How do I clone/copy a software program from one laptop to a new laptop?
I have just downloaded the trial version of Acronis 11 Home. New to Acronis.
I want to copy a specific stock market analysis program from a Vista laptop to a Windows 7 laptop.
After the transfer, I want to be able to start up the stock market program in the Windows 7 laptop just as I did in the Vista laptop.
This is critical because even though stock market program has been further updated, I must have this specific older version. It has a crucial(to me) feature that has been dropped from later versions. So I can't just do a fresh install of the stock program on the new Windows 7 laptop.
What Acronis product(s) do I need and how do I proceed? I have zero experience with Acronis or backup software in general and have nothing more than basic computer operating knowledge.
Thanks.

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Thank you, Colin.
A couple of points:
1. My understanding is that the software program I reference makes both registry entries and data files.
2. Technically I can do a fresh install of the program on my new Windows 7 laptop. However, upon fresh installation, it gives me only one of two choices: 1. check for version update to get the latest version. 2. Do not check for the latest version and just install the base program.
What I want is a third choice which is not available. For clarity, let's say the base version is 1A. Over the months the company has upgraded it to version 1K. What I want is a specific version which I have on my old Vista laptop which is version 1F. So when I do a fresh install of that program on my new Windows 7 laptop, I can only either have the base(1A) version or the very latest(1K) version. No option for the specific version that I want(1F). The company changed a crucial feature that I love after version 1F that I would lose once I upgraded to the latest version.
I'm wondering if, alternatively, I could just attempt to use Acronis to clone my entire Vista laptop hard drive to a stand-alone hard drive and then just hook that mobile hard drive up to my new windows 7 laptop via USB 2.0. Then I could theoretically access my program from that mobile hard drive hooked up to my Windows 7 laptop.
Would my windows 7 laptop then be able to run the Vista OS from that mobile hard drive? What other steps would I need to take to make it all work? Partition my Windows 7 perhaps?
Thank you for the help.
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The run a Vista installation in parallel to W7 would probably the best option.
1. Unless you have eSata for the external drive booting from USB is not a normal option for Vista or W7.
2. Alternative possibilities depending upon your laptop drive space.
a) Convert the Vista drive to a VHD and then have W7 mount the VHD file as a drive.
b) My preferred method would be to download something like Virtual Box from Oracle (free download as it is open source), make an Acronis image of the Vista drive and then restore this into the Virtual Machine. It won't be quite this simpale as there are some interim steps that would need to be taken and ideally you will need access to a Vista install DVD to install the VM before over writing it with the Acronis tib image.
This gives you the advantage that you would be running W7 and Vista together, and can swap files between the two. When you don't need the Vista running you just shut the VM down and continue in W7. You need a spare 20GB or so of drive space to contain the virtual Vista disk system.
If you have access to VMWare, you could just as easily use that.
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Thank you very much.
I am now studying both the Virtual Box and VMWare potential solutions. Never heard of Virtual Box before and it looks like exactly what I need.
Thank you again.
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Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I am also new to the Acronis group. My question, which has probably been asked many times, is, is it possible/practical to use Acronis to transfer my whole laptop HD to my PC via the USB, or what other way can it be done?
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Malcolm,
Exactly what are you intending to be the end result?
You can clone your internal drive to an external drive (some laptops require reverse cloning if the clonee drive is to boot), you won't be able to boot Windows from USB device, as Windows is specifically designed not to.
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I've been using the laptop for some time and would like to transfer the complete system over to my PC making it bootable. The info on the PC can be lost so long as the whole of the Laptop is copied to the PC and the the PC boots.
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