How to make a smart computer switch

[sinus]

Hi to you
I have some computer related questions and I know they should be asked in other computer forums.
I know that really, but nevertheless, I know that some of you have good answers to my questions and if I only get 1-2 answers, I trust you more than many others :-)
So, a long text and only computer-stuff-related.

My computer with Win 10 has been crashing on and off for the last 2 days, just like that, sometimes after 10 seconds, then after 5 minutes, then not booting up at all and fixing something and so on.
Working was no longer possible. Then, after rebooting for sure 50x, let it repair (automatically, which did nothing), don't ask me how, in any case it seems to work again NOW.
I can work again, no crash, can shut down, boot up etc., at the moment everything seems to be fine again.

I bought my computer in 2015, a Medion with these specs:
Medion Erazer X5341 F
i7 4790 4th Generation
16 GB RAM
256 SSD
3TB HD
GeForce GTX 970

I am otherwise very satisfied, it is fast enough, has AVX  and IMatch runs very well.
Also Photoshop goes very well, Blender too and sure, with photogrammetry (Metashape) a faster computer would be helpful, if something takes 3 hours, then a faster computer would already be very good. But I don't need Metashape that often.

Now to my questions.
I back up (almost) everything with Macrium Reflect, i.e. the IMatch database, the images themselves, only the IMatch cache, ok, I rarely back that up (because IMatch could recreate it).

I haven't actually made a backup of Windows itself, I'm not quite sure how I do that either, and Photoshop, even the IMatch programme installed I wouldn't actually know how to backup and restore that.

So, let's say the PC doesn't work anymore.
I bought a new one (assumption only).

What do I do now? The new one already has Windows integrated (mostly).

1) Well, I wouldn't need the old Windows from the defective computer any more. So it doesn't make sense to back up Windows myself with Macrium? (apart from I would not know how). What am I seeing wrong?

2) For me, it would make sense to take over the installed programmes (IMatch, Photoshop, Outlook, Word ...) from the defective computer with all the necessary passwords, etc.
But I don't know how that would work, e.g. if I back up the entire C hard drive, it wouldn't do me any good either!

3) For me, this means that I have to reinstall all the programmes anyway, so I need the passwords etc.
This is no problem with IMatch, but with Outlook, for example, I have to have the correct data again, etc.

4) The hard disks in the defective computer are usually still intact and good. For example, the hard drive with all the pictures on it.
But the new computer often already has integrated hard disks.
What would you do there? Install the old hard disk in the new one?
Or would it be better to copy all the data onto the new one? (Assuming the hard disks are about the same speed, SSD disks are too small anyway).

5) So I'm writing this now on the "defective" computer, which really caused me big problems, as described above.
So what would you do if you had to buy a new PC tomorrow?
What should I save now with Macrium Reflect? As I said, the data (DB, pictures ...) are clear and simple to me, but just because of the programmes and Windows.

6) Almost last question: I know it's not a computer forum here 
If I mainly IMatch, Photoshop and rendering (Blender, Metashape, 3D), maybe you have a good tip?
Because est there are soooo many things, like a CPU from Intel (i9, xxx-gen, Ryzen) and graphics cards, there I think a GeForce would be good, but that there is also more than one, so rather a newer one (AVX will probably be in there hopefully).

7) Mario wrote once somewhere, that it is also interesting, to buy a PC, where you can let "assemble" your computer like you wish.
You can say, what CPU, how many harddisks, graphic-card and so on. But in this case you should also know, what is good, hence I tend to a computer from a brand, where all is fix installed (like Acer, HP, Asus...).
Do you buy a ready-made computer yourself or do you put together the computer of your choice?
That's why I'm interested, because with the company computers that are ready-made, I'm always missing something, one of them doesn't have enough memory, or the graphics card doesn't seem so good, or too little RAM, and so on.
I could avoid that with a computer that I have assembled, but such computers are usually more expensive.
And installing components, phew, I've done that several times in the past, but it's half a science now, so I'd rather not.

8 ) Last one, maybe also for some of you of interest:
How long your computer is running fine? My actual computer is from end of 2015, means, it is almost 6 years old. And it works still fine, except these problems, what I had and of course I fear it does occur again. But 6 years for a computer, on the other hand, ist not that bad?

Well, you only see what problems you can have when you come back at 1pm with new photos and the editors need the photos by 3pm and the computer won't start.
And to top it all off, for once I only took nefs (raw), I don't have any jpgs .... (what I could have sent to the editors).
Phew, then you start to sweat.
That's why I want to take precautions and be prepared so that I can make a relatively quick change as smooth as possible.

