[SOLVED] Transfer LL from laptop to desktop w/ win7 sp1 (side-by-side)

[gold_finger]

I know what it's like to train a newbee and I want you fellas to know that I really admire your patience. I consider myself a quick study, BUT I'm also very cautious when treading in unknown territory.

That's a good thing.  Better safe than sorry.

Tried the Fixparts first after backup...got error message "ERROR: WRONG ARCHITECTURE 'AMD64'(I know my system is 64)

Computer may be 64-bit capable, but you need to use version of FixParts that corresponds to the version of LL on the live DVD/USB you're using.  Sounds like you've got 32-bit version of LL and tried to install 64-bit Fixparts to it.

Rob the live GPartEd is a little different from the 'install'. I didn't know whether to click the 'Device tab' or the 'Partition tab' to get to the part where I can move the partition for resizing.

I aborted.... I remember reading about not creating a partition when resizing... and I wasn't sure where we were headed with this

Don't know how long it will be before Rob signs in again, so I'll go ahead and answer this too.  (He may chime in later.)

I'll answer how to use GParted for this below, but it would probably be better to resize your Windows partition from within Windows disk management instead -- less chance for corruption of the file system that way.  (I've used GParted in past to shrink Windows partitions without any problems, but as a general rule it's best to use Windows tools to adjust Windows partitions whenever possible.)  So after you've defragmented the drive, just shrink the partition (probably "C:/ drive") from within Win disk manager.  Then reboot once more into Windows to make sure everything still works and let it make any necessary adjustments to new size.  (If you end up using GParted, reboot into Windows once for this reason also.)  Then proceed to reboot with your live LL disk and install.

To do resize with GParted, highlight the partition you're going to resize, click "Resize/Move" button, grab right end of partition with your mouse and pull it to left to resize (make sure you leave some room for Windows to grow).  Hit "Apply" button when you've got it sized the way you want.  (You were right to stay away from "Device" tab.  Whatever you do, do not ever click Device -> Create Partition Table unless you want to wipe out the whole drive.)