What's the best way to clone a computer? From notebook to netbook.

Laplink?

Norton Ghost

If they are exactly the same why doesnt he just swap the hard drives?

(I am assuming we are talking Windows)

I’ve moved Windows to a new PC once, it was quite a while ago, so I can’t recall more details than nagging driver problems, and telling myself “don’t do that again”. So I recommend not moving the system. Move just your files and settings instead.

First, install Windows & applications on the new machine. Then use the File and Settings Transfer Wizard or Easy Transfer

You could use Acronis Backup to make an image of his old computer and then use VMWare to run the old comp as a virtual, but thats probably overly complicated. Acronis also lets you do backups and then restore it to a machine with different specs, but that is also quite complicated. Basically, if you’re asking the question then you probably are gonna rip your hair out trying to make it work, it is just never simple. It also never works like a clean install should.

I would advise just transferring the contents to an external and placing what he needs on the new comp.

If you wish, I can go into more detail about the complicated options, but its really not worth the effort. Also, you say netbook, if its an Atom, the virtual machine option is out of the question.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I went with Laplink PCmover, process is ongoing, I’ll report back with the results.

This machine is not an Atom by the way, it’s a Pentium (Acer 1810TZ 11.6”)

Thx ;)

@rexpresso That’s no netbook; that is a full-on laptop, though it’s the same size as a large netbook. That Pentium SU4100 is a nice CPU for those that like battery life and performance, but trust me when I say that it sure as hell isn’t a netbook!

@jerv yeah I already realized that :)
Fine machine in your opinion?

@rexpresso That was on my list of possibilities because I like Acer in general and it has the sort of specs and price I was looking for.

I declined and went Toshiba after my wife found a good deal on a slightly larger Toshiba T135 hard to find the SU4100 version; most have the AMD chip or the SU2700, both of which suck since it was a comparable computer at a lower price, but if we hadn’t found the deal we did then I probably would have gone with the 1810TZ.

All went great with Laplink PCmover. Just required a post-migration cleanup of old pc startup applets and stuff… nothing I couldn’t handle easily. Origin: XP; Destination: Vista (came with the machine); And now I’m going to have this machine upgraded to Windows 7. Thanks for the feedback everyone.