Preserving Vista Activation

[John Barnett MVP]

From what i have read it appears that you can completely destroy your hard
drive and still install the backup on another drive and everything will be
intact. In this case you will need the Vista DVD.
As for your other question i will have to try it. Give me a day or so and
i'll see what happens. I do know you can have the files copied to another
drive, because i have done it myself. I'll get back to you.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

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

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[Jeff]

John,
No need to test it.
been there, done that.
works fine using Complete PC Backup and Restore, at least.
wiped out my hd; and used a Complete PC Backup and Restore image I had made.
No problemo

Jeff

 

[John Barnett MVP]

But because you wiped out your hard drive i assume you had to use the Vista
DVD to access the repair options in order to reinstall the image? Or is it a
case that Vista makes the backup DVD which stores the image bootable?

from what i understand Gonzo want, presumably, to create a backup on another
drive. This, of course, will work, and, presumably, one can re-image from
within Vista. But if you can't access the Vista partition you are going to
need the vista DVD in order to restore the backup.


--
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
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[Jane C]

Complete PC Backup needs the Vista DVD. That is how one gets to the restore
stage, by booting with the Vista DVD and selecting the restore options. It
doesn't matter where the backup is...hard drive, external hard drive,
spanned DVDs. If you go to the Backup and Restore Center, and attempt a
complete pc restore, you will be prompted to reboot with the Vista DVD in
the drive.

 

[Jeff]

yup
havta have the dvd

But because you wiped out your hard drive i assume you had to use the
Vista DVD to access the repair options in order to reinstall the image? Or
is it a case that Vista makes the backup DVD which stores the image
bootable?

from what i understand Gonzo want, presumably, to create a backup on
another drive. This, of course, will work, and, presumably, one can
re-image from within Vista. But if you can't access the Vista partition
you are going to need the vista DVD in order to restore the backup.


--
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
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[Gonzo]

OK so you mean the actual Vista OS Installation DVD or CD right?

 

[Jeff]

Gonzo,
yup, the Vista DVD
works great

Jeff
I always get the media, when I bought a Dell; I paid 10$ extra but got the
real deal XP install disk with it,not just their recovery crap.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

btw, most folks don't know this, but a five-cd set of Vista x86 installation
cd's exists. The spanned set is available on MSDN for developers who don't
have dvd drives. Think about that one for a minute.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Thanks Jane, that was my understanding of how Complete PC Backup worked,
that the only way you could get a complete backup to re-image was to use the
Vista DVD. Personally i don't use the complete PC backup option, I much
prefer acronis true image.

Thanks again for your input


--
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
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[Jeff]

Well,
you might want to check it out,
seeing as you are an MVP
it works nice, btw

Jeff

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Hi Jeff, I've tried it out this evening and yes it does work well. My only
complaint is that there is no compression. I currently dual boot (windows XP
and Vista), because Vista puts files (bootloader etc) on the C: drive
(windows XP) complete PC Backup has to backup both the windows xp drive and
the vista drive. The operating system and applications for both Xp and Vista
amount to 22GB. On creating a backup the complete PC Backup requires a
partition larger than 22GB or 6 DVD before the backup can continue. With
Acronis i backed up both drives tonight and they consumed, on high
compression, a total of 9GB.
Complete PC backup's downfall is its lack of compression.

--
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
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[Jeff]

John,

whoa,
thats a lot of stuff!!!
heck,lil ole' me is Vista only now,
don't have much on here; and for me it was only 1 1/2 dvd's.
but it is nice.
Guess you would need compression with all that stuff.
Just tryin to help out the OP about PC backup in Vista.
Jill's group did a nice job; well in the end. LOL
back before 5744 it didn't spell out that you needed to put the last dvd in
first, and being like alot of people; I never backed up stuff; and couldn't
figure out why putting in dvd 1; it would say it couldn't find a backup!!!!
lol
just the directions needed tweaking.
I've used it twice since; and works great for me; a backup noob.
For stuff like you do; yup; it's probably better to get 3rd party stuff.



Jeff

 

[Jane C]

37.2GB is the size of my WindowsImageBackup folder on my storage drive ;-)
That's 2 complete operating systems. And a blank partition. (The contents
of 2 complete physical hard drives)

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Jeff, as i run two support sites http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org and
http://vistasupport.mvps.org it is necessary that i keep both operating
systems on my system. If someone has a problem with XP and i'm not sure of
the exact directional solution i can simply boot to XP go through the
directions procedure and then advice accordingly.

--
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..

 

[Jeff]

John,

No need for an explanation,lol,
(nice plug for your sites though :-o )
As a thought, what about VPC'in XP in Vista?
Save ya on room!!! Plus, with VPC you can have both running at the same
time.
Dual booting is a pita.

Jane's got ya beat btw,


Jeff

 

[John Barnett MVP]

I'm already testing VPC 2007 beta, so yes it is an alternative.

--
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
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