What should I backup to transfer disk to another computer Win7?

The programs need to be installed, not just copied over.  IMHO you will have missing parts of program, invalid permissions and a host of problems including licensing. 

If the systems are truely identical and you want them that way (on both computers) then first make a note of the serial number(s) of the target system.  Use TI to clone the drive and reactivate windows and other licensed programs after you install the cloned disk.  I do not recommend this but if you really want to do it I suggest you buy a disk drive to clone to so you can then put the original drive in if there is a licensing problem.

Alternately you can install Splashtop streamer on the first computer and Splashtop remote on the second or use microsofts remote terminal or any other remote access program.

When I say backup I mean Image. So other than lic issues, which Im unclear what the results will be,  I will not need to reinstall since Im making and image of the partition and restoring the partition. I have done this dozens of times on XP but Windows 7 is a differnt animal.

I think this will work, unless others experience is differnt. But thats really why im asking about hte system_drv. Im not sure if it needs to be imaged. My reading says its only used for bitlocker and if you put two os's on the computer?

Thanks.

Colin, if I understand your position - you want to take the Windows 7 OS disk drive with all installed programs from one computer and use this in a second computer.

To do this you will need to use Acronis Universal Restore in order to prepare the migrated Windows OS to work on the second system, plus need to satisfy a number of other conditions too.

The first step you need to take is to make a full disk & partitions backup of your source computer drive to an external backup drive.  Do not attempt to just move the disk drive from one computer to the other!

Next, you need to determine how each of these computers boot into Windows as this needs to match, i.e. do both boot using the EFI bootloader, or do both use a Legacy BIOS / MBR boot method?  
See webpage: Check if your PC uses UEFI or BIOS for help on checking this information.

Further, both systems need to use the same controller type for how the disk drive are connected, i.e. both should use AHCI or both use RAID.

Assuming the above conditions are or can be met (via any changes in BIOS settings), then one further question is what type of Windows 7 license is held?  If you have OEM licenses for Windows 7, then this is strictly restricted to being activated on the original hardware where it was installed.  Only a full retail Microsoft license can be moved to different hardware.

If all of the above is good, then you need to create the Acronis bootable Rescue Media (on CD/DVD or USB stick), and the Acronis Universal Restore media (on same type of media) and test that you can boot this media on the target system in the same way that Windows boots (i.e. UEFI or Legacy/MBR BIOS mode).

If the target system has a working Windows 7 OS installed, then I would strongly recommend making a full disk & partitions backup of that disk drive before taking the following steps - this will give you a way to get back to this point in time if needed.

Boot the target computer from the Acronis Rescue Media with the external backup drive containing the backup of the source computer connected.

Restore the backup of the source computer to the target computer, restoring all partitions on the source computer to the target drive.

Shutdown and replace the Rescue Media with the Universal Restore media and boot that media for the target computer.  Select the restored Windows 7 OS and allow AUR to prepare the OS to work on the new / different hardware.

If AUR prompts for additional device drivers, then you will need to obtain these (from the target computer manufacturers support site or motherboard CD etc), add them to the AUR media or have them available via a USB stick and repeat the step of booting the AUR media again.

If all completes successfully, then shutdown, remove all boot media and external drives, then attempt to boot from the migrated Windows 7 OS on the target computer.

Thank you for the description. Its full of a lot of meat.

Yes doing backups of all systems is what I have done. Just in case.

The install is an OEM copy, however I find that its not that hard to get MS to allow the LIC. For example last week another computer stopped working. I called Lenovo. They said the MB was gone. We have on site service. So the Lenovo support came out and replaced the MB. However then when the user logged into the computer it complained that the lic was not validated. I cannot remember the specifics of what I did but you either answer a few questions on the web like did you replace some coponent and just say yes, or you call them and through punching in a series of numbers on the warning message, validate your copy of windows. This has been my expeirence anyway, I presume that would be the same. (but admit that making presumptions is bad).

I will says the reason for doing this is not to cheat MS but rather, the computer has some very unique programs that we atually pay to install. I was trying to avoid the hasle and also paying a consultant to install them. Both computers have windows 7 Advanced on them.

Thanks.

Colin, there is always a way around the license activation issue, the key question is whether it will cost money or not.  It is possible if you have the license keys for the new computer that you could simply try re-entering these and reactivating that way too as both systems have the same version of Windows 7, and the license for the machine is based on the hardware signature of where it was activated.