Windows 7 Installing a hdd mirror image over an existing copy of windows

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egotrip

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I bought a laptop running windows 7 SP1 with some other software already installed on it. I recently upgraded to a desktop that is much faster also running windows 7. I made a mirror of the laptop HDD. Is there a way to install this mirror onto the desktop HDD so that I can use my new desktop as if it were my laptop?
 
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Hi

This is just my opinion but I'd try creating a new partition on your hard drive and install the mirror as a second operating system and dual boot at least to start with.

That way if it all goes bad you won't mess up the existing OS.

If it works OK you can use EasyBCD to disable the original OS and then delete it once you are sure everything is OK.

To tell the truth though I think you would be better off just transferring the data and reinstalling the software.

If you don't have installation media, you can try just copying the program folders to a folder on your hard drive and see if they will run.

I'm running Windows 8 and almost all of my software ran in Windows 8 with out being installed in it.
I just made a link to the...
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Hi

This is just my opinion but I'd try creating a new partition on your hard drive and install the mirror as a second operating system and dual boot at least to start with.

That way if it all goes bad you won't mess up the existing OS.

If it works OK you can use EasyBCD to disable the original OS and then delete it once you are sure everything is OK.

To tell the truth though I think you would be better off just transferring the data and reinstalling the software.

If you don't have installation media, you can try just copying the program folders to a folder on your hard drive and see if they will run.

I'm running Windows 8 and almost all of my software ran in Windows 8 with out being installed in it.
I just made a link to the Windows 7 installation and they ran.

As for how you install the mirror image I don't have a clue, I guess it depends on what software you used to create it.

Many games like Wow and Lord of the Rings Online can just be copied from one computer to another and run without being re-installed.

Mike
 
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Some applications programs can be transferred in this way but may more cannot due to the need for associated dll's, registry settings and a host of other things. If you are meaning to transfer the entire operating system and installed programs you have very little chance of succeeding - the devices and drivers, configurations, registry settings will be totally incompatible. All in all, the time and effort required to poke everything about to make it work will probably be far greater than that required to do a complete clean install.
 
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I managed to copy all the program files from one of the pieces of software I am concerned about onto the new computers HDD. I then opened the program files on the new computer and installed the software from that folder. I seems to have worked for this particular software.

However if I created a new partition on the new computers HDD how would I install the mirror of my old computer onto this new partition?
 
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