Transferring image to new HDD?

[mikehende]

Hey guys, someone just called me, he wants an exact image of his pc transferred unto a new SSD drive, I told him he would need the license info for all softwares to re-activate them on the new drive, is there any way around this assuming that he does have licenses for softwares on his existing drive please?

[AWS]

Just changing to an SSD shouldn't trigger re-activation. If it does it will work the same way as before. Activate on first boot.

[mikehende]

Just so I understand, if you clone a drive and transfer the image across to a new drive you won't need activation? If that is correct then if you clone a drive but transfer to another machine then you will need activation, this all correct please?

[AWS]

You have it right. A change of hard drive will not trigger an activation as other hardware is the same.

[mikehende]

Thanks, what do you guys use to clone a drive and is there a good "free" reliable software for this?

[AWS]

I use EaseUS. It's free and easy to use.

[mikehende]

Thanks, problem is I am not at all comfortable promising someone that YES, 100% everything will work on the new drive as on the original.

[AWS]

I've done it hundreds of times. Never had a problem. Put new drive in. Clone old drive to new drive. Boot from new drive.

 

 

I will either take out the old drive after first boot or change the cabling so new drive is first in boot change. Can also do that in bios.

[mikehende]

Alright, appreciate the info!

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Mike, I have also done the same and in two different ways, I have cloned from an original standard hard drive to a new SSD, I also have created an image of an existing drive to be stored on an external drive, then used that image to install everything back. In both cases nothing needs to be reactivated as the activation is copied along with everything else, in laymans terms.

It does now depend on what type of backup your friend has used and which program he used to create it.

For what it's worth I used Macrium reflect free version to do both clone, and/or create an image.

Let us know a bit more about what he has done, and what he used to create his image and we can help further if needed.

 

Nev.

[mikehende]

Someone had called me up to inquire about it so I don't have any more info. BTW guys, just for my knowledge, I am guessing the backup can only be reinstalled on the exact same version of whatever OS the image was copied from on the same machine, is this correct? If yes, what about reinstalling on another but identical machine with same OS?

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Mike, it may well work OK providing the hardware is exactly the same if the operating system is Windows 7 or lower, however Windows 8 and above the product key is now embedded in the UEFI BIOS system, add to that the hardware recognition is more sophisticated and from what I can gather it takes note of serial numbers. So I cannot be sure if a transfer to a different but similar machine will work with the higher operating systems, a case of try it and see.

 

A note also about the difference between a system image and a system clone.

A system image is the entire system, operating system, installed programs, and data that is turned into a compressed file for storage on an external storage medium such as an external hard drive. That image can then be reinstalled to the computer should the original drive become corrupted or duff. Usually requires a boot disk to run the install and does take some time to do.

 

A clone is once again everything except it is not compressed and is an exact copy of the system, usually copied onto a spare hard drive that can be installed to replace an original hard drive. No boot disk required and no waiting time.

For home or even business backup purposes I personally think that the expense of having a spare hard drive holding a clone is well worth doing, as it is just the time required to remove a duff drive and fit the spare, the computer is back up and running again.

It may not even be a duff drive, it could be one locked up by one of the ransomewares such as cryptolocker for example.

 

Nev.

[AWS]

Each hardware component has a unique ID. Even if you have 2 computers that are exactly the same with same hardware configuration you couldn't activate the install without a call to Microsoft. Windows XP, the first with activation, and Windows 7 will trigger activation if multiple components are changed at the same time. It knows the components were changed by looking at the hardware ID's.

 

As Nev says Windows 8 and above does things differently so you'd have to call in to activate.

[mikehende]

Thanks for clearing the dual pc situation. Alright so basically a clone is a ready to go Hard drive system just need to swap the drives where as an image would need to be reinstalled? If yes to the latter, I am guessing using either Macrium or Easeus would give you the option to create a boot disk or if not, would you need to create a boot disk from another source like imgburn and include the image file then run the image file once the HDD is booted?