The reason I disagree is because Acronis has a clear option to backup your system drive to use in ANY PC. If you've not managed to do it successfully then it is because you failed to click this option.
I still use version 2016 of Acronis True Image with Win 7 and it has saved me on many occasions. I have multiple partitions on most of my drives and It handles those very well too.

See my response above Oly




+1 for Aconis True Image!


EDIT: UPDATE:-

I think I might need to explain how it works here:-

When you install an operating system it contains all of the drivers needed for an installation. Sure you might need to add drivers afterwards for certain hardware that doesn't ship within that o/s installation file/ disc or whatever. But certainly enough for a safe installation.
Acronis gives you that option too, so if you have different drivers in one machine to another,it ships all drivers needed to restore the drive safely.

You then just go and look in the control panel or wherever to add new device/ etc..

 

Last edited: Nov 9, 2022

Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition has an sysprep mode and is free for private use.

https://www.veeam.com/de/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforwindows/userguide/install_sysprep.html?ver=50

The Best Way to do an customized ISO is to do it after fresh Installation.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...alize--a-windows-installation?view=windows-11

https://petri.com/using-syspre-windows-10/

 

Last edited: Nov 9, 2022

I would advise you to buy a new SSD.
How big is the hard drive you want to clone? How much money can you spend.
If you have cloned your hard drive 1 to 1 with the cloning software, remove it and store it in a dark place.

Samsung Data Migration Software for Consumer SSD (11)
Samsung Data Migration software is designed to help users quickly, easily, and safely migrate all of their data – including their current operating system, application software, and user data – from their existing storage device (e.g. HDD) to their new Samsung SSD.
https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/

 

There is also DriveSnapshot which puts everything in one file and restores from that file. But as mentioned before if you want to use with other Computers then there is no Way arround sysprep.

http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

 

Last edited: Nov 9, 2022

AOEMI Backupper clones perfectly.
I have had zero failures. I also have a docking station where I have another SSD cloned of the system in case of system drive failure.
Some people choose a mirror and that's cool but if the entire system dies so do both drives. If you are using SSD's the days of 8-16hrs are over. 2-3 hrs max. Even less if you do not have much on it. AOEMI Partition Assistant works at low level very well if you prefer the alternative.

It keeps the same SID, - I know this because I did not have to reinstall ANY software when the old drive died a while back other than the software that I had installed in the last two weeks (I back up every two weeks).



EDIT - It's worth noting that unless you do an exact system clone, that without the registry entries, certificate entries, profile data (some apps are per user), public profile and Program data most apps will have to be reinstalled from scratch. AOEMI Backupper and AOEMI Partition Assisant also have an option to optimize for SSD placement too. Most good programs do I think these days?

Laplink's PCMOVER uses the Microsoft principle of sysprep to clone all apps and relevant registry/certificate data to a fresh windows installation. I have not tried it but I heard it's pretty good. I have not heard if it does iLok or subscription data though or anything hardware I.D. dependent.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 9, 2022

Nope, I didnt forget to click the option.

I just had too many installed programs with licences linked to hardware.

Reinstalling from scratch has 3 benefits :

1/ fresh restart on a new system, no worries about "why it doesnt works anymore" ..
2/ clean your apps by reinstalling only the one you really use
3/ install the latestest versions of the apps

and one down point : you need time to do it if you have a lots of apps

Again, a lot of licences are hardware-related and migrating a mirror disk to a new system may lead to reinstalling anyway.

Personnally I would def. go for a fresh reinstall for any system disk on a brandnew computer.

Last thing : if your new PC comes with licenced Windows OS, using a cloned mirror from and old PC may lead to unvalidate your old Windows licence due to brand new hardware ... (not always, but it happens, most of the time if you switch from a brand to another or if Windows licence was OEM).

 

Last edited: Nov 9, 2022

I removed my 'disagree' from your initial comment for the simple reason you HADN'T neglected to use Acronis's 'Include for use in any drive' option. It simply boils down then to two people's different experiences of a given piece of software. These things happen I guess.

I do agree with you that a fresh install is always better, IF you have the time and the installation files for everything you wish to re-install.

 

If you are using windows, you should be able to simply clone the SSD and put it into a new computer. Windows should be able to change the drivers and boot the system so the programs should still be working. I updated a PC a few years ago, installed a new motherboard, cpu and ram, and it worked so it should also work if you clone the disk and put it into a different computer. It might not be the recommended way of doing it, but who cares. For cloning the ssd there are many options. The option i would use is dd for windows. It is a free utility and it will copy the whole disk block by block. If the new disk is bigger, you can still use it and change the partitions afterwards. The new disk can't be smaller though obviously. Windows most likely will not be authorized anymore after you start it in the new computer. You might get into trouble if the block size of the old disk is too small for the new one because you might not be able to use the whole disk, but if that is not the case it should work without too many problems.

