Transfer HD with Vista from HP desktop to Lenovo Desktop

[RealBlackStuff]

A friend of mine has a HP desktop in which the motherboard suddenly failed.
Tried a new (same) motherboard in it, but it still wouldn't come back to life.
There was no chance to remove/inactivate any HP drivers in the VISTA Home Premium that is installed on the HD.
Because of the programs that are installed, I want to move the HP hard drive into a Lenovo M58 tower.
Problem is: the HD won't boot in there.
It tries a Repair, but ends up not being able to do that.
Question:
how can I make that HP-drive boot in another desktop, which has different hardware?
I have access to most of the HP's files on that HD.
I need to save some of the programs that are on it, since the original software is no longer available.

Could I update/upgrade the Vista Home Premium OEM on it with a 32-bit Windows 7, and thus save all the installed programs?
According to M$ I can upgrade Vista Home Premium to W7 Home Premium or W7 Ultimate, but not to W7 Pro ???
I have W7 Pro and W7 Enterprise.
Is W7 Enterprise 'higher' than W7 Ultimate?
Would W7 Enterprise work as an upgrade in my case?

Any and all suggestions welcome.

[twistero]

Usually the process of migrating Windows to different hardware involves running sysprep on the source machine then clone. But your source machine no longer works...

[Neil]

Acronis has a feature called Acronis Universal Restore that has worked a couple of times for me. Failed a few times too. But by connecting the HDD to a working machine and booting the ATI environment, you should be able to make a backup image of the drive, then restore it to a drive in the working machine using Acronis Universal Restore. Might work...

[RealBlackStuff]

Upgrading is out of the question, as I cannot run Vista from that HD any more.
That Acronis Universal Restore is a rather costly option.
Anyway, I've whittled the required programs done to only one (for which I got the source), so a fresh install of W7 will make for a great desktop, without all the HP crap that caused all the problems to begin with...

[rdone]

Usually the process of migrating Windows to different hardware involves running sysprep on the source machine then clone. But your source machine no longer works...

Hey twistero/anyone who can help,

I have basically the same situation as RealBlackStuff except that the original hardware is functional. So, can you explain more about running sysprep on the source machine? The source machine is a Dell 745 with Vista Ultimate and the destination machine(s) are Lenovo M58 tower and a Lenovo T500 laptop. I have both Western Digital Acronis and Seagate DiscWizard for cloning.

When I try to boot the cloned Dell Vista in the Lenovo, I get the "Windows failed to start..." error. I have unsuccessfully tried a variety of things, such as adjusting the BIOS settings for AHCI, booting from USB, booting from Safe Mode and all the other modes, booting from the recovery CD and trying to repair Vista, and probably some other things that I can't remember.

I'd appreciate your input on the sysprep process. Thanks much.