If you can find a friend with a recent version of Norton Ghost (Acronis True
Image might be able to do this too), you can create a boot floppy or boot CD
that can allow you to essentially clone the 120GB drive to the 400GB drive,
without affecting your license significantly. This worked on my cheapo
Compaq. My version of Ghost was not able to copy the MBR (master boot
record); I got around that problem with a DOS program I put on my boot CD,
called MBRWiz which I downloaded from the net. By default, if the 120 GB
drive is a single partition, it will clone it to a single 400GB partition on
the new drive. The Ghost package includes a DOS GDisk program for viewing
and changing the partitioning of a disk prior to cloning if desired, so you
can clone the 120GB drive to any size partition on the 400GB drive. It is
probably best to clone it to the same partition on the destination drive as
it was on the original drive.
On boot-up on the new drive, Vista may or may not think that the new drive
is significant enough to requiring reactivation. For me, it did not require
reactivation. If yours does, try the online method. If that fails, try the
phone activation. If that fails, stay on the line - a live person will help
you. Also, periodically, for no apparent reason, Vista requires
reactivation. Some people think it is associated with Vista upgrades and
driver upgrades. So don't be worried if you suddenly get the dreaded
reactivation or not genuine message. And don't let M$ trick you into paying
for your license again.
-Paul Randall
