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Cloning question

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I know that in the past when you cloned a PC you can only use that clone on another PC that has the exact hardware as the one you cloned hence Clone… I have not Cloned any PCs in quite sometime and I was told that is not true anymore.
Here is what my boss wants to do:
Create a image (Clone) Windows 2000 Server that the PC (yes the hardware is a PC and not an actual server ) and copy (image it) over to a new computer (totally different hardware) and than install Windows 2003 Server on it. I say it is a waste of time and money to do it, it will not work. Who is correct? And if he is correct what software (and my boss would like it to be free software if possible) can I use to do the cloning? it will only be used once.
Also he wants to clone the server to a removable hard drive than copy it over to the new equipement…. can that be done? Does the removable hard drive have to be empty… the removable hard drive is 300 GB and has 174 gb of data on it already and what will be cloned on to it is only 4 gb..

Thanks in advance for any advice on this matter.
R

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Clarifications

In reply to Cloning question

Clarifications

Maybe…

In reply to Cloning question

Depends… As for free cloning software try searching your favorite search engine for Clonezilla. Haven’t used it before, but it is free.

As long as the hardware is of the same plaform (ie 32 bit to 32 bit and not 64 bit to 32 bit) type you may be able to do some funky footwork with the drivers to get it working. no guarantee’s though

How about virtualization?

In reply to Cloning question

How about virtualization? There are several (free) apps that create a Virtual Machine out of a working system; then, the VM can be opened in any computer, as such.

Interesting

In reply to Cloning question

PING (http://ping.windowsdream.com/) has worked well for me in the past. You may run into some driver issues on the clone, but it should be resolvable. Virtualbox (https://www.virtualbox.org/) would allow you to create a virtual 2000 server from the old machine. You would then have a single vbox file that could be loaded on any computer with Virtualbox running on it.

Clonezilla – Virtualization

In reply to Cloning question

I downloaded Clonezilla and had it all set up to clone the computer however ran into the issue where the computer will not boot up to the usb drive to do the cloning. the computer is almost 10 years old. could not change it in the BIOS to boot up to USB drive.
I am going to get a DVD -R drive so that I can burn the ISO to a CD (yes CD–computer is 10 years old and does not have a DVD drive in it.)
would do the virtualization however the software that is on that computer will not run on a virtual machine. (oh so complicated).

thank you all for your suggestions. 🙂

R

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