Copy Win-XP System Disk to another PC (Backup only )

[Guest]

To have some kind of "Cold Standby" for a production system running XP Prof I
want to have identical XP systems on two PCs with same HW-configuration.
Every PC consists out of a system disk (XP, application programs) and two
mirrored external disks with data only.
In case of failure of first PC I simply want to connect the external
data-disks to the second PC and boot.
For ease of XP-installation, I want to clone the system disk of the first PC
to the second one.
Will that work without a new registration of XP ?
Does that violate licensing rules of MS, although the same XP license is
only used on one PC at a time ?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

To have some kind of "Cold Standby" for a production system running XP Prof I
want to have identical XP systems on two PCs with same HW-configuration.
Every PC consists out of a system disk (XP, application programs) and two
mirrored external disks with data only.
In case of failure of first PC I simply want to connect the external
data-disks to the second PC and boot.
For ease of XP-installation, I want to clone the system disk of the first PC
to the second one.
Will that work without a new registration of XP ?
Does that violate licensing rules of MS, although the same XP license is
only used on one PC at a time ?

I think you will have to re-register the Windows on the second
machine, because it will sense that it's now running on a
different machine.

Regardless of this, if you want a hot stand-by then you MUST
test it yourself while you have the opportunity. You cannot rely
on newsgroup responses. When the crunch comes and if the hot
stand-by does not work for some reason, will you be able to
look your boss in the face and tell him "Sorry, I was told that
this should work"?

 

[Mercury]

Get IDENTICAL h/w.

IE same motheboard revisions, same network chips, same bios versions, etc.
etc. etc.

Coming out of a box that looks the same is not enough checking. Most
motherboards have revision numbers printed either on them or on a label
stuck somewhere EG on the side of a PCI socket.

BIOS version numbers are displayed at the start of boot.

If the versions don't match, it is possible for on-board peripherals EG
network, and other chips to be different. Some times the BIOS are quite
different (incompatible). The impact this could have is that you might have
to do a repair install when transfering HDD's. This is quite unlikely, but
obviously to be avoided.


It is important to rehearse this type of backup to find out what does
happen.

 

[Guest]

If this is for "Cold Standby" as you say, why not use this approach. i did
this recently and it worked perfectly for an emergency backup. You may not
need two PCs.
Get a another hard drive, and clone the hard drive that you want to backup.
I suggest using ghost. If done properly, fix the second hard drive in the
system and leave it there not connected to the board or power. Once there is
a problem with the system, all that need to be done is to open the system
case, unplug the signal and power cables from the original hard drive and
plug them to the new hard drive. The system will work perfectly.

 

[Guest]

I think you will have to re-register the Windows on the second
machine, because it will sense that it's now running on a
different machine.

Regardless of this, if you want a hot stand-by then you MUST
test it yourself while you have the opportunity. You cannot rely
on newsgroup responses. When the crunch comes and if the hot
stand-by does not work for some reason, will you be able to
look your boss in the face and tell him "Sorry, I was told that
this should work"?

Of course, I will test it. But before ordering the HW, I want to know of
course, whether I have a good chance that it will work. I did same system
already with W2k, and no problems, because I took care of same mobo/rev. no.
etc.
But now there is XP, and according to your answer the chance it not even
50:50, right ?
Again, I will take care of identical HW, so the only real problem I can
think of is the CPU-ID, which Intel burns into their CPUs. But does XP check
it ?????

 

[Guest]

Yes, I want to use cloning of the system disk with "Ghost". But what do you
do in case of failure of the mobo, of the network card etc. ?
My users tell me: The system does not work. I only want to tell them: Switch
the PC, which means, connect the data disks to the second machine, connect
all serial lines, keyboard, monitor and mouse to the second PC. And off it
goes (or it should, at least). Where the real problem is, can be checked
later on.
I did the same system with W2k, it worked perfectly: data on external
drives, with RAID. Switch-over time: 5 minutes. With XP it should be faster
because of fast boot.
Only question: What does XP really check ? In case, it also checks the
CPU-ID, then of course I have no chance.

 

[Len Segal]

To answer the second part of your question . . .

If you setup a second machine you definitely need a second license and
activate that system with MS. That is to prevent a Copyright violation
(legal issue, 1 license = 1 system).

If you have identical HW, you can clone the drive (Ghost or Drive Image),
test the system and then keep it for standby.