one pc, 4 removable hard drives and XP

[Guest]

I have one PC that I use 4 or 5 seperate hard drives for. These hard drives
are used only on this PC. Can I purchase one copy of XP and install it on
the different hard drives to be used only on the one same PC?

 

[Guest]

Hi,

No you must purchase seperate licenses for the various hard disks. the EULA
permits you to install one copy on one disk only.
--
Regards
M. Rajesh
..Net and Windows Shell MVP
www.winxpsolution.com.
Windows MarketPlace Moderator

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I have one PC that I use 4 or 5 seperate hard drives for. These
hard drives are used only on this PC. Can I purchase one copy
of XP and install it on the different hard drives to be used only
on the one same PC?

What you *can* do and what Microsoft *wants* you to do are
two entirely different things. You can install WinXP from the same
installation CD without telephoning a Microsoft rep for permission
as long as 120 days has passed since the last installation. If less
than 120 days have passed, you can call Microsoft and moan that
your hard drive failed and you bought a new hard drive, or you can
claim that you installed a new CPU, etc., and the old WinXP
installation doesn't recognize the new environment. Be aware,
though, that Microsoft claims that multiple installations on one license -
even when used sequentially only on the same PC - is a violation of
its EULA and that it will render sterile any violators thereof.

Here's what you can do to make the whole process simpler:
Install WinXP on one hard drive. Download a free trial copy of
Casper XP from http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/ .
Then use it to copy (i.e. "clone") the contents of the first hard drive
to the other hard drives. When you start up each of the new clones
for its first time, be sure that the "parent" system's hard drive is
disconnected so that the clone will not be able to see its "parent"
system. Once the clone has booted and run for its first time, it will
become an "adult" installation, and subsequent startups can be done
with the "parent" system visible. In such cases, the "parent" system
will merely appear as another partition with a file structure which can
exchange files via simple drag 'n drop with the running system file
structure. If you don't start up the new clone in isolation from its
"parent", the clone will henceforth require the presence of its "parent"
to function properly.

If you want to multiboot the various systems, it's easy, but be sure
you understand the syntax of the boot.ini file and how to adjust the
hard drive boot order in the BIOS. You can also put several WinXP
clones on one hard drive, but be sure to make the partition containing
the correct boot.ini file the "active" partition so that the MBR will pass
control to that partition, and its ntldr program will use that boot.ini .
An easy way to tolerate multiple boot.ini files is to make all of them
universal by pointing to each possible partition on each possible
hard drive in the system at any one time. Keep in mind that "rdisk(x)"
refers to the relative hard drive position in the BIOS's HD boot order,
starting with relative position 0, and "partition(y) refers to the position
of the partition on the HD, starting with position 1.

*TimDaniels*

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

I have one PC that I use 4 or 5 seperate hard drives for. These hard
drives
are used only on this PC. Can I purchase one copy of XP and install it on
the different hard drives to be used only on the one same PC?

Why would you want to do such a thing?


Bobby

 

[Guest]

Because I use different drives for differnt things. For example, I have one
drive just for games, one drive for my personal info, one drive for
audio/video apps and one drive for my work (I am a teacher and do lots of
things at home).

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info! I had actually been thinking of doing that.. using
Acronis True Image 8, which I have been told is really easy to use.

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

Because I use different drives for differnt things. For example, I have
one
drive just for games, one drive for my personal info, one drive for
audio/video apps and one drive for my work (I am a teacher and do lots of
things at home).

Separate drives are overkill and really serve no purpose over partitions.
You would be better off with a couple of large HDD partitioned for your
various uses.

Bobby

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Yes, True Image does have an intuitive GUI, and it does work
as advertized (I've tried it). It *will* transfer *all* the contents of
one hard drive to (*all* of) another hard drive, and that is just
what one wants to do in upgrading to a larger hard drive.
But if you want to copy just one partition out of several on a
hard drive, and/or you want to move that one partition to a
hard drive that has other partitions, you can't do it with True
Image. Casper XP, though, will copy a specific partition to a
specific partition (or to unallocated space) on another hard drive.
It is like Ghost 9.0 in that respect, but without Ghost's requirement
for .NET Framework to be installed, and without Ghost's price.
The downside is that Casper XP does not have the fancy backup
features of Ghost or True Image.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Paul Randall]

Separate drives makes it so easy to have a completely secure system. You
kid and his hacker friends can easily hack a partition but might have more
trouble hacking the hard drive in the safe or in your sock drawer. And they
can't screw anything up by accident either. Mobile racks and cheap hard
drives make it so easy switch drives that this is definitely not overkill.

