Your harddrives bear unique OS license signatures - Your Windows 7 Ultimate is good only for the harddrive that it sits-on - cloning it means that the license has to be re-authorized - GOOD LUCK on that!

I noticed that in win7 ultimate, there is a separate folder for applications. I am wondering if I can clone this folder and place in the other computer ( a wild guess I suppose). I am not hoping to clone the OS itself. The first computer has windows 7 ultimate while as the other one has windows 7 home. Thanks

RZ

Since the Registry is a key part of the vast majority of applications, it is unlikely that merely copying the folder would work.

Peter

My repeated experience has been that if you're not cloning the *ENTIRE* boot/windows/software partition(s) then it's a whole lot faster, simpler, and easier to install all the programs from scratch than to try to make the copied image work.

" Your harddrives bear unique OS license signatures - Your Windows 7 Ultimate is good only for the harddrive that it sits-on - cloning it means that the license has to be re-authorized - GOOD LUCK on that! "

That certainly hasn't been my experience with Win7 professional ..
An OEM version of windows will be tied to the Motherboard, but no other hardware I am aware of.

I have used Macrium Reflect ( free edition ) to clone my system disk many times..
I use it as my back up routine..

Keep in mind that if the copy of Windows you have on your source computer is an "OEM" version, then you can't license it for use on another computer...

Jim

I use Acronis True Image.

Once you make the boot CD you can make an exact copy using "Clone Disk". That is also how I backup data. I clone the entire drive. I don't use any of the other features.

John

You said "Your harddrives bear unique OS license signatures - Your Windows 7 Ultimate is good only for the harddrive that it sits-on - cloning it means that the license has to be re-authorized - GOOD LUCK on that!"

I have done this numerous times and had no issue with Windows 7. I did have to reauthorize but that took only a second over the internet.

I have moved my boot drive with Windows XP Pro on it to an SSD using Acronis True Image "Clone Disk" and I didn't have to re-register. It made an exact copy.

Is Windows 7 different?

John

I would very much like to do the image clone although I have acornis true image. I have not been successful yet. I have 2 objectives. As an immediate replacement in case of a drive/ OS crash, just switch drives and we are back in business and no hassle reinstalling all the programs. Second objective is upgrading machine and install the clone and viola.

Unfortunately not much success with true image yet.

RZ

Did you try Macrium ?

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

If I understand you correctly, if you plan on cloning a boot drive from one computer and then putting it into a different machine... you might run into problems if the motherboards have different chipsets. If they're quite similar then you might be fine, you might have to do a windows repair but once that's done the new machine should run fine... If the chipsets are different you will almost definitely get a blue screen when booting and windows repair will probably not be able to repair it.

If the two machines have the same hardware, then technically, you can do it, however, if the motherboards are different, it quickly gets more complicated (ignoring the license issues) since all the drivers etc are set up to talk to the existing hardware and use the existing chipsets. I don't know about win 7 - I have seen several articles on how to do it for XP and basically it involves removing all the drivers etc and taking the system back down to a "clean install" mode as far as the hardware is concerned then you let it "re-install" the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) and other stuff. Not for the faint of heart and I certainly would not try it without a backup image of the system so I could try several times to see if I could get it right. As far as the licensing goes, some programs tie to the disk "serial number" etc, while others like Windows have a "fingerprint" of the system it is installed on that is created from some magic incantation (which Microsoft will not reveal) that looks at the ethernet adapter, video card, motherboard and other pieces in the system.. Somewhat like Niagra falls - while it is possible to go over it and survive, the better plan is to drive around :-)

mikey

While the OP's question to begin this thread seems to be tossed around and his point for the Question has largely been overlooked... well it seems several people have ideas about cloning drives.

1) Cloning a boot OS drive created by licensing a MS Windows OEM install is forbidden. Yeah, I know a lot of people are overlooking that fineprint of the license agreement...but you are not supposed to do that.

2) If you buy a retail copy of the OS from MS (and pay more for the license privelege) MS allows you a finite number of re-installs based on their call.

3) The license mechanism from MS is a trade secret - supposedly it is tied to a fingerprint which is a combination of the harddrive, motherboard, and chipset as a unit. MS will not confim under any circumstances whether if you change just one of these items - that your orginal license will be good. Bottomline - they decide if you will be relicensed to a new system.