I am grateful for any ideas, tips, views.
Many greetings and I hope that our computers will live for a long time.


 

[Mario]

If you backup your system disk (C:) with Macrium Reflect (which you should), you can restore (re-deploy) the disk on another computer, including Windows.
You can boot the new PC with the recovery system from an USB stick (Macrim has a tool that creates this USB stick) and then restorer your installation.

See here: http://reflect.macrium.com/help/v5/how_to/redeploy/redeploy_a_system_to_new_hardware.htm

Windows may require your key again (or not) but applications and settings should work as before. Including Outlook PST files and whatnot.
This would be the first thing I try, because it causes the least amount of work.

You can do the same if it's just the C: disk that died (happened to me, once).
I replaced the SSD with a new one, restored it from my Macrium backup and was back to work in less than two hours.

[sinus]

If you backup your system disk (C:) with Macrium Reflect (which you should), you can restore (re-deploy) the disk on another computer, including Windows.
You can boot the new PC with the recovery system from an USB stick (Macrim has a tool that creates this USB stick) and then restorer your installation
....

Thanks, Mario 
But in this case, if Windows does also restored, I should buy a new PC without Windows (ohne Betriebssystem)?
Is this correct?

I thought, a new windows would be better, because the Windows on the old computer has over the time become loaded with not-necessary stuff and so.
And in my case, where the pc suddenly shuted down, I have read, it could also be a windows problem, what I then would take over to the new PC.

Ah.... what a mess sometimes. But with IMatch itself I will have not problems, I think. 

BTW: I checked just now companies, where you can configure a computer (like you do, I think), and this is indeed interesting, eg. 50 Euro more for 32 GB RAM insteas 16 GB and they do it, I have not to do it later. The same with harddisks. This was a good tip of you, some month ago.

[mastodon]

At first, you should know, what part of your PC is defective. Motherboard or the SSD?
If the MB, than you can replace it.

[Mario]

I always pay for Windows, because I want to use the "Pro" version and have a proper license. I also want to the option to use a local login, not a Microsoft account.
When you buy a new PC, it usually comes with a Windows license. I always choose "Pro".

If you really want to start with a freshly installed Windows, you will have to re-install all applications, copy over settings and configuration data from the old PC etc.
If your old PC still boots, you can copy over the network. Else mount your Macrium backup on the new PC as a disk, and copy the data from the backup to the new PC using Windows Explorer. Very easy.

Usually, everything that's in %APPDATA% and %PROGRAMDATA% (you can open these folders using these short codes in Windows Explorer) is of interest.
This is always a lot of work and I would set aside a working day before your new PC is workable again.

For IMatch, you just install IMatch on the new PC and restore "C:\ProgramData\photools.com" to the new PC. And your databases of course.
If you use the same user name and computer name as before, all your settings will be there.
If you use a different user name, you can set the Alias under Edit > Preferences > Application.
Computer-specific settings will not be available on the new PC, unless you use the same computer name as on your old PC.

[sinus]

Thanks, guys

sorry, I have to read it elsewhere ... today my pc worked this  morning for 2 hours, bang, again shutdown, then for 2 minutes and so on.
It will (I am afraid) shut down again in the next minutes.

I have no idea, how I could see, what the defect is.

I am afraid, I have to buy a new one very soon (today), let configure a pc is also not possible now, because the companies here local does not have the graphic cards and so on because delivery-problems corona ....

puh, I will think about what to do. Fortunatley the most important stuff I have backuped. :-)

thanks again !

[Mario]

The Windows Event log (Search for ereignis in the START menu) should contain error messages if this is hardware-related.



You can also try starting Windows in safe mode to see if the problem is caused by a damaged Windows installation.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-10-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234

Hilfreich: https://www.pc-magazin.de/ratgeber/pc-hardware-fehler-testen-gpu-cpu-festplatte-ssd-3199088.html

For this kind of random behavior, I would also do

+ unplug all external things not needed
+ open the case and dis-connect and re-connect all cables
+ Remove the RAM and put it back in (a loose connection with a RAM component can cause all kinds or random problems)
+ (in my case), bring out the Multimeter and test tools to check the power supply and motherboard power levels and voltages
A defective motherboard is much rarer than a defective power supply

[Jingo]

I believe I mentioned this elsewhere a few months ago.. but my old computer was doing the same thing... constantly rebooting and all the event viewer would show was an unexpected reboot (yeah - I already knew that!).  Anyway, I pulled the case and found a mountain of dust in there.... carefully took the computer apart and dusted/vacuumed and the reboots went away.  Something to consider....

