C
Chris
Hi folks,
I just wanted to share some experience which maybe can come to good
use for others.
First some preliminaries.
Yesterday a HD broke on a general client we use in our reseption.
This
machine is mainly used to connect to a terminal server for CRM, ERP
aso. All other apps are running locally. Sinse all our machines in
our
reseption is "dumb" in the sense they only got OS, Office and TSC
running on them, I never cared to make a partition copy on another
HD,
nor running Raid1 or a partition oriented backup system. This means I
didn't have any backup for the broken HD, but I had many clients with
almost the very same partition I wanted on this client with a new HD,
so I thought. Why not copying the whole disk from another client, so
that I could do the job quickly!? This was what happend.
1) First I copied the whole OS partition from a working client onto a
new HD, using HDClone (a must for an IT pro). The OS partition is
about 30GB, so it took me less than 3 minutes to boot on the new HD.
2) When I was logging into the desktop, I used an AD account. As I
expected, this was not working well, because AD refused any knowledge
of this machine because the cridentials was wrong. (The fingerprint
of
all hardware was different from the machine I had copied the
partition
from, even though the hardware was identical, but did not have the
same ID numbers). I snapped out the ethernet to use the local copy of
the cridentials, still logging in with an AD account. This took me to
the desktop instantly.
3) Now I got a warning about pirat key for this XP pro installation,
which I expected. I opened regedit, deleted the encrypted XP pro key,
and then went to microsoft to have another go with their validate
server. I punched in the key, which I found on the cover of the
machine, and I was good with MS.
4) Now I tried to log in to the terminal server using an AD account,
only to confirm I was not allowed. Well, I thought, I guess I have to
withdraw my membership in the domain, and so I did. After I rebooted
I
was down to member of a simple workgroup. Now I could ask for a new
membership with the new fingerprint, and after a reboot, i was up and
going logging into AD even with ethernet plugged. I was now allowed
to
log into TS and anything else my user account was allwed to do as
before.
5) Finally I wanted to start outlook, which is installed locally. It
complained about pirate key, and again I went to regedit and this
time
I had to delete two keys refering to office. When restarting outlook,
I was now allowed to punch in a new office key. I went to our
storeage
where we keep all software packages, found the key which was for this
machine, and swooop, I was up and go with all office programs.
It had taken me less than 12 minutes to get a client up and going
without even having a backup. This is just an idea if one of your non
personal clients breaks down, and you didn't care to make a partition
copy of such clients. If I would install the OS from orginal CD, it
would have taken me two hours before client was ready to run.
Information about which keys to be deleted in registry to be able to
change OS and office keys, are easily obtained with two simple
googlings.
Chris Joyce
Lazyness is a bliss. Without it, no progression.
I just wanted to share some experience which maybe can come to good
use for others.
First some preliminaries.
Yesterday a HD broke on a general client we use in our reseption.
This
machine is mainly used to connect to a terminal server for CRM, ERP
aso. All other apps are running locally. Sinse all our machines in
our
reseption is "dumb" in the sense they only got OS, Office and TSC
running on them, I never cared to make a partition copy on another
HD,
nor running Raid1 or a partition oriented backup system. This means I
didn't have any backup for the broken HD, but I had many clients with
almost the very same partition I wanted on this client with a new HD,
so I thought. Why not copying the whole disk from another client, so
that I could do the job quickly!? This was what happend.
1) First I copied the whole OS partition from a working client onto a
new HD, using HDClone (a must for an IT pro). The OS partition is
about 30GB, so it took me less than 3 minutes to boot on the new HD.
2) When I was logging into the desktop, I used an AD account. As I
expected, this was not working well, because AD refused any knowledge
of this machine because the cridentials was wrong. (The fingerprint
of
all hardware was different from the machine I had copied the
partition
from, even though the hardware was identical, but did not have the
same ID numbers). I snapped out the ethernet to use the local copy of
the cridentials, still logging in with an AD account. This took me to
the desktop instantly.
3) Now I got a warning about pirat key for this XP pro installation,
which I expected. I opened regedit, deleted the encrypted XP pro key,
and then went to microsoft to have another go with their validate
server. I punched in the key, which I found on the cover of the
machine, and I was good with MS.
4) Now I tried to log in to the terminal server using an AD account,
only to confirm I was not allowed. Well, I thought, I guess I have to
withdraw my membership in the domain, and so I did. After I rebooted
I
was down to member of a simple workgroup. Now I could ask for a new
membership with the new fingerprint, and after a reboot, i was up and
going logging into AD even with ethernet plugged. I was now allowed
to
log into TS and anything else my user account was allwed to do as
before.
5) Finally I wanted to start outlook, which is installed locally. It
complained about pirate key, and again I went to regedit and this
time
I had to delete two keys refering to office. When restarting outlook,
I was now allowed to punch in a new office key. I went to our
storeage
where we keep all software packages, found the key which was for this
machine, and swooop, I was up and go with all office programs.
It had taken me less than 12 minutes to get a client up and going
without even having a backup. This is just an idea if one of your non
personal clients breaks down, and you didn't care to make a partition
copy of such clients. If I would install the OS from orginal CD, it
would have taken me two hours before client was ready to run.
Information about which keys to be deleted in registry to be able to
change OS and office keys, are easily obtained with two simple
googlings.
Chris Joyce
Lazyness is a bliss. Without it, no progression.