Serious XP copying question

[Daniel Kaplan]

Ok, this will sound like a piracy thing, but it really isn't, so could use
some serious help here.

I have my laptop that I purchased with XP Home. There was no XP cd or the
likes, just some restore CAB files on a hidden partition, which is ok.

My harddrive has been dying, bit, by bit, and it's time for me to replace
it, which I have bought a replacement drive. But who want's to go and
reinstall all those programs, etc. etc.

So I came up with this genius idea, which I don't know if it will work, so I
figured this was the place to ask.

I take my laptop with bad HD and copy the entire HD to my tower's HD. Then
I put in the new HD, find a way to make it boot on a CD and have network
capabilities, then I copy the files back to the new drive.

Will that work? I would think yes, but it would probably make piracy
easier, although to put this HD in another computer would make it hard since
XP would have all the wrong drivers. But again this is all going on the
same laptop, just replacement HD.

Someone else recommended using Norton's Ghost to do this, but I have no
idea.

Could really use some advice. I understand MSoft's concern about reducing
piracy, but replacing my HD should not involve three days of installs and
the likes.

Many thanks ahead,

Daniel

 

[Malke]

Daniel Kaplan wrote:

(with snippage of irrelevant piracy stuff)

I have my laptop that I purchased with XP Home. There was no XP cd or the
likes, just some restore CAB files on a hidden partition, which is ok.

My harddrive has been dying, bit, by bit, and it's time for me to replace
it, which I have bought a replacement drive. But who want's to go and
reinstall all those programs, etc. etc.

So I came up with this genius idea, which I don't know if it will work, so
I figured this was the place to ask.

I take my laptop with bad HD and copy the entire HD to my tower's HD.
Then I put in the new HD, find a way to make it boot on a CD and have
network capabilities, then I copy the files back to the new drive.

Will that work? I would think yes

(snip)

No. This will not work.

Someone else recommended using Norton's Ghost to do this, but I have no
idea.

That is the correct thing to do. Use an imaging program like Ghost or
Acronis True Image (my preference) and create an image onto an external
hard drive. Then replace your failed hard drive with a new one and restore
the image you just made onto the new drive.

The only question will be whether or not the drive is too damaged to image
correctly and/or if it is imaged successfully whether the damage will be
apparent on the "new" install.

This has nothing to do with piracy.

Malke

 

[Jerry McBride]

Ok, this will sound like a piracy thing, but it really isn't, so could use
some serious help here.

I have my laptop that I purchased with XP Home. There was no XP cd or the
likes, just some restore CAB files on a hidden partition, which is ok.

My harddrive has been dying, bit, by bit, and it's time for me to replace
it, which I have bought a replacement drive. But who want's to go and
reinstall all those programs, etc. etc.

So I came up with this genius idea, which I don't know if it will work, so
I figured this was the place to ask.

I take my laptop with bad HD and copy the entire HD to my tower's HD.
Then I put in the new HD, find a way to make it boot on a CD and have
network capabilities, then I copy the files back to the new drive.

Will that work? I would think yes, but it would probably make piracy
easier, although to put this HD in another computer would make it hard
since
XP would have all the wrong drivers. But again this is all going on the
same laptop, just replacement HD.

Someone else recommended using Norton's Ghost to do this, but I have no
idea.

Could really use some advice. I understand MSoft's concern about reducing
piracy, but replacing my HD should not involve three days of installs and
the likes.

Many thanks ahead,

Daniel

I did that for a friend. I used the dd utility from linux to make a mirror
backup from an old harddrive to a new harddrive of the same exact specs.
Worked like a charm.

Linux is your friend. You can get the same functionality from any live-cd or
live-dvd linux distribution like Knoppix.

Good luck.

 

[Daniel Kaplan]

No. This will not work.

That is the correct thing to do. Use an imaging program like Ghost or
Acronis True Image (my preference) and create an image onto an external
hard drive. Then replace your failed hard drive with a new one and restore
the image you just made onto the new drive.

The only question will be whether or not the drive is too damaged to image
correctly and/or if it is imaged successfully whether the damage will be
apparent on the "new" install.

This has nothing to do with piracy.

Thanks...

I meant it might sound like I am trying to pirate XP for another computer,
but that isn't the case.