How do you clone a Windows 7 installation?

I am getting a new laptop and wish to "move" my desktop installation exactly as I have it on my desktop to my laptop. I imagine that drivers will be an issue, but beyond that, how do I do a clone?

Solution 1:

Others have suggested tools already, but I feel I should add that cloning an install to different hardware is certainly not recommended! Disk cloning is a great way to backup your existing PC but if you're installing to different hardware you should really do a fresh install on that new PC and then copy your data over. This is especially important if the hardware is radically different between your machines - as it is in your case.

I would strongly recommend that you transfer over only your settings and data rather than trying to clone the actual hard disk to a new machine.

Solution 2:

I think that this tool will do the job just fine:

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/