Restoring HD from one Win 7 64 computer to another

I have Norton Ghost 14, which is now a few years old. It works just fine and I use it all the time on a Win 7 Home Premium 64 system. I plan to get a new computer soon and want to know if it’s feasible to overwrite its HD, which is also Win 7 Home Premium 64. What I’m thinking is restoring the HD data from my current system over top of the new one will save me the hassle of reinstalling software, drivers for certain things, etc. I’ve never done it before, so am wondering if I’m being too simplistic. One issue I can see is the 2 computers have different hardware (processor, memory size, video card, number and type of USB ports, to name a few). I think installing a backup from the older system should cause Windows to update hardware information via plug and play when I reboot it after the restore.

 

Has anyone done this and, if so, does it work the way I’m hoping? I know there’s an issue with USB 3 not working with a restore from the Norton Ghost recovery disc. My external HD is connected to a USB 3 add-on card which I installed in my current computer, so I’ll have to plug it into a USB 2 port to do the restore.

 

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

DaveH:

 

Thank you for all that information. I've had Ghost 14 since late 2010 and owned previous versions before that. It's also when I bought my current Win 7 64 computer which is a quad core i5 and Ghost has never given me a problem. The new one is also a quad core, but it's a 4th gen i7. I currently have my system on a single 1TB Seagate hard drive and, for the new system, I've decided to go with a 500GB SSD. I will definitely check out the trial of SSR 2013. The disclaimer says it doesn't support Backup My Computer, so looks like I'll have to do some reading before I do anything. It's probably time I moved on from Ghost anyway, so if I eventually have to buy it, I will.

 

Thanks again for everything.

 

EDIT: Just ran into my first problem. The download for the trial doesn't let me sign in with my normal Norton Account user ID and password, plus it appears that I have to be a business customer, whatever that means. Here's the actual text:

 

SymAccount Login

SymAccount is Symantec's user account management application for Business customers. With a SymAccount, you have unlimited access to Symantec trialware, white papers, and other collateral.

 

Guess I could try setting up a different account, as there is an option on the page to do so.

 

The Symantec account is difeent from your Norton account.

The link in the very top section of this forum has a download of the product you can get without a symantec account but that download does not provide a recovery disk.

You do however get a 40% discount sent to you, so if you decide to purchase it you should do that one as well.

 

But through the link I gave you, you will be able to get the recovery disk.

There are 2 fairly large downloads you need.  One for the program and a second that contains both 32bit and 64bit recovery disks.

 

The disclaimer says you can't do a "backup my computer" from the recovery disk.

Thats a "cold image" and you need a serial number for that but you don't need a serial number to make an image from within windows.

 

The other limitation is that you can't convery to or from virtual PC's, but that doesn't apply to you

Just keep in mind it's a 60 day trial, don't let the trial run out before you have the new system and are ready to restore it.

 

Dave

 

DaveH:

 

Thanks for straightening all that out. I'll set up a new user ID and password. The terms also mention that you're participating in a 60 day free trial with the intent of buying the product. I'm OK with that, but was wondering if you know what the eventual price for it will be. If you can't disclose that here, perhaps you could PM me.

OK, got signed up and have downloaded all the software plus PDF manual. The manual is called Symantec System Recovery 2013 Small Business Server Edition, but it appears to cover all platforms. Now the fun begins! I'll be using the Connect Community for assistance.

The link I posted was for the desktop edition, but don't worry if you ended up downloading a different version.

They are all actually the same, it's the version of windows you install it on that makes it a desktop or server edition.

 

If you don't get the help you need at the symantec site your welcome to ask any questions here.

You'll find that it is exactly like Ghost, you should be able to use it right away without having to learn anything different.

 

Dave

DaveH:

 

Yes, your link was for the desktop version, although the actual downloads don't seem to be specific to any particular configuration. If they are, the download names don't reflect that. There were 3 downloads and 1 is called SSR Monitor. I guess it will be explained in the documentation somewhere. The reason I ended up with the server version of the PDF is because I was directed to it while I was looking around on the web site. I notice there's lots of documentation in the actual downloads, which I haven't had time to look at yet.

 

Thanks for the offer to help out as required. I just love user forums like this. After I've had a chance to install and try things out, I will report my experience here. I just ordered by new system this afternoon, so will have lots of time to take advantage of the 60 day trial.

If you downloaded Sym_System_Recovery_2013_11.0.1.47662_Multilingual_Product.zip, UserGuide.pdf  is in the Docs folder.

Red gave the name of the program download.

The English recovery disk is:

Sym_System_Recovery_2013_11.0.1.47662_English_Recovery_Disk.zip

 

Those are the only downloads you need for a desktop or single system.

