I have a PC that has all my VSTs, presets, libraries, patches, etc etc setup just the way I want it. What’s the easiest way to migrate to a new laptop and maintain everything? Would making a disc image or cloning work? Would I have to reinstall and reconfigure everything?

 

If you change the machine PC/HDD (ID machine) you will have to reactivate/register all the plugins again even if you copy or clone partitions. I have reinstalled everything on the fresh system…

 

not necessarily, but it could also lead to instability
Just install or clone your drive into the new laptop
then the most important stuff is to install the MB drivers
after that uninstall all the old drivers which will be mostly disabled by win
then upgrade plugins by heavy protected devs like Arturia, waves, Steinberg
its surprising how many will still work/dont work
then do incremental bacups till you can open a heavy projects without problems

 

It's pretty easy to clone PCs, but it doesn't mean that everything will work as expected.
Kind of partitions (MBR or GPT?), drivers, vst registrations, etc, there are a lot of things to fix.

However I would try, see all the things are not working and if it's convenient to reinstall them, if they're too many, format again and reinstall fresh.

 

If you use macOS, everything works perfectly after clone, but PC. With PC users, you have to reactive because apps were registered by hardware. So for safely/smoothly/non-conflict long run, you should install a new OS for PC.

 

Last edited: Jul 13, 2023

Sounds like the best thing to do for a PC is just reinstall everything manually. Correct me if I’m wrong, but for Mac it’s only a simple Time Machine restore if the OS you’re going to is the same as the one you’re coming from (or maybe it was the hardware?) but I feel like I remember there was some restriction. IOW you couldn’t just got from a 2020 Mac mini running OS 13 Time Machine backup and restore it on a 2023 MacBook running OS 14 and have everything work seamlessly…or could you??

 

it all depends how much stuff is installed
maybe a refresh is cool to get rid of unwanted/unused stuff
but dealing with some (few) re-instals/re-activations might be quicker than a
Compete System system rework, windows is much more adaptive then
people realize, the first boot takes the longest.
After that its easy sailing! Just Drivers + some activations
Because windows disables most of the stuff it deems improper.

Just use Sys. Restore-points often
and Incremental backups

 

I'd start over again with a minimised version of windows.

 

i did that a few months back, timemachine backup from my 2021 M1 MBP to my intel mac mini from 2019, aside from some activation issues for some plugins it went quite smooth.

 

Hey, I did this not too long ago... cloned HDD to a new one, booted, updated drivers etc., reactivated Windows, and a lot of programs remained activated... the ones that needed re-activation I just did as I went along... I say try it!

 

i just remembered something from my previous life, when i was still able to work a normal job. about 18 years ago i worked as a pre-tester of mainboards for epox europe(also did small repairs and such) and for all those different mainboards and cpu's i used 1 windows installation with preinstalled diagnostic benchmark software. when a new mainboard arrived with new chipsets we just installed the drivers alongside all the other drivers, never had any problems (aside from the occasional faulty mainboard that thrashed the HD).

 

Yeah I've cloned an old Intel/Nvidia based system drive and plopped it into an all amd system and all the software ran just fine, didn't have to reinstall but maybe one or two things. Obviously had to uninstall the old display drivers but it worked! Imagine telling that to someone 15 years ago, they'd call you a liar. Lmfao. Regardless of your preferred platform, things are remarkably stable and resilient these days.

 

Back in such prehistoric times, humans would hunt down a jumper block to move and the Master would become a slave.

 

what software you use to clone?

 

I was able to get a VM to run with everything using VMware. Thanks everyone!

 

I've always swore by Macrium Reflect, absolutely top tier software for disk imaging/cloning and backups imo. Been using them for near a decade now and not once had an issue with a corrupted or wonky image of multiple systems' disks. *Extremely* reliable.

 

How about reactivation?

 

Most of the times (like i've only had that happen once out of hundreds of times) i've cloned a disk i haven't ended up having to reactivate Windows, that does happen in rare cases tho. When it clones a disk, its a bit-for-bit copy of the original drive, 100% indistinguishable from the original and that includes all software, files, data, etc. If windows were to ask you to reactivate, MAS 1.8 on Github has you covered tho.

 

Yep my go to right there. Great thing about, the free version is good enough to do the job.