As for a new PC - even though I have up to date backups and images of the boot drive - I always just buy a new PRO version of windows and start from scratch...  before deciding, I run NirSoft's UninstallView - a freeware program to see all the items installed on the PC. I went through the report it provides and highlighted the programs I use more than 60% of the time... and found about 2/3 of them were not needed.

A fresh install/rebuild provides a fast and clean slate - and I was up and running within a week with a clean system.  Some takeaways:

 

• Be sure you export settings/configuration files for programs that allow it such as your backup software, file explorer replacements, and of course IMatch
• Install the software one package at a time and get it fully setup similar to your current system
• Once fully setup the way you like, make a boot drive image and store it someplace safe.  Now, you can go back to that perfect starting place the next time without having to do all this again!

Good Luck.. and hope this helps!

[Carlo Didier]

First, I'd run an extensive hardware diagnostic. Very often, the described problems are hardware related. Also, check all internal cables/connectors (just pull them out and plug them in again; I solved many problems just by doing that, in my year in a helpdesk).

Windows allows you th "refresh" the system, but that will remove your non-Microsoft applications.

If the hardware is fine, you can try a fresh install of Windows. But maybe some application or patch caused the issue, so look first in the event log. You can usually uninstall the last patches to test if thet solves the issue. Or update all your applications, not only Windows.

As for restoring an image of a system disk to another PC, nowadays, chances are good that the system will boot (years ago, that would always result in a blue screen, unless the hardware was absolutely identical). But Even if that worked, I would consider a clean install of Windows. It will take some time to re-install and configure all your applications, but from experience, I can tell you that you will have a faster, more stable and leaner system (because you will probably not re-install everything as you can just install what you really use).

[jch2103]

Do try the suggestion from Jingo. No cost other than your time, but a computer can accumulate a surprising amount of dust/dirt that can mess up cooling and cause unexpected problems. 

BTW, my current computer dates back to the end of 2012, with several subsequent upgrades (SSDs, HD, graphics card, etc.) and more than one thorough cleaning. I'm starting to think about an upgrade. 

[sinus]

thanks, guys, I will do that all, checking and more, THANKS really.

I send this better, before win shuts down again.

[lbo]

After so many crashes, there is a certain risk that your current system is damaged.

A new installation has sanitizing effects after a long time with many installs and uninstalls.

You should be well prepared, though. Always document your preferred settings in plain text. Know where the different programs store their preferences if you don't want to re-enter everything by hand.

Whether / how you can re-use your existing Windows license depends on the license type. If it's an OEM / hardware bound license, you might be able to save it in your Microsoft account and re-use it on the new system. If you have an installation medium, you usually can use the license key printed on it to activate the new system.

[ubacher]

I too would check for dust causing overheating and subsequent crashes.

Reinstalling everything is not as bad as it seems - I do it regularly - and kept good notes.
(It is a good feeling if you know that you can restore you system from scratch!)
I reinstall things as I need them ( and many things you will likely not reinstall again). Keep notes.

Your windows license is linked to your hardware and you windows username (as registered by Microsoft).
If you install windows on a new system you can call microsoft and have them "transfer" the license to the new hardware.
But anyway, you have a month before you need to register you windows license!

To connect your old discs to the new computer (to copy files mostly) you can get yourself a dock which lets you plug in the disc
and connect to it it via USB. (Unplug it from the old computer and stick it into the dock).
(I have a LogiLink USB3.0 SATA HDD Adapter and docking System - works well.)

If you want to continue i.e permanently use your old disks then get yourself an external disc case and put the disk inside.
(2.5 inch versions need no power supply, 3.5 inch versions come with an extra powerplug.)
Also good for making backups for off-site storage!

[sinus]

Wow, thanks really, guys, for all your nice tipps and hints.
I have now a second pc, but not installed a lot and this old here shuts still down, maybe now in 1 minute, maybe in 20 minutes.
I have tried until now a lot, dust, plugs again, update deinstalled and so on, no success.

I think, a sophisticated guy like some of you are, would have repaired it soon.
But I have only limited understanding.

OK; anyway, I try to installe on the new machine photoshop (I download it form the adobe server, 8 GB CS6, I do not want to go into the abonnement).
And I Match I have installed already, but I am not sure, though the hints from Mario and on the help.

But I have renamed the new computer with the same name, then this should be a good thing, without alias.
And I have yet created a IMatch pack-n-go successfully (after 5 crashes during it), and I think, the first is I try with this pack-n-go restore on the new one.
Then I will see, if it works not, ok, then I have quite a lot of possibilities.

The only thing, what I am not sure and hesitate, is, if I should transfer also the cache-images for previews (23 GB), or if I let Imatch on the new pc create new ones (every time, if I load an image, let IMatch create a new cache-image, maybe even smaller).

