Subj : Re: Cloning a 2.5" IDE/PATA Laptop Hard drive To : All From : Some@Guy.C0M Date : Thu Jan 31 2019 19:16:21 Path: eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org !feeder.eternal-september.org!news.mixmin.net!news.neodome.net!.POSTED!not-for- mail From: Some Guy Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general Subject: Re: Cloning a 2.5" IDE/PATA Laptop Hard drive Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2017 08:41:35 -0500 Organization: Mixmin Message-ID: References: <2e49F9HceGAaFw0R@soft255.demon.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2017 13:39:54 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: neodome.net; posting-account="jxuDA6T/1ygC1CBVnd0aV29b/lV9rI4F2kcNfdx1PCuToKJhOaCdnuBsJKC+0S GOydMDthc2Sdrv wQSMVk7oJ9i3qldCntt28fAWxSC9nKfb7+qCerIfnCrMaRV+hg4S8nRK/Ob38pPRNvrKDwn2QgeY 5Y+s0zNxeeJ6gC2P4HRFkjqxMf+V6ZA4A4Hh/B69gMxubArhYRZBbGmOu9hGAS/R5UNR037J1c+M tmavamk1tv2SleE6T0KsDWz1SGKBduFm/oqHktSFhisOzYR6dbtxrP9a5Nhz4njo8E5hZoR4Ri16 FMXfsm8hADCAWBdnj91L8obVnpQcg/oZQUodQg=="; posting-host="FZQA4NHgFz0f7Erqpftx4WQTGvKcosCGFpttXjcg0JxCOPArumM5FcB8VIRmiE/rT InGj1w/d8Qj uAPHz399hU+ZEFuuLb5cVXcQV8y09X6371ul/mNE4eXsvz+Iho8l8ozNuBWx2ajr0hMoeFlEL89T CdqAWvbZrqOvzzrcNCqAowBnu2n0A99I1+gxZfbvHIn6FPthn7OLamzSXslpMJmOkTksO1JUNliu 7CtqdWRfudYKEW7UXGOa9GoYnGn9+0Mn2C5ziDDZCf9VIbhrEazRRE7XySD7RdMWN6eaHhMuMZdt p1m9e52x5IsQiADvUIUHyWDOIwc9TEaJzB99GQ=="; logging-data="7099"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@neodome.net" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en In-Reply-To: Xref: news.eternal-september.org microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:134456 J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: > Just out of curiosity, why have you cloned so many from "a handful"? We made several hundred windows-based systems with custom hardware during the 2000's and early 2010's. These were "turn-key" and had Windoze pre-installed on them. About half were win-98, the latter half being XP. The CD's were bought in packs of 5 (System Builder) and were included when these systems were shipped, but I found it easier to just keep a master drive updated periodically with patches, customized settings and accessory software and just clone the drive vs trying to replicate that with each system build. I know there was a sysprep tool that was supposed to accomplish that, but we wanted these systems to just boot right up the first time the customer used it, no entering in the license key and going out to validate itself. Sometimes (quite often actually) these systems did not end up being connected to the internet anyways. The hardware in these systems were updated a few times over this time-frame, so many of them shared exactly the same hardware configuration (motherboard, cpu, ram, cd drive, hard drive, video, etc). So cloning the hard drive was an easy decision. I kept a notebook of all the XP keys that went out for these systems, knowing practically all of them would never actually be used (ie - seen by a Micro$haft activation server). From time to time when I needed to build an XP system for personal or in-house use, I'd just reach into that list and use one of those keys. The system-builder keys are great because they are not tied to any specific hardware or system make / model like OEM keys are. > Is that going to be either easier or better than Macrium or Acronis? (Or > does Hiren include one or both of those?) Hiren's BootCD is at version 15.3 (or maybe higher?). Previous versions have included Macrium Reflect 4.2.3775 and Acronis True Image 8.1.945 (or higher). I don't know if the current / latest version still includes Macrium or Acronis. Sometimes commercial stuff gets removed from Hiren's so different versions will contain a different mix of software. You probably need to get older (maybe more desirable) versions of Hiren's from mirror sites or torrent. >> Yes, a system that hasn't tried to re-validate itself in the past 120 >> days should be in the clear to do it again, but I think the risk is >> too high if you can avoid it. The risk that your product key has, for >> what-ever reason, been added to Micro$haft's black-list of keys. > > Does XPinfo (on machines where it works!) cover this, or only compare > the system to how it was at (last) activation? (Or original activation?) I think I knew that XPinfo didn't work with VLK, but I thought it did work with OEM licenses. I can tell you it works with system builder and retail licenses, and *I think* MSDN / Technet subscriptions too. XPinfo will tell you the current state of which components are the same now vs when XP was last validated (which is usually, but not necessarily when XP was originally installed). --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.1 * Origin: Prison Board BBS Mesquite Tx //telnet.RDFIG.NET www. (1:124/5013) .