Transfer all XP settings and programs from X40 to new T60?

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gtphill · #1 Post by **gtphill** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:25 pm

Hey all,

I hope that this is the correct forum.

I have an X40 that continues to serve me well, but I am thinking about upgrading to a T60.

I have a rescue and recovery image of my laptop, as well as a manual backup of all of the relevant install files.

I have heavily tweaked my XP Pro install on this laptop, with many quicklaunch, powertoys, etc., and would like as transparent a crossover to the new one as possible.

If my new T60 comes with XP Pro, can I simply use rescue and recovery to push everything to the new machine, or is it more complicated than that?

Can someone point me to the right thread/faq?

Thanks so much!

#2 Post by **KristianJ** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:19 pm

Unfortunately, due to the differences in components between your X40 and T60 (CPU and graphics probably being the most marked differences), such a migration of your OS would probably be nearimpossible. If it was between laptops in the same series, the likelihood would be greater (for example, when I bought my T42 to replace a T40, I simply changed hard drives and was able to continue as usual). By all means give it a try, but don't be surprised if you don't get to a full working environment. As a further example, I tried slotting an hard drive with XP as installed on my T42 into an A31p and got some sort of error message after the boot splash screen.

If your different little apps are free ones, it'll be relatively straightforward in downloading them and installing them. Just make sure that the T60 you upgrade to has XP Pro recovery discs and/or an XP based recovery partition to make that process as easy as possible.

gtphill · #3 Post by **gtphill** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:50 pm

KristianJ wrote:Unfortunately, due to the differences in components between your X40 and T60 (CPU and graphics probably being the most marked differences), such a migration of your OS would probably be nearimpossible. If it was between laptops in the same series, the likelihood would be greater (for example, when I bought my T42 to replace a T40, I simply changed hard drives and was able to continue as usual). By all means give it a try, but don't be surprised if you don't get to a full working environment. As a further example, I tried slotting an hard drive with XP as installed on my T42 into an A31p and got some sort of error message after the boot splash screen.

If your different little apps are free ones, it'll be relatively straightforward in downloading them and installing them. Just make sure that the T60 you upgrade to has XP Pro recovery discs and/or an XP based recovery partition to make that process as easy as possible.

Hey, thanks so much for the input!

I am not trying to simply swap hard drives. These two computers have different size drives!

Most of the programs (MS Office excepted) are easy to reinstall, but the tweaks are a multi-hour process.

I am not sure if I could use MS sysprep or not, thats sort of the angle I was going for. Acronis image of a sysprepped copy, or something like that.

Thanks again!

#4 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:47 am

Use Acronis to take a full image of the current situation in the X40.
Then uninstall the graphics and go back to basic VGA.
It should still work.
Now take another image, and 'restore' that onto your new T60 HD, probably best with using a USB enclosure with the T60 HD attached to the X40.
Stick the HD in your T60 and boot up. It should work out of the box, but try starting first in safe mode. Then install any T60 system-specific motherboard drivers (like Intel stuff, audio etc.), followed by your new graphics driver. You may need to re-activate XP, but you should have a new COA from the T60.

Bob34 · #5 Post by **Bob34** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 11:04 am

Or you Could get True Image Workstation with Universal Restore.

If money isn't an issue that is. I'm starting to think I should do this solution. I already own Home, which is fine for my Desktop, but I think with my Laptop I'd want to upgrade every couple years and being able to image out and image back could be quite satisfying.

andyP · #6 Post by **andyP** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 11:29 am

BOb34 has suggested IMO is possibly a good solution for you, I transeferd my T43p installation to a T61p after having read this post. I had to istall drivers, but it worked and was stable.

gtphill · #7 Post by **gtphill** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:59 am

One more last detail,

Assuming I take the acronis route, how do I make sure the copy of windows on the new laptop sees its MS id?

In other words, I am planning on selling the X40, and I don't want future upgrade issues because MS thinks there are two copies of the same windows license floating around.

Also, I assume I have to purchase the same edition operating system for my new laptop (XP pro)?

Thanks again, and for the other thread links.

#8 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:46 am

AFAIK Windows XP on the T60 will want to be (re-)activated because of the massive hardware change. Check if the T60 has a COA sticker, and use that serial. If it comes without, then you'll have to get a new XP Pro. An upgrade version will be enough, or buy an OEM XP for about $100.- from a reputable dealer (not off eBay or off those fly-by-night spammers).
If you are the lucky owner of a corporate XP, you have no worries whatsoever.

gtphill · #9 Post by **gtphill** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 5:29 pm

So, I pulled the trigger on the dealnews.com laptop today (special ends today):
http://dealnews.com/Lenovo-Think-Pad-T6 ... 00127.html
$843 for a new T60 with XP Pro and the 120GB HDD. Not too shabby.

IBM/Lenovo confirmed that RnR would not make the upgrade due to HAL issues. They also confirmed the new machine would come with a new COA number from Microsoft (solving my above concern).

I went and talked to our computer help desk here at Georgia Tech, and they seemed to think that running sysprep on my existing config, followed by a shutdown, followed by an image to the new machine would do they trick. The tech guy said that sysprep would increment the machine SID, and force a re-determination of the machine HAL.

Does this seem plausible? Also, do we have a faq here with a list of the known cloning tools that will work properly with the IBM rescue partition? Last time I tried GT help desk, they tried 3 different utilities to properly image the IBM partition, and I ended up doing it myself using True Image.

Thanks!

#10 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:27 pm

Sounds like a decent deal, with (of course) one little snag: it got XP-Home and not XP-Pro.
Unfortunately those Home and Pro keys are NOT interchangeable!
See if you can still change that!
I still think that Acronis is the way to go, if you want to keep XP-Pro.
The new Acronis Universal Restorer can deal with the HAL natively.

Edit: as an afterthought: the keys of XP-Pro full version and OEM version are also NOT interchangeable. So, if you want XP Pro, you will need to do a fresh install with a new (OEM) XP Pro.

gtphill · #11 Post by **gtphill** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 7:12 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:Sounds like a decent deal, with (of course) one little snag: it got XP-Home and not XP-Pro.
Unfortunately those Home and Pro keys are NOT interchangeable!
See if you can still change that!
I still think that Acronis is the way to go, if you want to keep XP-Pro.
The new Acronis Universal Restorer can deal with the HAL natively.

Edit: as an afterthought: the keys of XP-Pro full version and OEM version are also NOT interchangeable. So, if you want XP Pro, you will need to do a fresh install with a new (OEM) XP Pro.

$843 for a new T60 with XP Pro and the 120GB HDD. Not too shabby.

I already purchased the XP Pro upgrade

that should take care of the COA problems

Transfer all XP settings and programs from X40 to new T60?

Transfer all XP settings and programs from X40 to new T60?

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After the acronis transfer, a windows question

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