Clone HD to different model?

[sgmidf]

A friend of mine just picked up a T410s and wants to clone his current X61 HD (running Win 7-64 enterprise with bitlocker) to the new machine. I'm trying to convince him to do a clean install but he wants to try it. If he does, what happens with the incorrect drivers? Will the Lenovo Toolbox just install the correct drivers and software?
Thanks

[Harryc]

I think bitlocker will be more of a challenge than anything else because most Cloning software (Acronis for example) does not support cloning encrypted drives. Acronis suggests a sector by sector entire disk backup/restore as a work-around, but a quick Google shows many problems encountered. Other than that, I would also recommend a clean install. The models listed are vastly different. The HAL being different would be an obstacle. BSODs would most likely occur, and some 'may' be circumvented in safe mode. What your friend wants to do is very messy.

[sgmidf]

Thanks. That's what I've been saying but he's trying to avoid re-installing all of his software. At least now I have a "second opinion".

[MrPeter1985]

I myself have found that you never know what will work until you just try it. I have been told that you have to reinstall when switching Mobo's. But was completely suprized when I put my brothers HDD from a dead AMD board in a Intel PC and booted right up. Just had to install a few things. I was also told that you needed to boot to safemode to unistall the older PC's drivers for the mobo. But I didn't have to. So you could just try putting the HDD in it and see if it boots, if not then I wouldn't waste time cloning it. My 2 cents.

On another note, I noticed you list Windows 7 as being used, I wonder what would happen if you try windows back up to back up his installed programs. And using windows restore to restore them on the new PC ?? Never know, it could just work.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Windows 7 is a fair bit more adaptive with regards to different hardware compared to previous Windows'. Not sure how changing HALs would do though, but I'm pretty sure it does it fine; there are some XP on USB drive (not installer, actual XP) which can adapt to different HALs.

[zhenya]

One thing that may convince him is that the software is tied more tightly into the hardware in many ways on a laptop than a desktop. He will likely encounter significantly longer boot times, worse battery life, and problems getting the computer to sleep if he goes this route.