Win7 System Recovery 2010 to New Hardware System Setup Keeps Running On Each Boot.

[Nigel_McGowan]

Hi,

I have a Windows 7 Pro Ultimate laptop which was upgraded from Windows XP Pro.  I tried to move this disk to a new laptop using System Recovery 2010.  I have a system, recovery and data partition.  I backed up (System Recovery Backup) the old laptop, created recovery CD, installed the disk in the new laptop and carried out a restore.  The restore seemed to go smoothly until the very  end when I had an error "No More Names" or something similar.  I had to do a restart.  I was then able to restart the system and generally things (data etc) looks complete.

I have a number of issues:

1, The system now tries to run the Windows Setup on each restart.  This finally shows a Sysprep Error which reports "Sysprep cannot be run on a computer that has been upgraded to a new version of Windows.  You can only run sysprep on a custom (clean) install version of Windows."  If I try to run sysprep manually I get the same error.  I do not want to sysprep the machine just get rid of the windows setup on each reboot.

2, The default account for the computer (Administrator) seems to have inherited the user profile of my domain account.  Desktop, email profile etc.

3, The computer boots into the account mentioned in 2 without offering any login so I have no security on the laptop.

4, If I lock the computer then the only account I am offered as a login is the administrator account (which is disabled) so I have to crash the computer.

This has turned out to be a disaster and not what I had hoped for.   According to the Backup Exec System Recovery web pages I should be able to "Recover complete systems in minutes to same or dissimilar hardware with Restore Anyware Technology, including support for Windows 7".  Is it something I did wrong and is there any way forward without having to wipe clean and start again.

Thanks in Advance.

[Markus_Koestler]

I think there is an option when you recover that goes "Run Mini Setup" or something like this. Try to uncheck it.

[Nigel_McGowan]

Hi Markus,

Thanks for your answer.  I do not really want to go through the restore again as it took a long time, and I don't want to risk having to reinstall the drivers all over again.  The computer runs at the moment though its a pain at startup.

With some googling I have found out that the registry key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\State\ImageState is set to the following value:  IMAGE_STATE_SPECIALIZE_RESEAL_TO_AUDIT

From the MS website this means: 

The image has successfully completed the specialize configuration pass and will continue into audit mode when Setup is initiated.

As sysprep cannot be run on the computer see original post how can I get out of this?  Can I just change this key to:    IMAGE_STATE_COMPLETE  or will this cause  

or will this cause issues.  I cannot even run sysprep from the command line as this system is an upgraded version of Windows.  Symantec make no mention of not being able to move an upgraded version of windows to new hardware!!   Any ideas.  Thanks again I appreciate your help and have been away from this due to the Christmas/New Year break.

[Markus_Koestler]

Well to be honest: No Idea. You'd better file a case with Symantec.

[Markus_Koestler]

Any updates here ?

[Markus_Koestler]

Any updates here

[Markus_Koestler]

Any news here ?

[fishbat]

Hi Markus,

Sorry I never got back to you.  No I have never resolved it.  I do not have a Symantec support contract for this particular product and having experienced the support for previous cases I am loathe to pay for one to be told  (not sure why it happened but please reinstall Windows).  I am living with it the way it is at the moment and when I get some time I will rebuild the system from scratch.  It just does not fill me with confidence as we sell Symantec solutions (including system recovery (server) to our customers and have never needed it in anger.  The only experience I have had doing a recovery with the product is this one and to be honest "it does not do what it says on the box".  I understand this may just be a bad experience but doing a system recovery is not something which you want to be a "bad experience".  I have run my own IT business for years and know that something like this requires preperation so I followed all the instructions and ensured that nothing was left to chance.  I have used Ghost and other symantec products for years with very few problems but this one really dissapointed me. 

It suprises me that it is a well known issue that Sysprep cannot be run on computers that have been upgraded from a previous OS.  So to have this utility try to run when doing a system recovery seems rediculous if the machine was previously an OS upgrade.  There should be a warning about that in large letters if is normal behaviour for this product to call Sysprep at the end of the install.  If the warning exists and I missed it then "my fault" however I cannot recall seing this mentioned.  If Sysprep running is not a normal part of the BESR then I can only assume it never did the job of hardware migration correctly.

Anway thanks again for your help but this is not a product (server or desktop) that I would trust again (or resell to my customers).  I have in the past used disaster recovery solutions from CA/Arcserve and when we needed to use these they worked!!

Best Regards.