I have the same scenario. However, it seems you should be able to mount the image file and Pc Mover should be able to work from the existing image. If not, mount the image, it should appear as a complete OS and then let PC Mover back that up to it's format.
Restore i5 SP3 image onto i7 SP3
- Thread starter lcavada
- Start date
The image assistant page says it will work from any image. if you need further details id email them or check if they have a forum for questions.
I read over the PC Mover Image and Disk Assistant user manual ...
http://download.laplink.com/documentation/pdf/pcmover/pcmia/PCmover_8_IA_UG_ENG.pdf
I think this is your best bet.
Plus:
30 day money back guarantee
Free Transfer Assistance
Call this toll-free number (877) 904-9644, anytime, and a tech professional will guide you through the entire restore.
and you can mount the image VHD file with Windows Disk Management tool.
http://download.laplink.com/documentation/pdf/pcmover/pcmia/PCmover_8_IA_UG_ENG.pdf
I think this is your best bet.
Plus:
30 day money back guarantee
Free Transfer Assistance
Call this toll-free number (877) 904-9644, anytime, and a tech professional will guide you through the entire restore.
and you can mount the image VHD file with Windows Disk Management tool.
I would say to give it a try. If it doesn't work out, you can just refresh the device. Windows will hopefully detect the hardware changes and install the appropriate drivers. I have changed motherboards/processors on machines without reinstalling Windows. Windows goes through its "Found new hardware" gyrations, and any drivers not installed automatically are usually easy enough to install manually.
True, it might work, but somewhere down the road, it might jump up and bite you, like the fact that the bios software key doen't match the key for the restored image. I personally have never tried to restore an image to a totally different computer, but have had headaches by even restoring to the same computer with a replaced video card. Some of the most important driver setups are for the MB and chipset, and even different upgrades of the same chipset can trigger nightmare problems down the road.
On my original i5, I have tried restoring my image onto the same machine and always mess it up as when I tell it to refresh, it asks for a recovery disk.
Once I create this image backup, it seems to mess up the going back to factory settings.
While making the image I DO NOT tell it to remove recovery partition. But somehow it gets confused.
So I am afraid to try and reimage from the i5 image as it may mess up the i7 permanently with respect to factory restore.
Any thoughts?
Once I create this image backup, it seems to mess up the going back to factory settings.
While making the image I DO NOT tell it to remove recovery partition. But somehow it gets confused.
So I am afraid to try and reimage from the i5 image as it may mess up the i7 permanently with respect to factory restore.
Any thoughts?
If you are worried about accidentally wiping the recovery partition, you could back up the recovery partition to a USB drive and use that in the event of any mishaps. Just make sure you can boot from your USB drive after creating the recovery drive. The first drive I tried would not boot.
I'm not sure what exactly that imaging program does, but here are a couple of things you may want to know:
a) both i5 and i7 units can use the exact same OS image and exact same FWs, but the i7 units may have an updated UEFI over the i5 units
b) the image you want to restore is registered to a different serial number or key in the BIOS, and I'm not sure what windows will do when it sees that discrepancy.
As long as you have a saved image of your i7 that can be used for restoration if something goes wrong, you can just go ahead and try it. The only possible issue I would expect is something to do with b)
When i go through the process on the i5 to create a recovery USB drive it does so successfully.
~~~ however ~~~
It is not a bootable USB drive. When I instruct i5 to boot from USB device (it must boot this way in order to clear and re-install on drive C. It will not :-(
So at that point there is no way to re-image the hard disk with the previous backup.
Now one needs to perform Heroics in order to make a bootable windows 8.1 drive or use DVD drive to boot up.
I don't own 8.1 DVD, i upgraded from 8.0. I have 8.0 DVD. So that's not an option for me.
MS store will not provide bootable USB recovery drive for i5. Only option is to leave machine for 3 - 4 days for them to fix it. However, you get no media to keep for future use.
For me this has been a HUGE issue as I tinker making changes to i5, and want to go back.
So how is one to make a bootable USB drive for your particular machine?
It has to be FAT32 and you need to make sure legacy USB is enabled for it to boot....
Start from a bootable USB device when Surface is off
1:Attach a bootable USB device to the USB port.
2: Press and hold the volume-down (–) rocker.
3:Press and release the power button.
4: When the Surface logo appears, release the volume rocker. Surface will start the software on your USB device.
Start from a bootable USB device when Surface is off
1:Attach a bootable USB device to the USB port.
2: Press and hold the volume-down (–) rocker.
3:Press and release the power button.
4: When the Surface logo appears, release the volume rocker. Surface will start the software on your USB device.
Thanks.
If one is to make a bootable USB, when using the make recovery disk function in windows, it reformats the USB (FAT32) but its no longer bootable. :-(
What USB drive are you using?
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