Cloning disk on two Laptops, avoiding win10 upgrading twice.

[ohdev]

Hello,
I have two identical work laptops "HP Elitebook", I upgraded(Clean installation) the first one to Windows 10 Pro 64bit, and the thing is that I don't want to do the upgrade process again.

Questions:
1- Is it possible to clone the hard disk of the upgraded one, then copy it to the second laptop without having any activation problems?

2- What software is best to do this? I wish if I can copy the clone data to an external drive, then use a bootable version of the clone software on the second one to apply the cloned data.


I understand that I need to change these things on the second laptop after cloning:
1- reactivate using its own windows product key.
2- change pc name.


Thanks.

 

[Barman58]

I would not recommend a clone of any OS onto a different system as even seemingly identical systems may have slight variations in the components used that are enough to cause issues.

There is an option to perform multiple installs or upgrades using downloaded media The Media Creation tool is available from microsoft

Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums

If you had a lot of systems to install I might be useful to use an image system and use sysprep to customize the image but for just two systems I think the Media Creation Tool is best

Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

 

[ohdev]

I would not recommend a clone of any OS onto a different system as even seemingly identical systems may have slight variations in the components used that are enough to cause issues.

There is an option to perform multiple installs or upgrades using downloaded media The Media Creation tool is available from microsoft

Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums

If you had a lot of systems to install I might be useful to use an image system and use sysprep to customize the image but for just two systems I think the Media Creation Tool is best

Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

So cloning is not recommended, even if I'm sure that both are the same, purchased together, and same model/product number?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Barman58]

A clone in your case may work, or it may not work without the use of sysprep, I advise the separate installs in order to save time