Question Moving My HDD Into A New Computer And I Want To Keep Everything Intact With Windows 10: Should I Run Sysprep Or Not?

catboy · Feb 23, 2025

I am going to move my HDD, which is my main system drive, into a new computer.

I am running Windows 10.

I want to keep everything intact, and not do a clean installation.

Before making this thread, I have researched how to do this.

Most advice on the internet seems to say that I should run Sysprep and with OOBE.

However, I also found a post on the Windows 10 forums, from July 2017, from someone named Kari, who said:

Since almost two years ago when this thread was last active, the generalizing method was the "officially recommended" method to move existing installation to new hardware.

Today it's almost impossible to generalize existing Windows 10 installation. So called app provisioning prevents it. It's still the preferred method when creating custom Windows images for deployment but that requires a clean installed Windows 10 booted to Audit Mode before any user profiles have been created.

Luckily, during this time Windows 10 has also become more and more robust and can in most cases adapt to new hardware without issues. Even I myself, a Sysprep freak will no longer (since Anniversary Update version 1607) try to generalize an existing Windows 10 installation because of the above mentioned provisioning issue.

Is the stuff said in those quoted statements true & accurate as of February 2025? Does that person have a good point? Or, are those statements wrong & inaccurate?

That person is recommending not to use Sysprep any more, even though most/all others seem to say that I should use it.

This leaves me very confused.

Should I use Sysprep, or should I not?

I'd prefer not to use it, if using it wouldn't make any difference, since I'd rather not have to manually re-configure my Windows settings to be how I like them (i.e. making the "Show Desktop" icon appear on the taskbar, and many other changes like that which I have made to my OS installation).

Please advise.

Thank you.

pcgeek11 · Feb 23, 2025

I wouldn't do it as it isn't needed IMO. I have swapped many windows 10 and 11 drives into new systems with no issues whatsoever with maybe a driver installation. Even when swapping from an Intel to an AMD PC.

BUT more importantly regardless of which way you choose to use.

Make a drive image backup and check it FIRST before you do anything. That way if things go sideways you can recover.

catboy · Feb 23, 2025

Thanks for the advice. I have indeed made a backup.

catboy · Feb 23, 2025

I took your advice, and I did not run Sysprep, and I just installed my old HDD into my new computer, and then it booted up with zero issues.

So that is great news! Hooray! I'm very happy about that. Thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate it.

It still takes forever to boot though, LOL, but that's another story, so I'll ask more questions about that in a new thread.

C1 · Feb 24, 2025

Regarding diagnosing the slow boot, implement a "selective startup'" This will help identify during boot what the system is hanging up on.

Selective Startup mode in Windows 10 allows users to choose which components load during startup. This can help identify software or drivers that are causing issues.

From Google: How to enable Selective Startup mode

Click Start and type MSConfig in the search box
Select the General tab
Click Selective Startup Restart your computer

Good luck

Question Moving My HDD Into A New Computer And I Want To Keep Everything Intact With Windows 10: Should I Run Sysprep Or Not?

catboy

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pcgeek11

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catboy

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catboy

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C1

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