Windows 7: Clone Drive to New Machine

Good morning everyone, I hope someone can help me understand if this is possible. I have two laptops. The newer one is an HP dv6000 with Windows 7 Pro and the older one is a Dell Inspiron with an XP sp3. What I would like to do is upgrade the Dell to Windows 7 for my daughter, but as part of that process I would like to first clone it's C: drive then restore that image onto a blank partition on the HP machine. The HP doesn't meet the requirements for virtualization so that's why I'm wanting to dual boot it with W7P & the XP image from the Dell. I would then reformat the Dell & do a clean install of 7 before I pass it on to my daughter. So here's my questions:

1. Is it possible to "copy & paste" so to speak, an image from one machine to another?
2. Would I be in violation of the EULA?

I think I can acomplish this with a new install of XP on the partition and an Easy Transfer. I guess I'm just looking to save a little headache and a few bucks.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice.

RBI*

First eula. If you plan to have win 7 on two machines you will need two serials.

Second. What you want to do is far more difficult than a "copy and paste". different drivers for each machine, different HD sizes, etc.

The most efficient and best option is to install XP wherever you want then install win 7 and dual boot.

Good Luck

Ken

Thanks Ken. You know, I never gave a thought to the hardware & driver differences that would exist between the HP and the Dell laps. Doh ! That makes perfect sense though. So I'll do a new install of XP on the blank partition of the HP, and a new inst. of 7 on the Dell. I'm not sure how to mark this closed, so I'll just say thank you and start my installs & settings transfer.

Ron

Microsoft now has a patch that allows hardware that does not have virtualization to run XP mode.

Microsoft Download Center: Search Results

I've been running Sun VirtualBox ever since i installed RC1 and now Pro X64. Are there any performance comparisons available between MS XP mode (without virtualization support) and Sun VirtualBox? I'd be very interested to see one.

Thanks

Also, can XP Mode and Sun VB both be installed on the same system?

I just downloaded and tried to install the patch Windows6.1-KB977206-x64.msu and get the following error:



Sun VirtualBox works very well on this computer.

Dell Precision 370
3.4Ghz CPU
4GB DDR2 PC2-5300 ECC Ram
80GB SATA boot drive / 54GB free
320GB SATA drive
300GB PATA drive
Windows 7 Pro X64

Resolved: You have to install XP Mode and Virtual PC before you can patch it

Works fine now though it's a bit slower starting and restarting then XP under Sun VB. Still very nice though. No problem having Sun VB installed at the same time. Both work fine. I have not, and will not, try running them both at the same time though!

One advantage is you don't need a copy of XP. It's included as part of XP Mode.

You can clone XP using free Macrium Reflect or copy using free Partition Wizard bootable CD to another HD into unallocated space of slightly larger size, however you must run an XP repair install before it will start up. You do this by booting the XP CD, proceeding as if to install until it discovers the XP partition to repair, then select "R" for repair (not the first "R" for repair choice).

This will reset all drivers and activation so you can reactivate using your retail product key. It will not work with an OEM factory-installed XP license except on same machine - only a retail key.

It will also start XP to the exclusion of Windows 7, until you mark Windows 7 active in XP Disk Management, then boot the Windows 7 DVD to run Startup Repair repeatedly until Windows 7 starts.

If there is no Dual Boot Menu at this point, you need to install EasyBCD 2.0 beta in Windows 7 to Add XP on the Add/Remove tab.

Not easy, almost daunting, but doable and slightly easier than reinstalling XP which also requires adding to the Windows 7 boot menu using EasyBCD 2.0.