Backup without Driver

dpjmie

Hi Guys,

Im wondering if there is a way to backup and restore a system without the drivers.

Take a scenario where you have a dell e4450 and it gives up the ghost and you can only get an e7450. I would like to be able to backup the e4450 with minimal fuss and put it on the e7450.

What is the best process / Application for this?

Also would any of the recommended software work in a Professional environment?

Cheers in advance
Dpjmie

Fysh

From what I remember those two laptops are in the same series - the first digit of the model number relates to the screen size. Which is a good start, as they may have a shared chipset.

When you say "back up" - are you trying to recover data from the original machine, or the full operating system instance? Does the original machine have Bitlocker set up?

If it's just the drivers you're worried about: you can get drivers from Dell for most if not all of their machines at support.euro.dell.com - enter the Service Tag and you can get a list of available downloads. You could then attach a copy of the original disk to a working machine (doesn't matter what it's running) and use DISM to mount the copied disk and add the necessary drivers. Once you're finished, commit the changes, unmount the disk, and test booting from it in the 7450. More info on using DISM here.

dpjmie

Fysh wrote: »

From what I remember those two laptops are in the same series - the first digit of the model number relates to the screen size. Which is a good start, as they may have a shared chipset.

When you say "back up" - are you trying to recover data from the original machine, or the full operating system instance? Does the original machine have Bitlocker set up?

If it's just the drivers you're worried about: you can get drivers from Dell for most if not all of their machines at support.euro.dell.com - enter the Service Tag and you can get a list of available downloads. You could then attach a copy of the original disk to a working machine (doesn't matter what it's running) and use DISM to mount the copied disk and add the necessary drivers. Once you're finished, commit the changes, unmount the disk, and test booting from it in the 7450. More info on using DISM here.

Hey there, thanks for the reply but im not talking about these devices specifically, im talking about the ability to upgrade from one laptop to the other while keeping all your files intact with the need to reinstall all your software... move your files manually etc. If you image a machine say, you can pop the hard drive in the same model and away you go.. but if you pop it in another machine, due to drivers it generally fails unless everything about it is there same... I'm just wondering if it was possible...

Cheers
Dpjmie

Fysh

If you want to be able to move system drives across a variety of hardware profiles, I'd suggest investigating something like the Universal Restore function in Acronis True Image.