Licenses and Hard Drive Cloning

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mcp6453

Customer has three identical computers. He owns three licenses for
Windows XP Professional. He has installed and configured the first
computer and wants to copy the drive for use in the other two computers.
When he copies the drive to keep from having to do each installation
from scratch, how can he copy the drive to the new computer without
creating an activation problem and without violation the XP license
agreement?
 
The later really wont be the problem,one cant XCOPY or mirror a drive
on 1 computer,then expect it to function on another,it woulnt start-up
for 1,they wouldnt be compatable settings.You can copy C: drive on a
computer,to another hd but it'll only function on that computer.To do as
youre trying to do,one could run File Transfer Wizard,set as old computer,
put data on a new folder that you created,then once all data is
finished,transfer
the data to a cd,then run on any other computer.
 
Andrew said:
The later really wont be the problem,one cant XCOPY or mirror a drive
on 1 computer,then expect it to function on another,it woulnt start-up
for 1,they wouldnt be compatable settings.You can copy C: drive on a
computer,to another hd but it'll only function on that computer.To do
as youre trying to do,one could run File Transfer Wizard,set as old
computer, put data on a new folder that you created,then once all
data is finished,transfer
the data to a cd,then run on any other computer.
Click to expand...

sysprep and image it?
 
Andrew said:
The later really wont be the problem,one cant XCOPY or mirror a drive
on 1 computer,then expect it to function on another,it woulnt start-up
for 1,they wouldnt be compatable settings.You can copy C: drive on a
computer,to another hd but it'll only function on that computer.To do as
youre trying to do,one could run File Transfer Wizard,set as old computer,
put data on a new folder that you created,then once all data is
finished,transfer
the data to a cd,then run on any other computer.

:
Click to expand...


It would not be an XCOPY, it would be a BootItNG copy, which is a
partition copy that works great and will result in a bootable hard
drive. So, the original questions remain.
 
use the image and try to activate, if this fails use the
telephone and the other end will advise to enter the new
number and generate the activation on that
 
mcp6453 said:
Customer has three identical computers. He owns three licenses for
Windows XP Professional. He has installed and configured the first
computer and wants to copy the drive for use in the other two computers.
When he copies the drive to keep from having to do each installation
from scratch, how can he copy the drive to the new computer without
creating an activation problem and without violation the XP license
agreement?
Click to expand...

Create an image of the installed copy and copy that image to the hard
drives of the other two computers.

Boot up the 2 computers and use the keyfinder utility from
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/keyfinder.exe to change the key on
those machines to the correct one for their license.

Good luck



Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
The easiest way to do this would be to sysprep the machine which will strip
out all of the unique information, take an image of the pc (I prefer symantec
ghost) then put the image on the other two pc's. When you next boot the pc's
they will run through the setup wizard which will also ask for the licence
key. Once finished login and activate XP.

The only one you may have problems with is the PC that you took the image
from then you will need to go through the reactivation process.
 
Steve said:
The easiest way to do this would be to sysprep the machine which will strip
out all of the unique information, take an image of the pc (I prefer symantec
ghost) then put the image on the other two pc's. When you next boot the pc's
they will run through the setup wizard which will also ask for the licence
key. Once finished login and activate XP.

The only one you may have problems with is the PC that you took the image
from then you will need to go through the reactivation process.
Click to expand...

For a larger number of machines I would agree with you.

For just two machines I think just changing the key after imaging the
drives would be faster and less cumbersome.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
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