You could give a try to virtulization. We are using this setup for a few months with good results:

• a laptop with basic office tools.
• a dedicated internal HD for VMs images. (on some laptop, you can replace the dvd unit with a hd)
• a VM dedicated to dev with all dev tools pre-installed. (would still recommend a fresh install to create a first VM, than migrating your older system. But you could virtualize your system for comparison purpose)

We find it easier to get clean installs really quickly, as sometimes development machines gets "dirty" with test tools, or older tools that are no longer needed. The office part of the machine is pretty stable and doesnt need refresh quite as often.

You could give a try to virtulization. We are using this setup for a few months with good results:

• a laptop with basic office tools.
• a dedicated internal HD for VMs images. (on some laptop, you can replace the dvd unit with a hd)
• a VM dedicated to dev with all dev tools pre-installed. (would still recommend a fresh install to create a first VM, than migrating your older system. But you could virtualize your system for comparison purpose)

We find it easier to get clean installs really quickly, as sometimes development machines gets "dirty" with test tools, or older tools that are no longer needed. The office part of the machine is pretty stable and doesnt need refresh quite as often.

Edit :

Given this setup you get two scenarios :

• Quick and dirty virtualization : Virtualize your old system, and use it for development in a VM on the new laptop.
• Long-term virtualization : Create a fresh install VM, to use and reuse in a VM on the laptop.