BESR restore anywhere moving Vista between computers

[OmahaMCSE]

I am trying to use BESR 7.0.2 to create a backup set on a Compaq nx9420 notebook running Vista Business and restore to a Compaq 8510p. I have a valid license so I can use the restore anywhere option, but I can't get Vista to run on the new notebook. I first tried with 7.0(.1?) and have updated to 7.0.2 and run live update.

I uninstalled Symantec AV Corp Ed., in case that was causing an issue and that didn't help. The image gets created wih no errors, I tell it to verify before restoring and it does not give any errors.

When I restore to the 8510p, there are no errors. I reboot and the setup runs as it finds the new hardware as I would expect. Then, when it goes from the DOS looking screen to a Windows type screen it pops up with a message box that says "Windows could not complete the installation. Please restart the intallation process". The only option is to click OK, and when I do the hard drive goes nuts so I'm pretty sure it's deleting everything I just wasted an hour putting on the drive.

When the 8510p still had the base load from HP on it I ran the SRD disc to verify drivers and it said it had all the drivers it needed. Both notebooks have the TPM security chip, but they are both disabled.

I choose all options like make drive active, overwrite MBR etc...

I am running the "drive sanitizer" option from the 8510p's BIOS to wipe the drive, thinking maybe there was something leftover in the boot sector or something it didn't like.

Has anyone been successful moving Vista this way? I Googled and searched the forum for Windows could not complete the installation and I haven't seen anyone with the same problem.

TIA

-Joel

[AJT]

Holding down the SHIFT key while selecting the Restore Anyware option deletes existing devices from the image. This may help get past the setup error.

[OmahaMCSE]

That sounded promising, but didn't help, at least not just the deleting drivers option. I'm trying it with the prompt for drivers this morning. I'll update later with the results.

Thanks,

-Joel

[OmahaMCSE]

Well, it prompted for drivers all right, but it was looking for drivers for the Hitachi hard drive, not the controller I have drivers for, and it asked for about 10 other drivers, most of which I couldn't produce from the HP drivers CD that came with the new notebook. I got a couple to load by Googleing the device name it said it was.

This has become more of a challenge to see if I can get it to work than "boy it would be nice if I could just move from one laptop to another as advertised".

Still open for suggestions.

Thanks.

-Joel

[AJT]

Perform the Restore and RA process. Launch a command prompt and navigate to the %systemdrive%\Windows\Panther folder and delete the setup log files. Reboot the laptop and let setup run. When setup fails, boot back the BESR SRD. Launch a command prompt and look at the setup files in the above mentioned folder. The logs files should tell you why setup is failing.

[OmahaMCSE]

I finally got it.

Thanks AJT, in the diagerr.xml file was the line "EnableLocalUserAccount: Unable to enable local account [Administrator]; status = 0x8c5". I enabled the local user account and made sure I knew the password, created a new image and was able to restore to the new hardware with Vista loading all the way. I had to reactivate Vista and Office 2007 which it was not happy about at all.

Next, when I was installing the HP drivers from CD I enabled the credenial manager which works with the fingerprint reader. After that I was unable to login with any account in normal mode, but was able to login in safe mode. In normal mode there was an error about unable to find credential manager service or something similar. In safe mode I edited the registry to allow Windows Installer to run in safe mode (http://mcpmag.com/columns/print.asp?editorialsid=990) and uninstalled the HP Credential Manager program and was able to go through the rest of the way, working through a few minor things and installed the rest of the new drivers.

I hope this helps anyone else running into the same issue.

-Joel

[rick_krieger]

AJT & Joel,

Thank you very much for your posts on this.  I know this thread is old but it helped me a LOT....you guys rock!!!  I'm in a completely different part of the company and needed to do something quick with BESR so this was very helpful.  I want to post my findings here in case anyone else comes arcross the same situation I had.

I had same issue as Joel but my environment was Vista SP1 32 bit in VM environment and needed to move it to different physical hardware/laptop (P2V).

I picked through your posts above and did the following to get my environment up and running:

Ran SRD + RA (with Shift held down and only choose the option to delete the drivers - no prompt, no setup wiz).

Deleted the log files in \panther folder

Restarted and it didn't fail... logged into my old profile and chose option when propted to let Vista hunt down the drivers.  I only had to hunt down a couple drivers Vista couldn't find (like my video driver).

Thanks again!

Message Edited by ENT VLT on 01-05-2009 10:04 AM