I am getting a laptop  this weekend so I can continue songwriting while caring for my aging mom, who lives 1000 miles away and whom I need to spend more time with every month.  I'm getting it Sunday and wonder how folks go about duplicating stuff over.
 
I tentatively plan to consolidate/copy over my most used sample files in a REORGANIZED LAYOUT to one of my two external backup Hard Drives,  Then I can just copy this main folder to the new 1TB m2 SSD once I install it. Same for Omnisphere steam files,  I have 7 hard drives on my studio desktop and plan on only moving under a TB of samples out of 4 or 5 TBs...
 
That'll leave me with the 1TB 7200 for Sonar, Windows and song files as well as all the other files ending up on C drive... I may pick up an additional 2tb portable drive for junk, as they're so friggin' cheap these days. 
 
However, that leaves all the VSTs themselves..,Omnisphere, Kontakt (and it's dozens of instruments I really use) and a bunch of other vst instruments/effects.  Is it best to just copy the vst folders and document folders or just take the time to go to the various websites and do the laborious install/reauthorize?  As with the samples, I sort of think I should just load up things I use or should use out of the hundreds of clutter which I DONT! 
 
Ultimately I need to be selective at first, just to have a mobile writing platform...haven't bought additional memory and adding more SSD's is down the road (I can have 3 or 4 internal drives ultimately... I'm new at this so am very curious about the approach you gurus use.... I would really appreciate ur thoughts!

hey vastman . . . you're a good son.
Back in April this year, I also found the need to duplicate my Sonar set up onto a laptop to become more mobile with everything. I'll be interested to hear how you like the gaming laptop you're looking to buy, and how it runs Sonar.
I looked at that one too, but went with something not so much tailored towards gaming, but rather more of a "business class laptop" (spending way more money) hoping that it would last longer and be more stable, and most importantly, better cooling, less fan noise etc . . .
 
As far as migrating samples, VST's, and all things Sonar, I'm not sure there is a lot of choice, since many of the ones I have required re-installs . . . but fortunately I didn't have to do many GB's of downloads, as I still have the download files stored on other drives. You mention Omnisphere, for example . . . so far I've had to re-authorize that many times for some unknown reason on my laptop. The Orange Tree samples files for Kontakt can of course be just copied to your Kontakt folders, so that's easy to do. Sonar was the easiest install to accomplish with Command Center, 20 mouse clicks and a pot of coffee, you're done.
 
Yes, it's a great opportunity for VST spring clean, get rid of the junk, keep the "go to" ones.
One thing I've found is that some of my desktop Sonar mega projects kinda' choke on the laptop, there are some limits . . . but of course you know Sonar has workarounds for that.
 
Best of luck in your laptop adventure, it sounds like you already have it organized efficiently . . . and I might be a little jealous of your " 1TB m2 SSD" . . . I thought I would wait until they got cheaper, but I'm not good at waiting very long for such things.

Thanks, noynekker!  the 1tb m2 ssd has gotten cheap!  $269.90!
 
I went gaming cause of upgradability!  Those gamers like changin' things.  Challenge was to get the base model that all the expensive dooohickys can be added to. asus and msi seemed the only options but asus has more options. It's a killer deal for a 4core/8thread 6 gen i7.
 
I'm getting use to the record audio improvements in S4L... do it a lot more these days even in my desktop which is pretty beefy.
 
Well, gonna start organizing... will take some thought! Hope I can find Kontakt dvds from the old NI Komplete 9... gotta b around here somewhere! Can't just download Kontakt from NI.... arrrrrrg!
 
 

Hey Vastman - you are indeed a great son!
 
I have my studio setup duplicated on a laptop for portable use. With regards vst instruments, just copying the vst folders over will not load the instrument - you need to run the installer. I simply duplicated my samples drive, then ran the installers for the various instruments as they all had an install option that skipped loading all of the sample data. It took very little time and I just had to point the software at the sample library the first time I loaded the synths. This works particularly well in Kontakt as you probably know, where after a barebones install with no sample libraries you can simply load the libraries from inside Kontakt itself.

Thanks, Bruce... Yea, I was hoping for some short cuts but I guess the short cut is not to bother installing anything I haven't used in the past 6 months, which is a LOT!
 
Mom's pushing 90, way up in the Coeur d'Alene  Idaho area...looks like I'll be spending 25% heading to 100% by years end, if I can sell my  place down here and settle things up.  She needs real care and I'm the only family left; she doesn't wanna leave her little house. While I'm slowly working myself up to leaving a pretty amazing space/life I built over the past 20 years, it comes with all kind of "BILLS" to live in the bay area (7K/2.5K alone in property taxes/monthly mortgage) which is a huge noose around my creative neck.  Idaho would be relatively free as things are way cheaper and mom is in dire need of help... offers a lot more time with family and songwriting...and swimmin' in the Spokane river with my dog...
 
The laptop is a transition/travel tool...I ASSUME I can create in her universe... but need to test the isolation!  Right now I'm in a cottage overlooking a canyon, except for the chickens... very quiet!
Downloading all the Komplete iso files now...all I need is kontakt but it ain't that easy!
 

Big changes Dana - but I'm sure you will take your creativity with you wherever you go. They say the only Zen on a mountaintop is what you take there, and yours certainly seems pretty well in tact:) Swimming with your dog in the Spokane sounds pretty fine to me.