Validation Question

[a2mgoog@yahoo.com]

My question is in the last paragraph, if you want to skip right to it.

With hard drives getting so cheap, I want to try out something I read
about. I bought a couple of of 320GB SATA drives for 50 bucks each at
Fry's during the holiday sales, and instead of spending a lot of time
backing up my drive, installing and uninstalling trial programs,
defragging, trying to eradicate viruse and adware, etc., I want to try
duplicate drives.

I'm not talking about RAID. What you do is take two new drives, and
put them in your PC. You set your BIOS to boot from Drive 1. You
partition Drive 1 into a boot and data partition, install Windows, get
all the updates, install all the programs you know you need every day,
and that's your base system. Then you use Acronis or whatever
(actually I'll be using the Seagate program that came free with my
drives, which is made by Acronis but with less features) to duplicate
Drive 1 to Drive 2 (it doesn't have to be an exact duplicate sizewise;
Acronis lets you adjust the partition sizes as you copy it). So you
have the same boot partition on both drives.

Now you go nuts installing all the trial games and software you ever
wanted to try. You never touch the boot partition on drive 2, but you
can use its data partitions to back up your Drive 1 data partitions.
After a month or so, you've tried maybe 50 programs, and you like
three of them. You have tons of orphan directories, your disk is
fragmented, and your registry is a mess. But no problem --- you set
your BIOS to boot from Drive 2, which is still clean and pristine. You
install the three programs you like, and you have your new base system
on Drive 2. If necessary, you can change some drive letters around so
the data partitions look the same, and then you run off of Drive 2 for
a month, and again you can install whatever you want, knowing that you
have a clean, compact backup on Drive 1.

So you just keep alternating the drive you boot from every month ---
sooner if you happen to somehow get a nasty virus or a program that
won't uninstall cleanly, later if you don't install much for a while.
Probably after a while, it will be every three or four months. Sounds
much easier than trying to get rid of programs that install all kinds
of crap in your registry.

MY QUESTION, finally, is this: when I change boot drives every month,
will I have to revalidate Windows every month, or is there even a
chance they will stop letting me revalidate after a while? If you
didn't read the explanation above, or if it wasn't clear, I want to
switch my boot drive back and forth every month, but both drives are
in the same PC. Thanks for any help.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

<a2mgoog@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e3b0f15d-efb5-483e-a893-ffd93543d881@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> My question is in the last paragraph, if you want to skip right to it.
>
> With hard drives getting so cheap, I want to try out something I read
> about. I bought a couple of of 320GB SATA drives for 50 bucks each at
> Fry's during the holiday sales, and instead of spending a lot of time
> backing up my drive, installing and uninstalling trial programs,
> defragging, trying to eradicate viruse and adware, etc., I want to try
> duplicate drives.
>
> I'm not talking about RAID. What you do is take two new drives, and
> put them in your PC. You set your BIOS to boot from Drive 1. You
> partition Drive 1 into a boot and data partition, install Windows, get
> all the updates, install all the programs you know you need every day,
> and that's your base system. Then you use Acronis or whatever
> (actually I'll be using the Seagate program that came free with my
> drives, which is made by Acronis but with less features) to duplicate
> Drive 1 to Drive 2 (it doesn't have to be an exact duplicate sizewise;
> Acronis lets you adjust the partition sizes as you copy it). So you
> have the same boot partition on both drives.
>
> Now you go nuts installing all the trial games and software you ever
> wanted to try. You never touch the boot partition on drive 2, but you
> can use its data partitions to back up your Drive 1 data partitions.
> After a month or so, you've tried maybe 50 programs, and you like
> three of them. You have tons of orphan directories, your disk is
> fragmented, and your registry is a mess. But no problem --- you set
> your BIOS to boot from Drive 2, which is still clean and pristine. You
> install the three programs you like, and you have your new base system
> on Drive 2. If necessary, you can change some drive letters around so
> the data partitions look the same, and then you run off of Drive 2 for
> a month, and again you can install whatever you want, knowing that you
> have a clean, compact backup on Drive 1.
>
> So you just keep alternating the drive you boot from every month ---
> sooner if you happen to somehow get a nasty virus or a program that
> won't uninstall cleanly, later if you don't install much for a while.
> Probably after a while, it will be every three or four months. Sounds
> much easier than trying to get rid of programs that install all kinds
> of crap in your registry.
>
> MY QUESTION, finally, is this: when I change boot drives every month,
> will I have to revalidate Windows every month, or is there even a
> chance they will stop letting me revalidate after a while? If you
> didn't read the explanation above, or if it wasn't clear, I want to
> switch my boot drive back and forth every month, but both drives are
> in the same PC. Thanks for any help.

Instead of swapping disks once every few months, you could
do it like so:
1. Using Acronis or a similar imaging program, create an image
of your installation right now while Windows is in perfect nick.
2. Later on you create a new image once every few months.
3. You keep the original image plus the two most recent images.