Dave

Red and Dave::

 

Thanks for the info. I already downloaded those and also found the Windows User Guide. The third file is Sym_System_Recovery_2013_Monitor_1.0.1.47653_Multilingual_Product.zip and it only has one file, SymantecSystemRecoveryMonitor.exe.

I have Norton Ghost 14, which is now a few years old. It works just fine and I use it all the time on a Win 7 Home Premium 64 system. I plan to get a new computer soon and want to know if it’s feasible to overwrite its HD, which is also Win 7 Home Premium 64. What I’m thinking is restoring the HD data from my current system over top of the new one will save me the hassle of reinstalling software, drivers for certain things, etc. I’ve never done it before, so am wondering if I’m being too simplistic. One issue I can see is the 2 computers have different hardware (processor, memory size, video card, number and type of USB ports, to name a few). I think installing a backup from the older system should cause Windows to update hardware information via plug and play when I reboot it after the restore.

 

Has anyone done this and, if so, does it work the way I’m hoping? I know there’s an issue with USB 3 not working with a restore from the Norton Ghost recovery disc. My external HD is connected to a USB 3 add-on card which I installed in my current computer, so I’ll have to plug it into a USB 2 port to do the restore.

 

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

I don't think you need that one. It is for monitoring multiple PCs running SSR.

Red:

 

Thanks for clarifying that.

So far, I've been able to burn the SSR restore disk and boot with it. The good news is SSR found my USB 3 external hard drive and it recognizes my Ghost recovery points. The not-so-good news is that, when I tried to install SSR itself, it told me I have to uninstall Ghost first. Guess I'll go ahead and do that, although I'm not sure if I lose any settings, etc. should I end up reinstalling Ghost for some reason. Reinstalling it should be OK, as I have the product key.

 

Also was wondering if restoring the new system's HD will cause any issues with N360, which I also use. I won't be getting the new system for a few days, so it's a moot point until then. I have a 3 computer licence for N360, but only have it installed on 2.

Uninstalled Ghost and installed SSR. Everything worked fine and I've tested SSR, plus I've read the manual. It's not really much different from Ghost, as Dave said, so I was able to get up to speed quickly. The only quirk I ran into was the Current ThreatCon Level option. While I was looking at SSR options, it issued a message saying the threat level had changed and is at Level 2 Elevated whatever that means. It automatically started backing up my hard drive, which seems like a useful feature, but I'll have to find out what the significance of threat levels is. At the moment, I have it turned off. I use N360, which doesn't show threat levels. It used to display some kind of map after double-clicking on it. It showed a mini-map of global threats, if I remember correctly.

 

Looks like I'll be good to go when I get my new computer. If I understand the documentation correctly, the Restore Anywhere feature is only available after booting the SSR Recovery disk.

After reading all the documentation, I realized that Restore Anywhere is actually Restore Anyware, an interesting play on words. Based on what I know so far after trying SSR 2013, I've decided to purchase the product to be current and take advantage of its additional features, especially Restore Anyware. The only thing that confuses me is, when I read SSR feature highlights, users are claiming they can have systems recovered and up and running in a matter of minutes, not hours. I must be missing something, because SSR is no faster than Ghost. It takes me well over 2 hours to backup up 300GB of data and, presumably, it would take just as long to restore it.

 

Thanks for all the help Dave and Red. Much appreciated.

 

I have what I hope is one last question. The 60 day trial of the desktop version at the top of this forum is obviously different from the other SSR I've already downloaded and installed, which Dave already explained. The size of the download is significantly smaller and the name is slightly different.

 

My question is, if I purchase the desktop version, does it come with a recovery disk that includes the Restore Anyware feature? That is the most important feature for me. Otherwise, if it's only included in the "Enterprise" version, I'll go with that instead. I've already looked at the Symantec site where it can be downloaded and it adds the cost of at least one year of technical support whether you like it or not. It's also not obvious if the product licence has to be renewed annually, as N360 does. I suspect the answer to that is yes.

I can have my multi boot machine (4 O/Ss) re-imaged in 18 minutes. This is because I only have O/Ss and apps on the drives.

All my data is on a separate drive which is backed up with a third party software.

You can also use SSR 2013 to backup the data drive by running incremental backups once the base backup is laid then it only takes a minute or two the backup the changes.

Start playing with it to find out what it can really do.

 

Deric

There should be two downloads one is the installation Iso and the other is the SRD Iso, I thought Dave and Red had pointed that out.

 

Deric

Deric:

 

Thanks for that. I might consider breaking things up as you suggested, but it's not really an issue for me. It's on a personal computer and isn't used for business. The long backup times don't bother me, as I just let them run in the background. I've actually never had to restore my computer once in many years of using Ghost.

 

I'm getting a new PC soon and might partition things at that point.