clone laptop

Hi, I'm concerned about my laptop and want to clone it, and make a complete copy i.e. have 2 laptops, identical operatin systems. I'm using acronis home for the first time, and have cloned the entire hard drive on the old one. But the new laptop has its own OS - how do I install the 'old' laptop's hard drive onto the new?
Thanks
Steve

 

Hello Steve,

'Cloning' helps on ONE PC/Laptop (e.g. change to a larger hdd).

To use 'cloning' for two different devices (2 PCs, 2 Laptops) will be only successful if the devices are the 'same'. Not similar but the SAME.

I assume your laptops are not the 'same' and have different architecture/hardware...

What you need is:
Acronis TrueImage ECHO with the AddOn "universal restore" (UR).
Then you can create backup-images (not 'clone') from the old laptop and restore to the new laptop.
(For my protection: I've never used Ti-Echo and UR)

 

Hello all,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Corporate Products

Steve, I can add that the "same hardware" in this case mean the same motherboard, CPU and HD controllers.

Otherwise, see the article Transferring Windows to Dissimilar Hardware for more information.

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee

 

It is also an unfortunate fact that an operating system installed by a laptop manufacturer may well be locked to that particular hardware. That is a hurdle that for mere mortals is not easy to overcome.

You may be reduced to starting again with a retail install CD.

Also bear in mind that microsoft do not take kindly to one licensed copy being installed on more than one computer.

Xpilot

 

Thanks all for the advice. Yes, I'm quite happy to buy another microsoft licence for the new machine, but what I'm saying is I'd like to mirror the current data and applications, on the new laptop. Hence, can I just take the new laptop, with the new OS (but same as the old one e.g. windows XP) and use the acronis boot up disc on the new laptop, together witht the cloned image of the old laptop produced by Acronis under the clone option?

Does this make sense?

Thanks
Steve

 

With the 'clone option' you don't get IMAGE-files.

Cloning:
two physical devices connected to one PC.
Then you clone directly from one device to the other.

Suggestion for you:
Create a partition-image (TIB-file).
Then deinstall Ti on the old PC, install Ti on the new PC.
Start Ti on the new PC and mount the TIB-file. It looks like a Windows-explorer drive.
You can copy folders, etc.

This works for data but not for applications, because applications are not files only. The registry entries are lost and the application is not applicable.

 

I think that "cloning" two laptops to keep them in step is the wrong starting point.

I suggest that each laptop has all the required applications installed. Then by using an appropriate synchronising program the data set on each can be kept identical. After the initial run only future changes will need to be updated.

Individual backups should be kept for both computers for which TI would be ideal.

Should one of the laptops breakdown or be stolen you will have the other as an ideal backup. Should that one breakdown and not be restorable one of the backup images could be mounted on another computer and all the user data could be saved and used.

Xpilot

 

Thanks guys, I really appreciate you taking so much time to advise me. However, I'm puzzled. Xpilot says -

"Should one of the laptops breakdown or be stolen you will have the other as an ideal backup. Should that one breakdown and not be restorable one of the backup images could be mounted on another computer and all the user data could be saved and used."

All I'm trying to do, is pre-empt the breakdown or stolen scenario. I have quite a few specialist applications on my laptop, and it takes an age to re-create a laptop for myself. SO I'd like to mirror the first laptop, and yes, I'll keep the data synchronised.

So right now, I've cloned an image of the laptop on a removable hard drive. Then I created a boot up CD disc, so I thought (in my ignorance) I could just use the boot up disc on the new laptop and reinstall the cloned version onto the new laptop. Have I missed something though?

Thanks for your patience,
Steve

 

You need to get clear in your mind why you cannot say, "cloned an image". This does not exist when it comes to True Image. For further suggestions, you should say what brand the two laptops are as some brands pose certain problems that others don't have.

 

Hmmm, I hope by now, you've discerned you are dealing with a newbie at best, or a complete bufoon at worst.

TI says -

"Acronis True Image Home is an integrated software suite that ensures security of all information on your PC. It can backup the operating system, applications, settings and all of your data, while also securely destroying any confidential data you no longer need. With this software, you can back up selected files and folders, Windows applications’ settings, settings
and messages of Microsoft e-mail clients — or even the entire disk drive or selected partitions. Should your disk drive become damaged or your system attacked by a virus or malware, you can restore the back-up data quickly and easily, eliminating hours or days of work trying to rebuild your disk drive’s data and applications from scratch."

I have cloned a hard drive on a PC and the applications all work perfectly on the second (cloned) harddrive without the need to reinstall them. Could someone please tell me if this is possible with a laptop or not. If not, I'll move on but if yes, how I can go about it.

Again, thanks for your patience.
Steve

 

The short answer is yes ... but in your original query you have two laptops in the mix, not just one. When True Image sees different hardware it takes a different process to use the Image from one and restore it on the other. And the make of laptop is also important.

 

The paragraph you quote concerns a hard drive from an image or a clone prepared from one computer and then restoring it back to the same computer. This is quite different to restoring or cloning to a another computer.

Even if both laptops came from the same Mfg's batch and are of identical spec. Windows would see them as different. Each component such as CPU, NIC card, Ram, modem , drives etc. have their own identity numbers. There is a record of these generated in the Windows installation. A weighted hash of this information forms part of the Windows activation for each computer.

There are well trodden paths to move a complete installation from one computer to another. Generally a repair install followed by Windows re-activation is required. However these all asume that the the original installation on the original computer is de-activated.

Xpilot

 

Thanks everyone for all your help, and patience. It does seem this is not possible but thank you for all your kind words.

Steve