My old HP with WinXP is still working great thanks in large part to the HELP I get here. I regularly USE Macrium to CREATE backup images on an external HD. Here is my question: When the time comes for a new PC, how do I get my documents transferred from old PC to new PC? I assume my new OS will be Win8. Will Win8 be able to recognize my WinXP backup image? I recently had to replace my internal HD. No problem (but many questions, lol) transferring my backup image to the new HD. But, in that case it was a backup image made on the same PC with the same motherboard and same OS. Thanks.Transferring the backup image onto the internal HDD will just give you the Windows XP INSTALLATION, you can't restore the image to Windows 8 and have all your programs and documents, if that's what you mean.
What you can do, is once you've installed Macrium on the new PC, is access the backup image and copy your documents and files across to the Windows 8 machine.  Programs are not transferrable in this manner and will need to be installed again.

I hope this helps Quote

Programs are not transferable in this manner and will need to be installed again.

Transferring the backup image onto the internal HDD will just give you the Windows XP installation, you can't restore the image to Windows 8 and have all your programs and documents, if that's what you mean.
What you can do, is once you've installed Macrium on the new PC, is access the backup image and copy your documents and files across to the Windows 8 machine.  Programs are not transferrable in this manner and will need to be installed again.

I hope this helps