4) It might be some fanciful conjecture in fact if you could buy identical motheboards at one time, install them with two different types of bootdrives, different network and videocards and see whether one OEM license would cover both. NOT SUPPOSED TO BE>

Unless your hardware is identical you're asking for a host of driver problems, etc.

The only way to see if you can clone to another PC is to try it. No harm if it doesn't work.

I might be unique among the posters here in that I have NEVER had to resort to a total software rebuild, and this dates back to W98 days. My situation is perhaps not very useful to you in that I haven't moved beyond XP. Nonetheless, I've migrated many times over the years from one motherboard to another (I built my own PC way back when and have just updated components as time goes by).

I believe there is a version of Acronis that specializes in allowing a clone to not just a different bare hard drive but to an entirely different chipset, a different matter altogether. Other clone software can no doubt do this also. In any event, you can certainly just try it and see what happens.

I only had success doing this one time, and it was with XP. And the 10 month window had passed where you were allowed to reauthorize the OS on another system. I don't know if Win7 has any such time limits. I cloned my boot drive with Acronis, rebooted to the clone, installed all the motherboard dirvers for the NEW build, and then shut down and moved the drive to a system with new MB, processor, everything. After several safe-mode restarts to fix driver conflicts and unrecognized hardware errors, it did work, but I think I was very lucky.

I appreciate all the valuable input from the members. I think I may have to rethink my strategy:

1) I want to have only the OS on C drive. Then I want to have a clone of this drive in case i need to restore later or swap the entire drive in case of a drive failure.

2) have all application softwares on a different physical drive. Once everything is loaded, I clone this drive if restore/ swap is needed at a later time.

3) have all other media on a seParate drive.

4) I don't think I want to try to move the OS drive to a different computer although I wouldn't mind paying for 2 licenses.

Is this is winning strategy. Any problems, comments, suggestions. Best regards

RZ

I have done this too many times to count, cloning a drive and putting the new drive in a new system. I have had success many times, generally when moving the drive to a similar motherboard. Most problematic is a shift from a motherboard with an Nvidia/AMD type chipset to an Intel based chipset, I believe it has mostly to do with the hard drive controller chips. The reason for cloning, in almost all cases, was that the motherboard or CPU died and was obsolete so a new motherboard had to be purchased. This occasionally results in a windows repair boot that does seem to require reactivation of Windows 7. I've had to call Microsoft to reactivate over the phone, usually needing to talk to a human being, to explain that this is, in fact, an oem machine, but the original hp or whatever motherboard died and I had to replace it with something else. They have always (so far) issued me a new activation number. If the Windows license was an off the shelf Windows 7, then there's no issue at all, but it does sometimes still require a call to MS to get a new, approved #. I did this recently with my daughter's computer, and it was just an upgrade to a faster motherboard and chip, and her license was a Windows 7 family pack upgrade. That was complicated as I had to explain to Microsoft that this PC had once had Vista on it, been upgraded to Windows 7 and now has a new motherboard as the old one was impossibly slow, and this particular install was not a clone of the drive but a fresh install (as the clone would not work on the new motherboard) from the Windows 7 upgrade disk. They licensed it. Might depend on who you get on the line as it always seems like a judgement call by the supervisor or whoever is handling the call.

RZ, ok, after reading your clarification, no problem, at least with the first part, having your clone as a backup. I think that's what lots of people do with cloning software. Create a clone of your boot drive for safety. I use Acronis and I don't generally keep a cloned drive, but create an IMAGE file that can be stored on a large drive that can create a clone of the old drive as needed. As far as 2 licenses go, if you have two licensed copies of Windows 7, they must be the same version, as in Home Premium or Pro etc, but you could then clone your one system drive and put it into another system (if that system's motherboard is the same or very similar).

RE: " Is this is winning strategy. Any problems, comments, suggestions. Best regards "


What you are describing is exactly what I do with Macrium ( free edition)

My OS is Win7 64 Pro - OEM
I clone my system/application disk and keep it as a back up..
I boot it after cloning, just to make sure everything works.

FWIW, my system disk is a 2 x SSD RAID 0, and I clone to a single HDD.. It works perfect and I never have any licensing issues ..

I also clone my data drive(s) and keep them as back-ups..

I have an eSATA docking station that I use for cloning.

I'm sure imaging as ddm suggests is a workable option but requires some kind of bootable recovery media, and there is no way to verify a good image without going through the recovery process.

With a clone, you can just boot it up and verify that it works..