This weekend I decided it was time to upgrade one of my old notebooks (IBM T30); to move off it to a less old notebook (HP Compaq NC6200). This is a process I usually dread as I've played the install OS, install apps, transfer data, etc game way too many time. It's a game that's no longer all that fun.
Vista includes a Complete PC backup option, which is like Ghost/DD, etc. It creates a drive image and allows bare metal restores. Boot with a Vista DVD and via the Repair tree you can restore your PC from a previous Complete PC backup. How well a backup made on one system would restore to another was what I was wondered about. Still it was worth the time to see if it worked (as it would be pretty cool it if did... ;)
Taking a newly created backup of my T30, I booted the NC6200 with my Vista DVD and kicked off the Complete PC restore (and crossed my fingers).
After a few minutes (nice having USB2 on the NC6200. The USB1.1 on the T30 was dog slow... as you'd expect) the backup was done and the NC6200 rebooted. And it worked! It booted to the user/login screen, just as normal. No blue screen, no issues, it just seemed to work... Wow
Once I logged in, the driver install game started, as expected. A couple reboots later, a couple Windows Updates/reboots, a couple vendor driver downloads/reboots and the NC6200 was working. All steps I'd pretty much have to do anyway if installing Vista fresh...except all my applications, data, settings, etc were all there and working. Double Wow.
The NC6200 had a 80GB HD in it, the T30 a 40, so the restored only created a 40GB partition. With Vista's new built in partition management features, I was able to expand the 40 to fill the 80GB drive in seconds. Triple Wow.
Now all I need to do up upgrade the NC6200 to a 120GB HD, but with my new found friend, Vista's Complete PC Backup, that should be a breeze. :)
Say what you will about Vista, there are some pretty darn cool features in it...
I actually went through this process a little while ago and wrote it up on my blog: http://www.callcontext.com/archive/2007/10/28/1146.aspx
ReplyDeleteThe only difference was I was trying to upgrade my primary hard drive as I'd run out of space. This seemed like the perfect tool, but there's one hitch. It wouldn't restore onto a fresh drive! The drive had to be partitioned and formatted before it would work. And then it only goes and repartitions and formats it as part of the install!! Go figure.