I am trying to clone my applications and data from one laptop to another of a different make. I have created a back up image and verified it.  Both machines run Vista Home premium. Shoud I restore the entire volume on the new machine or since it already has Vista should I just install the application and data files. If the Second option is the right one how do I identify which files to restore?

Thanks

Joef,

You can't simply "install" applications from a backup. You can mount your image on the second computer, browse it, find your data files and then copy them to the second computer, but you can't simply "copy" over your applications like that.

If you want to take the complete image and "restore" it to the second machine, you can however do that. This is called an HIR (Hardware Independent Recovery). You are basically taking an image from one computer and restoring it to a second computer which has completely different hardware. If you decide on this route, definitely read the ShadowProtect manual regarding this procedure before you attempt it.

Thanks for the info. Since I don't have much but Vista on the second machine I will try the HIR route after I read the manual.

I read the manual but it was not very clear at least to me. Do you have to install Shadow Protect on the new machine that you want to "restore" the image on?

"Do you have to install Shadow Protect on the new machine that you want to "restore" the image on?"

No - that wouldn't make sense because you are going to overwrite whatever is on the new drive with the contents of the image. You MUST however have ShadowProtect installed on the machine from which you made the image (and it must be included on the image which you made). I assume that you have created the bootable Recovery CD? Once you have done that, hook up your external drive (you did create the image on a removable external drive I hope) to the second computer. You must set the second computer to boot from the CD (this option is in the BIOS - simply set the CD or DVD drive as the first boot device). Insert the Recovery CD in the second machine, power down, and then power up again. The computer will then boot from the CD and you can perform the HIR restore.

Hope this helps.

Thanks John,

That was a big help. One more question. Do you still have to use the recovery CD if you have the Vista OS already on the second machine.?

Yes, you do. If you think about it, EVERYTHING (including Vista or XP or applications, or whatever) is going to be replaced when you "restore" the image. And the only way you can perform an HIR restore is with the Recovery CD.