help me clone my laptop to a new desktop

right, as some of you may know from reading my wall page my laptop was stolen. now prior to this i had made a system image, i've tried restoring that image to my new desktop system but then it wouldn't boot (apparently due to dissimilar hardware). so i've borrowed my parents laptop (same model as mine was) and restored the clone to that. now apparently there's a way to clone a system to new (different) hardware, can anybody offer me some help with this?

With Paragon Virtualization Manager you can transfer your system to a different hardware setup. (Rapidshare download here.)

You could also try to install Virtual PC or XP Mode to your desktop and then extract the files you need by mounting the system image as a second hard drive to a virtual machine.

Kari

right, sounds good in theory (i know it should also work) but my other problem is i've got files on my external harddrive which i want to image to and paragon adaptive restore says it needs to wipe the drive first, is this the same with VM? if that is the case i'm stuck partitioning my drive (a 500gb freeagent desktop classic).

IMO you should partition your external HD to be sure. On the other hand, if you use Win7 Backup to create an image, it can be stored anywhere where's enough free space, so there's no need to wipe and partition.

But, better safe than sorry.

i showed paragon VM the new harddrive i'd cloned to, it took care of the changes then i put it back in my new machine and it booted. i've since installed all the new drivers that came with the mobo, updated them to seven and wahey...fanny's ur aunt an all that!

i did have the program to do the job but i spent too long looking for something to make a modified image. thx kazza!