With this scheme you are fully protected no matter what. There
is no need to swap disks or to revalidate your installation. On top
of that you always have your very first image you can go back to.

There is one restriction: You should keep your data (including
your EMail files) on a separate partition. If you don't then your
images get much too large.

 

[Anna]

> <a2mgoog@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:e3b0f15d-efb5-483e-a893-ffd93543d881@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>> My question is in the last paragraph, if you want to skip right to it.
>>
>> With hard drives getting so cheap, I want to try out something I read
>> about. I bought a couple of of 320GB SATA drives for 50 bucks each at
>> Fry's during the holiday sales, and instead of spending a lot of time
>> backing up my drive, installing and uninstalling trial programs,
>> defragging, trying to eradicate viruse and adware, etc., I want to try
>> duplicate drives.
>>
>> I'm not talking about RAID. What you do is take two new drives, and
>> put them in your PC. You set your BIOS to boot from Drive 1. You
>> partition Drive 1 into a boot and data partition, install Windows, get
>> all the updates, install all the programs you know you need every day,
>> and that's your base system. Then you use Acronis or whatever
>> (actually I'll be using the Seagate program that came free with my
>> drives, which is made by Acronis but with less features) to duplicate
>> Drive 1 to Drive 2 (it doesn't have to be an exact duplicate sizewise;
>> Acronis lets you adjust the partition sizes as you copy it). So you
>> have the same boot partition on both drives.
>>
>> Now you go nuts installing all the trial games and software you ever
>> wanted to try. You never touch the boot partition on drive 2, but you
>> can use its data partitions to back up your Drive 1 data partitions.
>> After a month or so, you've tried maybe 50 programs, and you like
>> three of them. You have tons of orphan directories, your disk is
>> fragmented, and your registry is a mess. But no problem --- you set
>> your BIOS to boot from Drive 2, which is still clean and pristine. You
>> install the three programs you like, and you have your new base system
>> on Drive 2. If necessary, you can change some drive letters around so
>> the data partitions look the same, and then you run off of Drive 2 for
>> a month, and again you can install whatever you want, knowing that you
>> have a clean, compact backup on Drive 1.
>>
>> So you just keep alternating the drive you boot from every month ---
>> sooner if you happen to somehow get a nasty virus or a program that
>> won't uninstall cleanly, later if you don't install much for a while.
>> Probably after a while, it will be every three or four months. Sounds
>> much easier than trying to get rid of programs that install all kinds
>> of crap in your registry.
>>
>> MY QUESTION, finally, is this: when I change boot drives every month,
>> will I have to revalidate Windows every month, or is there even a
>> chance they will stop letting me revalidate after a while? If you
>> didn't read the explanation above, or if it wasn't clear, I want to
>> switch my boot drive back and forth every month, but both drives are
>> in the same PC. Thanks for any help.


"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
news:uaxteHxSIHA.5016@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Instead of swapping disks once every few months, you could
> do it like so:
> 1. Using Acronis or a similar imaging program, create an image
> of your installation right now while Windows is in perfect nick.
> 2. Later on you create a new image once every few months.
> 3. You keep the original image plus the two most recent images.
>
> With this scheme you are fully protected no matter what. There
> is no need to swap disks or to revalidate your installation. On top
> of that you always have your very first image you can go back to.
>
> There is one restriction: You should keep your data (including
> your EMail files) on a separate partition. If you don't then your
> images get much too large.


a2mgoog:
While you can do what you want to do and not be concerned with any
validation issues, let me offer you another alternative to consider, one
that I consider a superior hardware configuration for a desktop PC, assuming
your computer case has one or more available 5 1/4" bays, as I will
explain...

Why not consider equipping your desktop PC (you didn't say but I'm assuming
you're working with a desktop machine) with removable hard drives?

Assuming that you're working with a desktop computer case that has at least
one vacant 5 1/4" bay presently available (better yet would be two available
bays), you could equip that desktop PC with at least one removable HDD,
perhaps in addition to the internal HDD that's already installed in your
system.

Are you familiar with these devices? These "mobile rack" devices contain a
removable HDD and are two-piece affairs - the rack itself and the inner tray
or caddy (in which the hard drive resides) that slides into the rack. They
come in all-aluminum models or a combination of aluminum-plastic or
all-plastic models ranging in price from roughly $25 to $50. So they're not
particularly expensive items. Mobile racks come in various versions,
depending upon whether the hard drive to be housed is an IDE/PATA, SATA, or
SCSI device. A Google search for "removable hard drive mobile racks" will
result in a wealth of information on these products and their vendors.

The installation of these devices is simplicity itself - no more difficult
than installing an optical drive. After the rack is installed you just plop
the hard drive into the removable tray (caddy), make two simple connections
(power & data cable - and depending upon the design of the tray & rack even
those connections are frequently unnecessary), and slide the tray into the
mobile rack. Note that the removable hard drive mobile racks we are
discussing are designed to be installed in desktop computers and not laptop
or notebook computers. The size, weight, and design considerations of
laptops/notebooks do not allow for this hardware configuration.

