Hi everyone, I got a question regarding an esay method to recover broken PC systems. While we were using Windows XP, it was common practise to remove the system drive from a computer with hardware problems and put it into a working computer of the same make and modell. This worked all just fine. With Windows 7 this does not. If we remove the system drive and put it into a new computer of same make and modell, it boots up fine. The changed hardware is detected, but the old instances of system devices (from the broken machine the drive was removed from) remain in the system configuration. This causes especially a problem with the network adapters, since the services and protocol stacks link to the old instances of the network cards first. Suddently BGInfo for example shows phantom network adapters and MAC addresses. Now I am wondering, if I can trigger a fresh hardware scan and driver installation like it is done during OS installation or by those P2V-migration tools out there (e.g. Disk2VHD from SysInternals). Is that possible? I am looking forward to hear your ideas. Thanks for you help! ----------------------- Greetings from Germany, Martin

Hi, I would like to verify why you want to recovery the system. Does the hardware corrupted? Do you receive any error message after moving the hard drive? You can refer to the following article with method two or three. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information. Meanwhile, after moving hard drive, please uninstall all current devices driver, then update them from manufacture manually. Or before moving, you can delete all devices driver on the old computer for a test. If it still doesn't work, try to perform in-place upgrade on new computer. In-place upgrade http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2255099 Best Regards, Niki Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi Niki, thanks for the reply. With Windows XP we used to swap the system drive into another PC (same make and modell) as a fast fix for hardware troubles. This was done if the network adapter broke or there seemed to be errors in RAM or the motherboard. The methods you suggest are all worth a try. However, we have a software management system (frontrange Desktop and Server Management - DSM7) in place, which can do automated installation of a whole PC. But we simply want to save time, since we have to support a couple of hundred PCs in about a hundred geographically distributed locations. I guess as first try I am going to try deleting all devices BEFORE moving the system drive. I will let you know, how this turns out. Thanks again for the input. ----------------------- Greetings from Germany, Martin

Hello everyone, I just wanted to update the thread with the solution I found. The core of the problem was, that unlike Microsoft Windows XP the current Windows 7 does not remove non-presented devices automatically (because they may come back online). If you swap the hard drive between PC systems of same make and modell, old device driver instances remain in the system configuration and can cause trouble. In my case, this was true for the NetBT service one of the old but business critical application depends on. So, if I am able to remove old driver instances, everything would be fine. As it turns out, a little batch file does the trick: # Run this as admin # Configure environment set devmgr_show_details=1 set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 # Start device manager console start devmgmt.msc Running this, opens a device manager console. All non-present devices appear in grey, but can be removed. After cleaning up the network adapters (and all the other devices) a reboot finishes the procedure. Compared to a repair install or a complete new setup, the drive swapping procedure save our service technicians an hour or two. Hopefully, it does the same for everyone else, too. ----------------------- Greetings from Germany, Martin