I was thinking about this and my hypothetical solution is this:


Have a kernel mode driver read the whole drive's partitions and dump the raw data (compressed to an image) to another removable bootable disk. Then on the other system the bootstrap code would read the partitions' attributes and data and then place them where they would possibly belong on the target machine, along all other files.

Example, Before


Computer A
-------------
3 Partitions
2 Bootable *

Computer B
--------------
Empty disk

After

Computer A
---------------
3 Partitions
2 Bootable *

Computer B
---------------
3 Partitions
2 Bootable *

*Can be any OS

Implications / Cons

Differences in architecture and processing bits could impale the OS. This sums up all the differences that would arise as it would be the greatest impaling factor.

Difference is disk size

I'd also love to see a plug 'n' play device manufactured to achieve this.

If you are running Windows then you won't need a KMD to read or write the raw disk. Just admin privileges is enough. Search for '\\.\PhysicalDriveN'

BTW: Norton Ghost already does that and can resize the partition for the target disk also if required.