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Clone Between Systems

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Question for you all. I have a Windows 10 Home 64 bit Desktop, that has the very latest full version of Acronis 2019 and it works great. I'd restored my PC twice last year with the 2017 version of it, with no problems, back when the early version Creators Update was causing many machines hell. My PC has the latest of the Windows updates now, without any issues. I regularly do a full back up to a separate internal disk which is also copied to a USB drive. I run some really complex Audio software (Cakewalk Sonar and hundreds of VST effects plug-ins). It took forever to install them on this about a year and a half ago when I'd got that. My aim is to get a laptop eventually powerful enough to equal my desktop.

Then I would basically do a clone of C drive and do a Universal Restore on that Laptop overwriting the OEM Win 10 64 bit home version that will be on it once I bring it home from the store. If not mistaken this should go flawlessly, and then my laptop will boot with what is on my C: drive at my Desktop and maybe with some updating drivers minor stuff related to new hardware easily fixed. Will it recognize that OEM license somehow (from BIOS?) Or, will it say that I currently am running in the 30 day trial and to input that, then I put in that license number, and that's it, all finished? Please let me know if you've seen this done or if I am missing any essential steps in this process. Thanks for your help.

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Then I would basically do a clone of C drive and do a Universal Restore on that Laptop overwriting the OEM Win 10 64 bit home version that will be on it once I bring it home from the store.

I would advise against using Clone for this type of migration - you should be making a full disk & partitions backup of the desktop Windows 10 drive and storing this on an external backup drive.

Before you restore this to the new laptop drive, you need to know some important points:

How does your Windows 10 OS on the desktop boot in terms of the BIOS mode - run the msinfo32 command from Windows to check this.  I would expect this to show as UEFI, and this would be how the Acronis Rescue Media should be booted on the laptop (to match the mode).

Next, what is the disk drive controller mode used on both computers?  This too either needs to match, or else additional device drivers may be needed to be provided for Universal Restore to use in preparing the restored backup OS image to work with the new hardware.

The type of disk drive in both computers may also be a factor here, i.e. if both are the same physical type, both SATA, etc, then the migration will be smoother.  If you are migrating from a SATA drive to a PCIe M.2 NVMe drive then again device drivers may be needed, and also if RAID is used.

The closer the match between the source and target hardware, the easier the migration should be, and given that both systems would have been activated for Windows 10 64-bit and same OS version (both Home or both Pro...), then Acronis Universal Restore may not be needed to be used.

Activation tends to be based on the hardware signature of the system where it was installed and first activated, so hopefully there should be no real issues in that area if both have been activated for the hardware involved.  If you do hit activation issues, then try contacting Microsoft and see if they will be kind to you, or else consider the cost of a new license key as well worth it compared to the effort involved in installing all your Audio software!

Thanks for your great response. I do store my full backup of desktop on two different drives, one kept in another place to be safe. Thanks for the BIOS tips, I would definitely utilize that. Both will have SSD, the Desktop has a Samsung 850 standard style, and the Laptop will have the PCIe. No RAID. I've got a multi machine license for Acronis so I would probably do a full backup of the laptop to an external drive, so if this operation fails, I could restore the laptop to at least factory settings. Yes, I would definitely consider a new license for Windows 10 if needed. The ability to have it mirror what is on my Desktop is priceless. Acronis is the first to really allow this.