But with IMatch I think, I will not have a problem, thanks the good work from Mario and thanks to the help here on the forum.
It is really great, having such friendly user here, thanks a lot! 

I send it now better, puh, no shutdown .... cool :-)

[sinus]

ups, preview-cache is not 23 GB, but 153 GB (checked it twice)

[Jingo]

Congrats on the new machine... you will love the speed!!

If you don't transfer the cache, then going to view older images will be slower of course as IM rebuilds the cache for those images.  However, you will save a lot of space as well... really depends on how much you view older images I suppose and how large a drive you have...

[Mario]

If all your images are on-line (accessible on the new PC) I would not bother to transfer the cache.
IMatch by default creates cache images on-demand, when you first view the file in the Quick View Panel or Viewer (or when the cache image is needed for other purposes).
This means that IMatch will rebuild the cache automatically - without wasting disk space for images you have not looked at for years.

[loweskid]

Just a point about the shutdown problem - could be the heat sink compound has hardened and needs replacing.  This happened to me last year - it reduces the efficiency of the heat sink which causes the CPU to overheat and shut down.

Remove the heatsink off the CPU, scrape off all the old stuff and replace with new compound.

[Jingo]

Just a point about the shutdown problem - could be the heat sink compound has hardened and needs replacing.  This happened to me last year - it reduces the efficiency of the heat sink which causes the CPU to overheat and shut down.

Remove the heatsink off the CPU, scrape off all the old stuff and replace with new compound.

^^ THIS... is something I never thought to do... Thx for sharing that idea!

[sinus]

Just a point about the shutdown problem - could be the heat sink compound has hardened and needs replacing.  This happened to me last year - it reduces the efficiency of the heat sink which causes the CPU to overheat and shut down.

Remove the heatsink off the CPU, scrape off all the old stuff and replace with new compound.

Thanks also, I will check this also, but I think, this should also be ok. And finally, if I start the pc in the morning (means "cold") then it happens also, that after 20 secondes it shuts down.

This here I write on the new pc  while I let copy 6 TB from the old 8TB-HDD on 2 SSD-disks (each 4 TB).
And the Boot-Disk is also a SSD, with 500 GB.

The rest is not top-notch, but for me quite good, should be quite better than the old one.
It is now an Intel Core i7-10700 CPU 2.90GHZ and the graphic-card is a GeForce RTX 2060 super.

As soon as I know more about the old pc (what is quite good in speed and so) I will report here.
I have the impression, that it has to do with windows updates or drivers.

But of course it can be also something else. But I am happy, that it seems, that I have not lost some data.

[Mario]

If your new PC is up and running and you have a proper backup:

I would first start the old PC in safe mode (see above).
This runs only a minimum of drivers and other background stuff.
If the PC then keeps running, you now it's a messed up driver installation or some other service running normally.
A fresh Windows install should then solve this problem.
This spontaneous reboot/shut-down after 20 seconds or so sounds like a RAM or power supply issue to me.

[sinus]

Thanks, Mario

I will do so, start in safe mode.
And see, what happens.

On the other hand I have to put the new one in shape, so that I can work with it for production images, for this I must have IMatch  and photoshop.

But are now installed, but not "finetuned".
After all, this night I will sleep more relaxted 

[Mario]

This is why I always have two PC's in working condition.
I swap PCs every 3-4 years, so I always have a current one and its predecessor.
I can do email and browsing on a smart phone/tablet, but not get any work done.

[sinus]

This is why I always have two PC's in working condition.
I swap PCs every 3-4 years, so I always have a current one and its predecessor.
I can do email and browsing on a smart phone/tablet, but not get any work done.

I will do like you do  this is a very good idea!!!
And a clever system.

[sinus]

Congrats on the new machine... you will love the speed!!

While the whole "transfer" is still not completed (a lot also small things to do), I could make a first comparison:

compact and optimize files with IMatch with 307'711

the old computer: 19 minutes
the new one: 8 minutes

a ray of hope within all frustration 

[Mario]

You don't need to run compact and optimize that often (unless you regularly delete thousands of files). I do it once a month or so.
This is more useful on a regular disk, but on a SSD, the difference is not that big.

The difference is speed is 99% the SSD, the compact & optimize is mostly limited only by how fast the disk can read and write data.
It should be even faster when you have the database on SSD2 and the TEMP folder on SSD1.

[sinus]

Ah, super, in this case I have to do this not more that often (compact and optimize). 

I think, I will add in this thread still some messages related to IMatch, makes maybe most sense (instead new thread).

IMatch runs fine, I have relocated the files, without problems (mind, over 300'000 files). Super.