It might be best to use a different system that you boot from usb to clone the disk because cloning the disk of the running system might not work.

https://serverspace.io/support/help/dd-utility-for-windows-backup/

That said, there might be problems with programs that are licensed to the specific hardware of your old computer. You would have to renew those licenses.

 

Last edited: Nov 9, 2022

The Biggest Problem of Windows are the old Filesystems. ZFS was one of Solaris stand out features.
If somebody is on Linux i recommend using ZFS Filesystem.

Or if you build your own cloud with an Synology NAS for backups there is also the possibilty to use ZFS here you can take real snapshots very fast while the system is running there are no space limits a private person could ever reach an all the harddrives can be bundled to one or more Pools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS

 

Different hardware = troubles with drivers, software activations, drive letters ...
I worked for decades cloning computers, making virtual machine ... i know what i'm talking about.

Sometimes it will work, most of the time you will end with a bluescreen or similar.
I even sysprep ed 5 different hardware profiles on ONE image ... but it took time AND dedication.

When someone ask about it, it is a sign it will not work at the end.
Until spending more time fixing things than re installing

Search for "bare metal cloning"

 

Totally forgot to mention TeraByte Unlimited BootIt Bare Metal such a nice Tool. Yeah in Sysprep you can change the WinPE Version and Build even an Installtion File with Win 7 Win 10 and Win Server. For Virtual Machines taking Backups is fast and easy.

 

It's better to read what people say than "I'm assuming".
From OP, first sentence:

 

Macrium Reflect does the job very well and easy. Look for bare metal restore or redeploy.

 

I wouldn't clone it either. I would take the physical drive, stick into the other computer as a slave and pull off all the data I needed.

I'd rather install everything cleanly to get RID of your old cracked software. You probably have a ton of things you shouldn't bother reinstalling because you probably never use them but left them eating up HDD/SSD space because why not? They were "free". But they all cracked/Legit/free install random space eating junk files too. If you haven't been OCD about cleaning, you will be better off anyway.

I would open old projects and reinstall anything I needed to get them open as I encountered missing plugins. Or didn't already have better ones to use in their spaces.

Cloning is the best way to back up a machine for itself, or a very closely similar machine. (Like on a corporate network full of the same Dell Optiplexes, as an example). If your hardware in the new one is different, that will also be something for you to deal with.

 

clone says "don't clone", WTF?

I'd try cloning anyway, simply because:

1. Even if it doesn't work - you're gonna lose max. 1-2 hours,
2. But if it does - you win many days you'd otherwise spend on reinstalling and reauthorizing your apps and plugins + (re)tweaking both, system and app settings all over again.

 

Couple of months ago I succsessfuly cloned (a Win 7, MBR, offline) system partition to (very) dissimilar hardware, using:

1. CD drive
2. Symantec Ghost for cloning
3. Minitool Shadowmaker for its "Universal Restore" feature only.

If anyone needs details, please let me know.

PS.
Cloning alone won't work as others previously said and you'll most probably see either BSOD or black screen at boot time.

 

I'm all about a fresh install, too, so +1 to the few people that suggested that over cloning. I appreciate @Sylenth.Will.Fall and @BEAT16 's posts though (and anyone I missed with similar comments). That's interesting.

I am a bit of a dinosaur at times, and have a lot of old habits, so I'd always steered clear of cloning for reasons others brought up (hardware/driver differences, etc.). But that's nice there's the option in cloning software to get around that a bit. Doing it the fresh install way works well for me too, because it forces me to go out and find latest versions of all drivers/software.

For me though, a fresh install can be a LOT of work (lots of VSTs to put back), but I feel like there is nothing better for a 'broken' computer than a fresh install of Windows and all your apps. The worst part of everything is reinstalling all my VSTs, but as someone else mentioned, I think some installers depend on hardware IDs, so I'm not sure how cloning would work in those cases.

I'm sure there's ways around a whole host of complications, when it comes to cloning, but I can't be irked to figure those out, if there are ways. Would rather just start from scratch. Old habits die hard!

Interesting/helpful discussion.

 

I've successfully used the open source clonezilla probably a dozen times and highly recommend it. The hardest part of the process is always drive partitioning
https://clonezilla.org/

are there a few vsts that'll need fixing? sure, but an hours worth of work sure beats 40 to reinstall it all

 

is here anyone who know's if you can sysprep a virtual machine?