Good morning. My dad has swapped my partners laptop for his gaming pc now that she’s into gaming. He’s quite old and doesn’t like his files getting moved about. So I was thinking about just cloning the HDD from the PC to the Laptop. I’m not sure how though. I’ve never done a straight clone. I was thinking about taking the laptop apart (I’ve done this before) and using my twin bay HDD dock on my main rig to clone it. Or maybe using a Ubuntu USB and seeing if I can clone it without having to take the laptop HDD and and just plugging in the HDD dock. Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers.
Do you know the sizes of the HDDs and about how much data is on them? Also, what operating systems are these computers using? The cloning/imaging isn’t going to be the pain, but there could be some snags depending on the situation. If you can get this info, I will certainly try and help you through the process. 
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Windows 10 and I’m sure both are 1tb. There’s definitely space for the PCs HDD on the Laptop’s HDD but I’m not sure how much but I can check this tonight.
Ok, do you have an extra large HDD you can use for this process? It will be easier to use this 3rd HDD to get disk images of both the laptop and desktop drives before you swap them. It is possible with just the 2 drives if you have enough free space on one to store an image of the other, but there is always the possibility of accidentally losing all the data on one of the drives this way.
There is also the licensing issues with Windows 10. Since I’m assuming the desktop is a store bought system, it has a Windows license that is bound to its hardware, specifically the motherboard. There is a chance that as long as they are both running the same version of Windows 10 (Home I assume) that they will be able to activate on the new hardware, but Microsoft can get weird with their licensing and activation.
You’ll also need software for this. Since you have a dock, I’m going to recommend Macrium Reflect Free. It’ll enable you to get an image of the laptop and desktop without taking the laptop apart. Clonezilla would also be an excellent choice if you are comfortable booting from a USB or CD.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
With all this being said, I always recommend a clean install when you are switching users like this or doing a major change in hardware. I can understand your dad wanting to keep the computer “as is”, but your partner should consider doing a clean install and just move over what they need from the image of the other computer (docs, saved games, etc) and reinstall everything else. With such a drastic change in hardware, there is always the possibility weird things could happen and force you to clean install or fight with it down the line.
On windows just create a Microsoft ID and register your windows key to it… that way even if you bought your PC as a OEM installed copy, you can reactivate that license on any hardware… just only installed in one place at once and unless the PC has no internet access Microsoft will know.
That said I agree with you on the clean install typically, though a clone should still work if they drivers are updated after.
Straight clone can be a problem sometimes. Some drivers dont work, sometimes it cant boot at all because completely different drivers. Also windows is picky about its license key. if the hardware changes significantly youll have to call microsoft go get them to reactivate it.
It’s easier to do a fresh install then just move the entire user folder.
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AFAIK, OEM keys are tied to the motherboard and can’t be moved to a new computer. They are cheaper to buy and one time use only kinda deal. If the OP has retail licenses, those can be moved to whatever computer you want with a Microsoft account. If these are store bought systems, they are OEM.
The clone will work with the drivers, that’s not a huge issue. Modern Windows (since 8 I believe) will detect that the hardware has changed automatically and use generic drivers to boot and then download the new specific drivers it can find. If it’s OEM key, it will be deactivated. I’ve never tried this kind of straight swap before, so there is a chance that it will activate with the license tied to the motherboard if both versions are Home or Pro, but I’ve never tested it.
Clean install will help with all the vendor specific software and drivers they add not working on the new hardware, especially going from laptop to desktop.
This might help you.
Thanks so much for the feedback guys. In the end my dad just decided to tell me that I was to copy the files on to a USB for him and despite causing a fuss originally he wasn’t too bothered as long as he had his files.