Preserving Vista Activation

[William]

I know there is a way to backup the XP activation and then after a
re-install on the same hardware to copy the files back and have the copy
of XP activated again. Is there a way to do this with Vista?

 

[Michael]

Just save an image of the windows partition/drive; use Acronis or Ghost.
There are ways to save the activation file(s) but it might get corrupted...
google for it.
Michael

 

[John Barnett MVP]

I agree with Michael imaging the drive would be a better bet. You could save
the activation files in Windows XP but, everytime i tried it it never
worked. My preferred method now is to image the hard drive.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
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reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
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[Bill]

I agree with Michael imaging the drive would be a better bet. You
could save the activation files in Windows XP but, everytime i tried
it it never worked. My preferred method now is to image the hard
drive.

In order to save the activation files, you need to ensure you don't
format the hard drive when you re-install. Either that or you would
have to copy the ID of the drive and then re-assign the ID to the
drive since activation stores a copy of it. When you format, the drive
ID changes and activation fails since the hardware ID is different.

I searched Google and haven't found a way yet, but I suspect it should
be possible once the files are identified.

 

[William]

Can I assume what you are writing says, in effect, that neither saving
the activation files or imaging the hard drive will work if the drive
needs to be formatted? I would think that Microsoft is going a bit too
far in the security thing to prevent a user from re-installing Vista on
the same computer that it came from.

 

[Bill]

Can I assume what you are writing says, in effect, that neither
saving the activation files or imaging the hard drive will work if
the drive needs to be formatted?

No you can't assume that. If you image the drive, then the drive ID is
written back with the image and all is good.

What I'm saying is if you save the activation files (not an image),
and then format and re-install, the new install changes the drive ID
and activation must be done again.

 

[William]

My mistake, thanks for the information.

No you can't assume that. If you image the drive, then the drive ID is
written back with the image and all is good.

What I'm saying is if you save the activation files (not an image), and
then format and re-install, the new install changes the drive ID and
activation must be done again.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Bill, my drive wasn't reformatted but the 'fix' still didn't work for me -
hence my decision to image the drive(s).

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[David Hearn]

No you can't assume that. If you image the drive, then the drive ID is
written back with the image and all is good.

What I'm saying is if you save the activation files (not an image), and
then format and re-install, the new install changes the drive ID and
activation must be done again.

Well Ghost doesn't keep the disk ID when restoring the image.

When we used it with XP and W2k on the first boot, Windows would say
"Detected hardware changes - rebooting" and then restart again. When we
looked into this, the disk ID was changing each time we restored the
image and XP was detecting this. It didn't trigger a re-activation -
but certainly required a reboot, even though the hardware hadn't
physically changed at all.

D

 

[William]

Would that be something the might trigger re-activation in Vista?

 

[Guest]

Hi Bill;

I just bought a Dell with WinXP Media Center preinstalled (ug!) on a 320 GB
primary SATA HD.

What I want to do is buy two 80 GB SATA HD's (one for the master and one for
the slave). I keep all of my data files for music and stuff I never want to
lose on an external HD array.

Once I install WinXP Pro or somehow copy the WinXP Media Center OS to one of
the 80 GB HD's, HOW do I make a duplicate of that to the slave 80 GB HD? I
do this so that when my master drive craps out I only need to switch the HD's
and make the jumper adjustments, and image the good HD (now the master,
formerly the slave). THIS way I always have a backup of the OS and all of my
installed programs. As you can tell I hate reinstalling everything once
something goes wrong.

Aay software you could recommend to do this?

Thanks, Fred in California
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Bill]

Hi Bill;

I just bought a Dell with WinXP Media Center preinstalled (ug!) on a
320 GB
primary SATA HD.

What I want to do is buy two 80 GB SATA HD's (one for the master and
one for
the slave). I keep all of my data files for music and stuff I never
want to
lose on an external HD array.

First off you will want to run XP from the 320gig drive since it'll be
a lot faster than an 80gig drive. There is software to "ghost" the
image from drive to drive, but you'll have to remember to do it
regularly or setup a scheduled task to do it.

If you want the convenience of not having to worry about it, you might
consider getting a second 320gig drive instead of two 80s and setup a
RAID 1 where if one drive fails, the second drive is there with a
mirror copy. This is easy to do if your hardware supports it, and you
get the bonus of faster disk read speed on your array.

 

[Gonzo]

Q:

What about Vista Ultimate's built in image backup tool?

What does it do and will it restore the activation or hard drive ID?

Anyone know?

I would like to find this out before I would spring for $400 for this OS.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

The image backup tool will backup your system just as system restore does,
but better. The only problem is that you need to use the Vista DVD to
restore a full system image - see
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/create_a_complete_backup_restore_image.htm and
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/windows_vista_repair_options.htm from my
website.

As system restore keeps the activation 'intact' i assume, although i haven't
personally tried it, that the new Vista backup application will do the same
thing - providing the disk hasn't been formatted prior to re-installing the
image.

If you dual boot, i.e., XP and Vista on the same system you should be aware
that the Vista backup will image 'both' drives. This is because certain
files pertaining to Vista are stored on the XP C: drive.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Gonzo]

Why do you have to have Vista DVD to do a restore?

Currently I use Ghost to back up and restore my XP installation to and from
a second physical hard drive.

Will this technique work with Vista image restore?

 

[David Hearn]

MS has said that Vista is more relaxed in the hardware changes which
trigger an activation (compared to XP).

D

 

[Alias]

MS has said that Vista is more relaxed in the hardware changes which
trigger an activation (compared to XP).

D

Really? I heard differently. Can you provide a source for this?

Alias

 

[John Barnett MVP]

If you are using Ghost as your imaging software then you don't need the
Vista DVD. You 'do' need it if you are using Vista's own build in backup
application. You need it to access the repair options. If you have an OEM
copy of Vista that has been pre-installed the manufacturer may have made
alternative arrangement for you to access the repair options, but that is
left to the relevant pc manufacturer.

Using Ghost, as i have said, is fine. just restore as you normally would.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Gonzo]

OK, I think you may have misunderstood me.

What I was asking is can Vista Ultimat's image backup software write an
image of (for example) my C:\ boot drive and it's data to another physically
installed hard drive and then restore from say my D: drive back to my C
drive without needing a DVD burner or Vista DVD software?

And if it can do this, will my registration data remain intact?

 

[Gonzo]

I forgot to mention that my Ghost software will be obsolete when Vista comes
out. This is why I want to buy a version of Vista with the image software
built in.

And I needed to know exactly how it works so I can be sure it will do for me
what Ghost is doing for my XP installation now.