Help me shop for laptops=anger

[stuckathuntermtn]

Or am I just talking out of my ass?

[RShea]

The HP had the better screen. Not sure if the gfx were any better. Glad I can help. Maybe one day, I'll be as smoov as RShea

I did not look at each and every component - just way too busy this past week with work.
When you have 33 years experience in computers and IT... maybe.

[RShea]

Could he just make a system image of his current system with Windows Backup and drop it on the new machine? Assuming stuff isn't all buggy, it might be an easier transition for you if it works. I think it can. Win 7 is waaaaaaaay less crashy with differing hardware than ye olde XP. Worst comes to worst, start it in Safe Mode, get a network driver in there, and off you go.
I know there are also backup programs that let you clear out the hardware.
Reason you might want to do this, (assuming there are no serious hiccups in your system. mine doesn't have any and I'm considering doing it if it will work) is that you won't have to go around reinstalling all you software, redoing all your settings, and everything is right there like it was. The extra, unallocated space on the new hard disk can just be added to the active partition, I believe. Oh, and you'll need to dig out your old os disk to be able to do this. It's actually pretty easy to do.
I suppose you would want to sysprep /generalize the old computer first?

Earlier versions of Windows would allow the changing of a few hardware driver items, backup and restore with that way of doing as system transfer to different hardware but not in the later Windows versions. Unless the hardware is pretty similar (and he never afaik did give us the info on the model he has now - other than better different chipset for the video) you would have to Sysprep. You could just go right to virualizing the image of the old computer or use a 3rd party bare metal backup tool that has capabilities to do differing hardware restore (there are tools out there to do that). Sysprep is a MS utility and would be one option that would work if done on the old system, but not just backup and restoring with basic backup software.

[stuckathuntermtn]

After I sysprep /generalize my system, can I make a good backup image just running Windows Backup on that system and restore it to another?

[stuckathuntermtn]

eh. If I get the funding I'm looking for, I'll have a laptop and some usb/sata adapters. Good times.
Have fun with your new laptop Lobstah.

[RShea]

eh. If I get the funding I'm looking for, I'll have a laptop and some usb/sata adapters. Good times.
Have fun with your new laptop Lobstah.

If you plan on being in the business, you will need to be testing and doing this stuff before you recommend it to someone, or else know for sure you are capable of doing it. A cheap used laptop is $150 tops (you can pick up a new one next month on Black Friday deals for probably $200 to $250 in every big box retailer.... And understand how to use Windows Backup and the steps needed to do a restore on a system that does not have a working copy of Windows installed on it (system repair disk).

There are also licensing issues and such legal things to consider too if the Windows software is OEM....

Of course there are easy ways and harder ways to handle this- your suggestion I consider the hard way to do this with sysprep and then Windows Backup as the tool to do the backup and transfer.... but if that is the only tool you have, it could be done with much effort and a knowledgeable person.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Yeah, I was just thinking of all the better tools I've used, even Macrium, lol. And no, I probably wouldn't do it for a customer. The software I have is not OEM.