Tomorrow I will compare and synchronize (per hand) all preferences, because I have quite a lot changed, and some of them are different. But no problem, I have to check this only once.

But what I do not find, and I am afraid I have to  create all of them new, are all "templates" from the renamer. Is this correct or do I oversee something? It is not too bad, but it give quite a bit or work.

The second thing, what I see: all info (text) in the windows layout (like custom layouts) are very very small.
I know, that IMatch can do here something with preferences, but I have to check the resolution of the monitor, if it is better, to change there something. Not a big thing.
The variables from IMatch show me a monitor-resolution from 2160x3840 pixel.

[Mario]

Renamer presets are user specific (depend on your user name).

And you probably want to enable the Configuring IMatch for High-DPI Screens and Easier Reading.
Although IMatch should ask you on first startup if you want to optimize it for high-screen DPI (unless you copied the settings database from another PC).

[sinus]

Renamer presets are user specific (depend on your user name).

And you probably want to enable the Configuring IMatch for High-DPI Screens and Easier Reading.
Although IMatch should ask you on first startup if you want to optimize it for high-screen DPI (unless you copied the settings database from another PC).

Thanks, Mario.
Yes, IMatch did its job very well.
The message about the higher "dpi" was displayed, but I chose to keep it that way for the moment.
Because I can easily change that, I wanted to see how it looks first.

So that is not a problem.
The one with the renamer, well, I'll have to change that manually.
Is not a leg break, but clear, it takes its time, since I have many different renamings.

Silly me, I overlooked that there are two names involved, the user name and the computer name.
I only chose the computer name the same as the old one. And I can't change that well now because of IMatch, I learned that here in the forum in a reply from another user.

But this is not a big problem. I leave it at the moment like it is (both computers have now the same name), that should give no problem.
One possibility is to transfer the old database again with the same user name, but that's too complicated for me, and I've already set up the new IMatch reasonably well (at the moment I have one bigger monitor instead of 2, maybe I'll change that, I want to try out the difference).

What is for sure for me: if you don't know a little bit about programs and computers, you have no chance to make such a move without problems. When I think of my brother or other people I know, many would be overwhelmed and couldn't do it well.
It's all still way too complicated for that kind of thing from my point of view.

But here in my case I have had help from this forum here!
And it's getting better and better, the most important is now set up again (eg IMatch and Photoshop), now I transfer from time to time other programs.
On this occasion I can also eliminate unnecessary programs.

The next thing, what I want to check is, if I should use OneDrive or GoogleDrive for clouds. And maybe I will encrypt all stuff before I upload it.
Until now, I did not use clouds.
But if you use clouds, the life can be easier, I guess, but on the other hand, the security-problem is here.
Phew, I hate all hackers and such stupid and bad people. 

[Mario]

If you have used a different Windows user name now, use the Alias feature so IMatch continues to use the user-specific settings from your old computer.
User Name Alias

[sinus]

If you have used a different Windows user name now, use the Alias feature so IMatch continues to use the user-specific settings from your old computer.
User Name Alias

Poah, that did it!!!  Cool, you made my day.

I knew about the alias, but I was "confused"  with the user-name and computer-name.

So IMatch did its job very good. Set the alias from the old computer .... phew, all was there including renaming-templates. Cool!

Now it is almost done, quite a lot of things runs now on the new computer (like this post here). The odd behaviour remains still on the old computer, I will try of course to find the source, one day (hopefully soon) I will find the source and report it here.

Thanks for all your great help, guys and of course specially Mario! 

[Mario]

As I said in the my second reply:

If you use a different user name, you can set the Alias under Edit > Preferences > Application.

People never listen 

[sinus]

You are right, Mario, of course!

But as I said, I did this (I always hear, what you say  , but I took not the user name, but the computer name! Stupid of me. 

OK, but now it is ok.

[sinus]

Just still some info:

- My new computer is almost installed finnished (all passwords, Photoshop, IMatch  ...) and it runs fine, very silent and quite quickly.

- With my old computer I tried almost all, what you have written here, dust, pull-out and pull-in again the plugs, load Win 10 in safe mode, rep-mod ....and and and. 
The PC still does, what and when it want. 
Because I can work now with the new one, I will wait some days and then try another round to start Win again. I have read also something about "shutdown Win 10 randomly" and other things, I have simply to try again.

But I have no password nor CDs, because if I buy a new computer (like the new one), Win 10 is preinstalled, not password necessary, not CDs. But maybe I must not have a password, if I install Win 10 from ground on (I have then to read how I must do this).

Well, but now I have to wait a bit, because all this stuff makes my head confus. 

[Mario]