These mobile racks are nearly always equipped with a ON-OFF keylock, so that
a
simple turn of the key, in effect, activates the HDD. For added security you
can push or pull the removable tray in or out of the rack using the tray's
handle, thus electrically/physically connecting or disconnecting the HDD
from the system. Doing so is no more difficult than opening or closing a
small desk drawer.

Understand that the removable hard drive affairs we're discussing treat the
HDD in its mobile rack/removable tray as an *internal* HDD, not an external
HDD, so you have *all* the advantages of using that HDD as a bootable,
internal HDD.

Can you see the enormous advantage of this type of hardware configuration as
it applies to your day-to-day computer activities? Consider these...

1. Now you will be able to maintain your working internal HDD "clean", while
you install this or that program on the removable HDD. You can "play around"
with all sorts of programs & configurations on that removable HDD knowing
that your "real" HDD is completely isolated from any problems that may
arise.

2. Assuming you have installed an operating system on the removable HDD or
(using a disk imaging/disk cloning program) "cloned" the contents of your
present internal HDD to the removable drive, you can boot to either HDD
without the need to enter the BIOS or use a third-party boot manager. There
is no need to modify the boot.ini files.

3. Each drive is effectively isolated from each other, but if for any reason
you want both drives connected during bootup, you can easily achieve that
configuration as well. It's an ideal system for computing with multiple
operating systems or meeting one's special interests.

4. Still another significant advantage of using a removable HDD is that now
you can have an *unlimited* number of HDDs at your disposal by simply using
additional removable trays to house the drives. So that another important
advantage of using this hardware configuration is that you'll be able to use
another removable HDD as the backup drive for your day-to-day working HDD or
for any reason whatsover.

We've worked with these removable hard drive affairs for more than seven
years
now and have helped hundreds of users install & operate this kind of system.
We have found this hardware arrangement a most desirable configuration for
many users. We've encountered no negative performance issues using these
devices in comparison with internally-installed HDDs and find the
flexibility and peace of mind you gain from this configuration an enormous
advantage.

Do give it some thought.
Anna

 

[a2mgoog@yahoo.com]

On Dec 30, 10:14 am, a2mg...@yahoo.com wrote:
> My question is in the last paragraph, if you want to skip right to it.
>
> With hard drives getting so cheap, I want to try out something I read
> about. I bought a couple of of 320GB SATA drives for 50 bucks each at
> Fry's during the holiday sales, and instead of spending a lot of time
> backing up my drive, installing and uninstalling trial programs,
> defragging, trying to eradicate viruse and adware, etc., I want to try
> duplicate drives.
>
> I'm not talking about RAID. What you do is take two new drives, and
> put them in your PC. You set your BIOS to boot from Drive 1. You
> partition Drive 1 into a boot and data partition, install Windows, get
> all the updates, install all the programs you know you need every day,
> and that's your base system. Then you use Acronis or whatever
> (actually I'll be using the Seagate program that came free with my
> drives, which is made by Acronis but with less features) to duplicate
> Drive 1 to Drive 2 (it doesn't have to be an exact duplicate sizewise;
> Acronis lets you adjust the partition sizes as you copy it). So you
> have the same boot partition on both drives.
>
> Now you go nuts installing all the trial games and software you ever
> wanted to try. You never touch the boot partition on drive 2, but you
> can use its data partitions to back up your Drive 1 data partitions.
> After a month or so, you've tried maybe 50 programs, and you like
> three of them. You have tons of orphan directories, your disk is
> fragmented, and your registry is a mess. But no problem --- you set
> your BIOS to boot from Drive 2, which is still clean and pristine. You
> install the three programs you like, and you have your new base system
> on Drive 2. If necessary, you can change some drive letters around so
> the data partitions look the same, and then you run off of Drive 2 for
> a month, and again you can install whatever you want, knowing that you
> have a clean, compact backup on Drive 1.
>
> So you just keep alternating the drive you boot from every month ---
> sooner if you happen to somehow get a nasty virus or a program that
> won't uninstall cleanly, later if you don't install much for a while.
> Probably after a while, it will be every three or four months. Sounds
> much easier than trying to get rid of programs that install all kinds
> of crap in your registry.
>
> MY QUESTION, finally, is this: when I change boot drives every month,
> will I have to revalidate Windows every month, or is there even a
> chance they will stop letting me revalidate after a while? If you
> didn't read the explanation above, or if it wasn't clear, I want to
> switch my boot drive back and forth every month, but both drives are
> in the same PC. Thanks for any help.


I just noticed that I forgot to say that after you switch boot drives
and install the programs you know you want to Drive 2, you image it
over to Drive 1, effectively uninstalling all the programs you don't
want, only much faster and with no residual entries in the registry.

I do appreciate the suggestions I got in response, but I suppose that
there are many different schemes, each with their pros and cons, for
configuring a PC. What I am looking for is an authoritative answer to
the question about activation/validation for my particular setup, i.e.
two different boot drives in the same PC. Thank you.