Can my laptop's Hard Disk be cloned and loaded to another laptop? [duplicate]

I bought an Asus X202E laptop and installed Ubuntu on it and then completely formatted it which deleted everything including the recovery partition. So i could not restore it. Then I installed Windows 8.1 update 1 complete raw and now I am not having those original Asus programs and drivers (I downloaded some but i am not satisfied).

My friend bought a new Asus X202E the same model. So I am planning to migrate his hard disk to an external hard disk then install it on my hard disk. By which i might get the same experience of a new asus X202E. Is it possible and if yes please tell me how? Will my friend's laptop be harmed?

thank you!

Solution 1:

Yes, it is possible and there is no worries in this case because both hardware are identical.

Just use a disk cloning app that supports full disk cloning (that includes boot partition), like the apps listed above:

Macrium Reflect (FREE): http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Macrium Refrect Screenshot

Paragon Backup & Recovery (FREE): http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/

Paragon Backup & Recovery FREE Edition

Honorable mentions:

Clonezilla (FREE): http://clonezilla.org/

EaseUS Partition Master (FREE): http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm

DriveImage XML (FREE): http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Solution 2:

If it is an identical laptop (including ALL of the hardware) cloning the disk will work. However, once you go online with the cloned computer, both of you will get a message that your Windows version may not be genuine and your friend will have to call a number to re-validate his copy.

Two computers cannot use the same key. You would have to activate using a valid key that no other computer is using. Even though you have identical machines, the id's on the components are different and Windows will detect that.

Solution 3:

You want to "clone" his drive, not migrate. Itll only read his drive, not change anything for him, and then you can write it to your drive. Something like clonzilla or Norton Ghost will be able to do a task like this no problem.

Solution 4:

For Windows if you want to go from one hardware configuration to another, you'd either need Shadow Protect or Acronis. I have not been able to find a free program that can do this as well as those two.

Shadow Protect is better then Acronis at this in my experience.

Solution 5:

As others have mentioned, you should simply clone the drive to your laptop. As long as no components have changed in the intervening time, it will work. Before going online you should follow the instructions in this link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2750773.

Short form: On the start screen, search for slui 3. This will let you add your product key that Asus provided with your laptop when you bought it new. Or another valid license key. Then you have to activate it. Then you should be good.