system copying to another computer by backup?

L.S.
Couldn't search this theme but maybe it's already posted.
Question: Is it possible to clone a full backup of my desktop to my laptop, in stead of re-installing XP etc on it.

Thanks for your reply.

 

Not sure what you mean by “clone a full backup”, but if you’re talking about creating a clone of your desktop drive and putting that in your laptop – probably will not boot. All the drivers needed for your laptop will be missing.

 

In Acronis-speak, Clone and Backup mean different things. To put what you have on the desktop over to the laptop you have to use a Workstation version of True Image together with the Universal Restore option.
First you would make a Backup of the desktop and save it on, say, a usb drive. Then you would also make the bootable CD of True Image Workstation including the UR option. You would also need the drivers for the laptop easily available during the restore of the BAckup to the laptop. The usb drive will work for this.

Now with the usb drive connected to the laptop, boot with the CD and restore the Backup that is on the usb drive. During this process you will be asked if you want to use UR - choose Yes. Then you will be asked if you want to add Drivers - click the Add button and navigate to where they are stored on the usb drive. You have to add them one at a time. Once you've added them follow the prompts to start the recovery.

I've done one of these going from a laptop to a desktop just as a test and it worked like it should.

 

L.S.
Well, as you noticed, I'm not really an expert and use Acronis True Image 11 Home for the first time.
As I understand it's not possible with this edition.

In case of getting the workstation version:
- Do you mean by the drivers of the laptop the ones in C:\Windows|DriverCache ?

- In your explanation you're talking about
Then you will be asked if you want to add Drivers - click the Add button and navigate to where they are stored on the usb drive ,
but weren't these the drivers of the desktop ?

 

I don't know what would be in your DriverCache folder, but if the laptop now has a working OS on it, you can extract the drivers by using something like Driver Magician. The Lite version is free and does the job.

If the laptop does not have a working OS, you will have to go to the makers website and download the drivers unless you got a cd with it that has the drivers.

Once you have the Laptop drivers, put them all on the usb drive and when you get to the point in the UR window where you have to Add drivers, navigate to them on the usb drive and add them - you have to do each one seperately.

 

All this looks interesting, but what about Microsoft's licensing policies? After you copy one instance of Windows XP to another machine, what happens when one day you decide to run Windows Update on the second machine?

I assume UR is mostly of interest to system administrators and hardware vendors who have the OS license for multiple computers and is of little value to the average home user of Windows OS, unless I'm missing something.

 

Hello Piet2,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Please notice that the only drivers required for successful migration to different hardware using Acronis Universal Restore are HAL and mass storage drivers. You can find detailed information on Acronis Universal Restore in chapter 3.7 "Acronis Universal Restore" of Acronis True Image Echo Workstation User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov