM

LesFerch · May 19, 2023

Couldn't hurt to try this:

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

TechnoMage2021 · May 19, 2023

Thank you, but that's too little, too late, and probably too many stipulations.
The job is done, my way, and today Win-11 is working Great in its new home.

And, just for emergencies, I have an exact image of my C: drive on a little laptop HD.
The next time I need to install Win-11 someplace, I can just restore that Image file to the HD in another PC, and have a full install in less than 15 minutes. That includes not only Windows, but at least a half dozen programs that it takes to make Win-11 useful. Call it a TurnKey install, or Load & GO! I love it!

NavyLCDR · May 19, 2023

Windows 10 and 11 are very forgiving when moving from one computer to another. It very adeptly adjusts between AMD and INTEL CPUs, different graphics adapters, different chipsets. It can be moved from Legacy BIOS booting with an MBR disk to UEFI booting with a GPT disk with a little help from the user. A couple of things that will trip it up - moving from RAID to SATA or NVMe, and moving from a computer that did not require nor have the IRST driver to a computer that does.

TechnoMage2021 · May 19, 2023

Thanks for the added info!

My first personal experience, with moving an OS from PC to PC was with Windows 8.1.
I'd clone a laptop HD off of my main 8.1 machine, and put it into a laptop and within a few very short minutes, the laptop would be up and running 8.1 like as if it were born there.

TM

Winuser · May 19, 2023

TechnoMage2021 said:
We've all heard of organ transplants, and I'm sure that someone in this group has already had one.
But, has anyone heard of an OS Transplant?

Here on this desktop PC running Win-11 22H2, I've run into a problem with Windows not wanting to do a System Restore. In my little world, that's a major system failure. Googling for a fix kept pointing to an MS Update problem. But, my MS Updates are turned OFF!
I tried several things, including a Backup/Restore, going back a month, but still no fix.

This PC has an almost twin sister, sitting in my living room, that I affectionately call my MAIN PC.
I checked to see if System Restore worked on that PC, and it DID!
Program wise, the two PC's are about 99% identical, so I did a backup of C: to a little laptop HD, using Ghost.
I then carried the little HD to my second PC and did a Ghost/Restore of the image of C: to the SSD on this PC. Just C:, because all my data files are on D:.
With just a little tweaking and updating, I now am running a 'Clone' of Win-11 from my Main PC, here on my Bedroom PC.
I'm thinking that the secret to my success is that both PC's are using Gigabyte motherboards, AMD cpu's, and Crucial SSD's.
However, one PC uses an NVIDIA GeForce Video Card, and the other uses On-Board video. That doesn't seem to be a problem for Win-11.

So, here I sit, in my Bedroom, running Win-11/Pro/64 that just 24 hours ago, was on my main PC in my living room.
I doubt that would have worked for any OS prior to Windows 8.1. It seems like as of Win-8.1, Windows gained the ability to migrate from PC to PC, with minimal effort. I've done that, a few times now.

Cheers Mates!
TM

I did a transplant on what I now call my old desktop. When I bought it the first thing I did was to replace the HDD with the SSD from my then old desktop that had died. I never ran into any problems. The one thing I did loose was the Optane memory. No big deal because 1. I didn't see a need for it. 2. I replaced it with a 1TB NVME drive that became my C: drive.

Edit: the motherboards were from different companies.

Ghot · May 19, 2023

Doctor: "Rescue media".

Nurse: [Slaps USB stick into doctor's hand] "Rescue media".

SIW2 · May 19, 2023

I have migrated win7 without any difficulty e.g. intel 3rd gen >intel 8th gen.

the existing system32\driverstore\filerepository didnt have the igpu drivers for the 8th gen cpu but they were easy to install afterwards.

Now the filerepository has both sets of igpu drivers so can swap the disk back again easily.

I havent tried win7 intel>amd

badrobot · May 19, 2023

As long as you have a dedicated license registered to the hardware (PC), it will not be a problem. You can even restore any of your Macrium image to any PC and it will work just fine. You'll probably just run into minor driver issues but other than that, it will work just fine.

TechnoMage2021 · May 20, 2023

I did run into one little problem this morning, when I tried to print a receipt for a payment I had just made.
I had already installed my Epson printer, but it had not installed as the default printer, and the one that was the default is no longer attached to this ver of Win-11.
So there was a bit of a tissy fit, till I deleted the old printer and made the new one the Default, and then things worked OK.
The old PC has an NVDIA GeForce 210 video card installed, and this PC uses On-Board video with Microsoft Generic Video Drivers. No problem! I did have to reset my screen resolution, text size, etc. but..... NO Problem.

This PC is so far below MS's compatibility spec's, that it's not even funny, but my tweaked and tuned version of Win-11/Pro/64, that I did not download from MS, is just running GRRRREAT!

Just a while ago, I went through the list of "Apps" and Uninstalled a bunch of them, that I had not even thought about before.

So, all in all, my transplanted OS is working just fine.

TM

LesFerch · Jul 25, 2023

Are there any issues with Windows Store Apps when copying a system image from one computer to another? The answer in this discussion says that they won't work, but I'm skeptical given that built-in apps, such as NotePad and Paint are now Store Apps.

I could run a test myself, but it will be time consuming. I figured someone else here must already know.

spapakons · Jul 26, 2023

In older Windows versions you could move the Windows installation to a newer/different computer as along as there was not too much difference. For example from one generation of Intel to some newer generation, you were OK. If you tried from Intel to AMD or vice versa you got a nice BSOD because Windows could not find appropriate drivers. In Windows 10 and 11 there are many build-it drivers so moving from Intel to AMD doesn't produce a BSOD, most of the times. However, you must activate Windows again, Office and some other applications. Of course don't expect Windows to automatically update all drivers, download and install latest versions for best compatibility and performance.