To start, I agree with Geoff. I would start fresh but still do a backup. I must say, though, that I don't what you are talking about many times and not had many, if any, driver issues.
Geoff is also right about Ghost being the "only" Symantec product I would ever use. Norton used to be great but when they became Symantec (confusing change), some products went downhill. They also tend to buy out products like GoBack and then ruin them. Geoff will tell you that XP has System Restore, and they do, but in my experience it works only 50% of the time, while GoBack works 99%. The biggest mistake I ever made was putting Symantec Corporate 10.1 for antivirus on my server. It basically takes over, and uninstalling it even at the registry level is nearly impossible.
Geoff is also correct about the licensing issues. BUT, for Office, XP and others, etc. if you call the vendors first (especially Microsoft) and tell them what you are doing, many times they will give you a new product key or activation whatever you may want to call it.
I doubt you will be able to image to a virtual machine. I mean you can, but it sounds a bit complicated compared to your question.
Again, if you are using Western Digital, it comes with Data Lifeguard Software that is 100% foolproof. Still need to do a backup, though.
Just a thought, if you have Vista upgrade disk and want to install it clean, it is easy to do with a workaround and, so far, it is legal.
Geoff and I need to know more about your setup, i.e.
What hard drive is in your old machine?
What hard drive is in your new machine?
Which cables are used in each? SATA and/or IDE?
Is the new hard drive bigger than the old drive?
It can be done with any of the above, but it is helpful to know.
But, ultimately, go with Geoff as he knows much more about computers than I do. I think in the end, though, if you are still intent on simple cloning to safe time (and you can try it and you don't like it, you can change it), then you need it may be easier to choose one of us to help as both of us will probably give you conflicting information (although both are probably helpful).
I would just PM one of us. Won't hurt my feelings either way.
