Cloning Disk from one Laptop to Another?

[DrMacintosh]

Hello all,

 

So one of my coworkers dropped their Lenovo IdeaPad and the hinge broke. The machine still works, just does not have a screen. It's an Intel IdeaPad 3 with the Core i3 processor. It has a 2.5" SSD in it right now loaded with a specific program called HCL Notes. Setting up her new computer from scratch would require installing this program again, which has to be done by a 3rd party tech. To avoid this downtime I was thinking about cloning the old machines drive to the new machine, but I foresee some issues with that plan.

 

The replacement computer is an AMD ThinkPad E16 Gen1. It has an M.2 SSD. I have not even booted this machine up yet. I've imaged the ThinkPads drive to have a fallback in case something goes wrong.

 

As far as potential problems go, I can think of a few:

• Versions/Editions of Windows (IdeaPad is on Windows 10 Home, ThinkPad is on Windows 11 Home)
• Devices (New machine is Ryzen based with an entirely different supporting architecture)
• Windows Activation issues?

 

So yeah, I'm just not very confident that cloning the old drive onto the new machine will result in something that works. What do you guys think? Should I just set the machine up from scratch and have the tech configure the program? Or should I try to see if cloning the drive works out?

 

 

[aisle9]

Is this their work machine?

[DrMacintosh]

5 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Is this their work machine?

Yes

[johnt]

There is very little hope of cloning a drive and using it successfully in another machine. The Windows install is going to go nuts switching from Intel to AMD, plus all the other drivers for the motherboard, GPU, etc. Windows activation will also be an issue, but a much smaller problem since you can continue using it. But I don't think you are ever going to see that decal show up bc the system is going to be in a boot loop from my past experiences.

 

If the screen is an issue, why not connect it to a monitor (HDMI, DP, or usb c docking station)  if you need immediate access to it?

[johnt]

3 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Yes

If Bitlocker is enabled and you guys don't have access to the code, forget it lol

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, johnt said:

If the screen is an issue, why not connect it to a monitor (HDMI, DP, or usb c docking station)  if you need immediate access to it?

We don’t need immediate access. We can simply no longer use that computer for surveys. Outside of HCL Notes, everything else we do is via OneDrive/SharePoint and all our other programs are a simple download, register, and go. This specific program, is an in the field survey program which we can’t even download without sending an email. It takes hours to configure and setup and you have to coordinate with the tech to actually do that. 

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Yes

So I'm thinking you'd have licensing issues with HCL Notes. If they're restrictive enough about their program that a tech has to install it, they're probably smart enough to lock it down to the old PC's hardware.

 

I've swapped an existing Windows install between Intel and AMD on several occasions and nothing's ever blown up. Windows 10 is much more tolerant of that than past versions were, in my experience. I just think that porting everything over to the new PC is a lot of work only to find out that HCL Notes has some strict copy protection and licensing on it, and you've just sunken all of that energy and time into something that didn't work. I'd connect the IdeaPad to an external display, use it like that until the tech shows up to install HCL Notes on the ThinkPad, then move everything you want to keep onto the new laptop.

[DrMacintosh]

3 minutes ago, johnt said:

If Bitlocker is enabled and you guys don't have access to the code, forget it lol

IdeaPads don’t have BitLocker for starters. IdeaPads typically don’t ship with Pro editions of Windows. Even if it had BitLocker, losing the display doesn’t stop the HDMI port for working. 
 

I’m simply fighting a limitation of Windows that prevents you from doing data migration between computers while retaining apps and data. 

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I'd connect the IdeaPad to an external display,

Typically yeah, that is the temporary solution. But we use these machines in the field. 
 

I’m leaning pretty hard towards just starting fresh. 

[aisle9]

7 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Typically yeah, that is the temporary solution. But we use these machines in the field. 
 

I’m leaning pretty hard towards just starting fresh. 

I would. The odds of HCL Notes not having some kind of protection in place to make sure it's only being used on the system it was installed onto seem pretty remote to me.

[manikyath]

win10 and win11 do a surprisingly good job of sorting out drivers, but going from sata to m.2 is much more complicated.

[Brooksie359]

2 hours ago, aisle9 said:

So I'm thinking you'd have licensing issues with HCL Notes. If they're restrictive enough about their program that a tech has to install it, they're probably smart enough to lock it down to the old PC's hardware.

 

I've swapped an existing Windows install between Intel and AMD on several occasions and nothing's ever blown up. Windows 10 is much more tolerant of that than past versions were, in my experience. I just think that porting everything over to the new PC is a lot of work only to find out that HCL Notes has some strict copy protection and licensing on it, and you've just sunken all of that energy and time into something that didn't work. I'd connect the IdeaPad to an external display, use it like that until the tech shows up to install HCL Notes on the ThinkPad, then move everything you want to keep onto the new laptop.

Honestly the issues with switching hardware without starting with a fresh version of windows works until it doesn't. Yeah you can do it and sometimes you don't run into issues but sometimes you end up with weird issues that force you to do a fresh install anyways. Personally if it was a work computer I wouldn't risk it as I would rather not run into random issues that cause programs to crash or act weird while I am getting work done. Nothing worse than losing progress on something you are working on because a program crashes or becomes unusable. 

[SImoHayha]

I doubt you'd have any real issues. I mean you can test this pretty easily.

 

1. Clone the current drive
2. Leave the previous drive in same shape
3. install into NVME drive
4. Check if it NVME drive works
5. Window Activation Issues < Not really an issue you can google around for certain bypasses
6. AMD drivers is the only issue I can see being a major problem, hopping from AMD to Intel usually involves a BSOD. Perhaps
   
   Referr to https://superuser.com/questions/644862/move-existing-windows-7-or-10-installation-to-new-computer
   
   Something called sysprep can possibly handle this issue. if you look at the superuser post. I think it might help you.

[jsnotlout1]

14 hours ago, johnt said:

There is very little hope of cloning a drive and using it successfully in another machine. The Windows install is going to go nuts switching from Intel to AMD, plus all the other drivers for the motherboard, GPU, etc. Windows activation will also be an issue, but a much smaller problem since you can continue using it. But I don't think you are ever going to see that decal show up bc the system is going to be in a boot loop from my past experiences.

 

If the screen is an issue, why not connect it to a monitor (HDMI, DP, or usb c docking station)  if you need immediate access to it?

I am pretty sure if you have Windows activated on a Microsoft account, it will work on any machine as long as you deactivate the old one

[TylerD321]

Unless it is oem, and if you change motherboard you have to tell windows to move the license to new hardware. 

[atarione]

Take a look at sysprep  :: You may (likely) end up with activation issues doing this however... and it is unsupported operation so they should back anything important up somewhere else in case it nukes the install.

 

more information here:: 

 

https://www.howtogeek.com/239815/why-cant-you-move-a-windows-installation-to-another-computer/

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/sysprep--generalize--a-windows-installation?view=windows-11