-Paul Randall

 

[Guest]

BS about TI not doing 1specific partition.

--
Just my 2¢ worth,
Jeff
__________in response to__________

| Yes, True Image does have an intuitive GUI, and it does work
| as advertized (I've tried it). It *will* transfer *all* the contents of
| one hard drive to (*all* of) another hard drive, and that is just
| what one wants to do in upgrading to a larger hard drive.
| But if you want to copy just one partition out of several on a
| hard drive, and/or you want to move that one partition to a
| hard drive that has other partitions, you can't do it with True
| Image. Casper XP, though, will copy a specific partition to a
| specific partition (or to unallocated space) on another hard drive.
| It is like Ghost 9.0 in that respect, but without Ghost's requirement
| for .NET Framework to be installed, and without Ghost's price.
| The downside is that Casper XP does not have the fancy backup
| features of Ghost or True Image.
|
| *TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Whatever it is you mean about True Image "not doing" a specific
partition, I maintain that True Image will not *clone* a specific
partition. It will make an *image file* of a specific partition -
a file that has to be copied back, i.e "restored", in order to function -
but True Image will NOT make a bootable *clone* of a specific
partition and it will not place that clone where you want it on the
destination hard drive. It *will* clone the ENTIRE source hard drive
onto the ENTIRETY of a destination hard drive (just as hard drive
manufacturers' copy utiliites will do), and that is sufficient for people
who just want to upgrade to a larger hard drive. For my purposes,
that limitation is a deal breaker because I have several partitions
on the source hard drive and several archived system partitions
on the destination hard drive, and when I need a functioning backup
clone system I need it NOW - not after the time it takes to uncompress
and copy an image file to somewhere. So I use Casper XP because
it does just what I want.

*TimDaniels*

"» mrtee «" BS'd:

 

[Guest]

Now that you have used the word "clone" I agree, a clone can only be the entire drive. You did not use the word "clone" before.

--
Just my 2¢ worth,
Jeff
__________in response to__________

| Whatever it is you mean about True Image "not doing" a specific
| partition, I maintain that True Image will not *clone* a specific
| partition. It will make an *image file* of a specific partition -
| a file that has to be copied back, i.e "restored", in order to function -
| but True Image will NOT make a bootable *clone* of a specific
| partition and it will not place that clone where you want it on the
| destination hard drive. It *will* clone the ENTIRE source hard drive
| onto the ENTIRETY of a destination hard drive (just as hard drive
| manufacturers' copy utiliites will do), and that is sufficient for people
| who just want to upgrade to a larger hard drive. For my purposes,
| that limitation is a deal breaker because I have several partitions
| on the source hard drive and several archived system partitions
| on the destination hard drive, and when I need a functioning backup
| clone system I need it NOW - not after the time it takes to uncompress
| and copy an image file to somewhere. So I use Casper XP because
| it does just what I want.
|
| *TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Now that you have used the word "clone" I agree, a clone can
only be the entire drive. You did not use the word "clone" before.

That's why there are threads, I guess. What Mr. Loopy wanted
to do was to make bootable copies of an installed WinXP system,
i.e. clones of the system partition (or of the "boot" partition using
Microsoft's inverted terminology). In my 1st reply to him, I did use
the word "clone" in reference to making that copy. But, alas, I didn't
include the entire thread in each posting. For the record, Casper XP
can clone a single partition that contains a bootable operating system
from a source HD that may or may not contain several partitions, and
put that clone onto a destination HD among several other partitions,
and included in that partition will be its boot sector and a setting of
its "active" flag to TRUE.

*TimDaniels*