A Simple Question?

[Dreanmachine]

My System hard drive is dying (SMART technology has
predicted it's failure). I have safely created a backup
image of the hard drive using Norton Ghost. I will be
replacing the system hard drive in a week or so when I
can get a good deal on a new drive (any recommendations
on where to shop for the best deals?). Here is the
question of the day.

Can I just format the new drive (NTFS), do a restore of
my backup system image with the DOS version of Ghost (on
floppy), and be good to go with my Windows XP Activation
upon the restore of the data to the new drive (and boot
into Windows again)? Or, do I have to do something to
allow the Windows XP activation to continue with a new
piece of hardware, like a replacement hard drive? Please
advise. Would it really be all that simple? Thanks in
advance!

 

[taurarian]

My hard drive failed recently but a backup was made using
Norton's Ghost.
The tech replaced my HD and restored my computer from the
Ghost file and all was well including activations.
This is my own personal experience.
The only thing that was replaced was the HD.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Can I just format the new drive (NTFS), do a restore of
my backup system image with the DOS version of Ghost (on
floppy), and be good to go with my Windows XP Activation
upon the restore of the data to the new drive (and boot
into Windows again)? Or, do I have to do something to
allow the Windows XP activation to continue with a new
piece of hardware, like a replacement hard drive?

You can go ahead. Activation will normally be retained, but I would
make a copy of the two files windows\system32\wpa.dbl and wpa.bak to a
floppy so you could copy them back after restoring to the new disk if it
should prove necessary. Also, see www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm and the
Hint in 'Format a disk' to restore the Volume Serial number to match the
old drive's.

I'd actually approach the matter by doing an exact copy of the present
disk to the new one (connected temporarily as a slave), for which I
would use BootIT NG, from http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30
day full functional trial)

You also need to ensure that the new disk gets the necessary MBR code
written to the first sector of the disk, outside the partition.
Restorations will not necessarily do this, but you can conveniently with
a Win98 startup floppy and its FDISK /MBR, or rather less so by booting
the XP CD and, instead of Setup, taking the immediate R for Repair.
Assume any password requested is blank, and TAB over. Then use
the command
FixMbr

 

[NobodyMan]

My System hard drive is dying (SMART technology has
predicted it's failure). I have safely created a backup
image of the hard drive using Norton Ghost. I will be
replacing the system hard drive in a week or so when I
can get a good deal on a new drive (any recommendations
on where to shop for the best deals?). Here is the
question of the day.

Can I just format the new drive (NTFS), do a restore of
my backup system image with the DOS version of Ghost (on
floppy), and be good to go with my Windows XP Activation
upon the restore of the data to the new drive (and boot
into Windows again)? Or, do I have to do something to
allow the Windows XP activation to continue with a new
piece of hardware, like a replacement hard drive? Please
advise. Would it really be all that simple? Thanks in
advance!

A hard drive change shouldn't trip the WPA and prompt you to
re-activate.

On another vein, don't bother formatting the drive. Ghost will
partition, format, and then put all the data on the drive for you.