hopefully one of you can clarify some things for me

[mikenola]

hey all, hopefully one of you can clarify some things for me.

The situation is that a Gateway Laptop from BestBuy died but HD is good. (It has a licensed proprietary app that I need!)
BestBuy of course was useless except to try and sell a new laptop, even with the "insurance".

Got comparable laptop, but only one available was an HP. (The gateway model was discontinued after only 4 months of production according to Best Buy because of hardware problems).

Putting the HD in the new HP of course won't boot.

The Gateway had win 7 Home (OEM) with an Anyware Upgrade to Ultimate applied. I have that license key but not the default key or the COA as BestBuy kept the chassis but sent back the HD.

To run SYSPREP, the system needs to be booted and active, so that seems to be out for me.

I have a Win 7 retail (technet) CD and Keys. Can I run the repair install from that and get a clean OOBE?

If not that, then will a download of Acronis 10 or Paragon Adaptive Restore create a bootable disk and run the "clone" (?) of the HD to an image that I can place over the native HP harddisk? Will it be clean and run the OOBE setup or will it also crash out?

What I am looking at is jumping through some hoops, but I really NEED an application that is on the old HD and can't spent
3K to get a re-install (and no they don't care that my other machine died).


Thanks for any help, I am kinda desperate for that data.

Mike

 

[randallrivy11]

hey all, hopefully one of you can clarify some things for me.

The situation is that a Gateway Laptop from BestBuy died but HD is good. (It has a licensed proprietary app that I need!)
BestBuy of course was useless except to try and sell a new laptop, even with the "insurance".

Got comparable laptop, but only one available was an HP. (The gateway model was discontinued after only 4 months of production according to Best Buy because of hardware problems).

Putting the HD in the new HP of course won't boot.

The Gateway had win 7 Home (OEM) with an Anyware Upgrade to Ultimate applied. I have that license key but not the default key or the COA as BestBuy kept the chassis but sent back the HD.

To run SYSPREP, the system needs to be booted and active, so that seems to be out for me.

I have a Win 7 retail (technet) CD and Keys. Can I run the repair install from that and get a clean OOBE?

If not that, then will a download of Acronis 10 or Paragon Adaptive Restore create a bootable disk and run the "clone" (?) of the HD to an image that I can place over the native HP harddisk? Will it be clean and run the OOBE setup or will it also crash out?

What I am looking at is jumping through some hoops, but I really NEED an application that is on the old HD and can't spent
3K to get a re-install (and no they don't care that my other machine died).


Thanks for any help, I am kinda desperate for that data.

Mike

did u try putting the old hdd in a cradle and run sysprep on it from there

 

[marsmimar]

I think what randallrivy11 is suggesting is that you buy an external enclosure for the old HD. The less expensive ones are about $10.

Newegg.com - enclosure 2.5 sata

You should be able to connect that enclosure to a working machine via USB port (just like any other external hard drive) and access the old HD contents.

 

[Britton30]

I'm not sure an image of the Gateway OS will work on the HP. OEM OSs are tied to a specific machine via hardware IDs. Hopefully you are able to reinstall the proprietary software on the HP.

You can use an external enclosure to recover/copy data from, but not installed programs unless you have the installer saved.

 

[DeaconFrost]

You could possibly run repairs and repair installs to get the drive booting in the new HP, but I have to ask. If this proprietary app is so important, you have to be able to reinstall it somehow, right? If so, just pop your old drive into a cradle and pull off the data files.

Just remember, if you call the data important...then it needs to be backed up in the future.

 

[GEWB]

Try craigslist or fleabay and find your model used/cheap - has to be better than paying $3k for your special application. Clone your old drive to the used laptop - do NOT install it into the used laptop.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[randallrivy11]

I think what randallrivy11 is suggesting is that you buy an external enclosure for the old HD. The less expensive ones are about $10.

Newegg.com - enclosure 2.5 sata

You should be able to connect that enclosure to a working machine via USB port (just like any other external hard drive) and access the old HD contents.

yup im thinking he can run sysprep on it that way then install that image on to the same hdd, and it boot up after he installs it (the same hdd) in to the new computer.

then again i could be wrong...

 

[DeaconFrost]

What company charges $3000 for an application, and offers no way of reinstallation?

 

[Layback Bear]

Very good question DeaconFrost. I just curious what program this is and how it was got.

 

[Zomby88]

What happened to the original poster ??????

And what do you mean by the laptop died ?

It could just need a new motherboard.

I would look to find a used one. Good suggestion.

 

[mikenola]

did u try putting the old hdd in a cradle and run sysprep on it from there

Randall,

no I have not yet bought a cradle for it. That is was another question that I had, if I could run sysprep on an off line drive. That looks to be the best solution so far.

 

[mikenola]

You could possibly run repairs and repair installs to get the drive booting in the new HP, but I have to ask. If this proprietary app is so important, you have to be able to reinstall it somehow, right? If so, just pop your old drive into a cradle and pull off the data files.

Just remember, if you call the data important...then it needs to be backed up in the future.

DeaconFrost, The data itself is backed up. The problem is the app has a license key that requires getting a new one generated by the company and to validate online before it will start. there is no 'cripple mode" just a fat screen saying neener neener you need to pay us.

The foreign keys to get to the data is wrapped in their proprietary code.

The company rep is irate that we are moving the data to a new program that is much more efficient and cheaper.

Unfortunately for me the hardware died before the transition could occur and they are trying to milk every last cent out of us. Their idea of customer service and retention,is to say the least, lacking. Which is another part of the reason for looking for a better solution.

 

[mikenola]

What company charges $3000 for an application, and offers no way of reinstallation?

DeaconFrost, the company bought this app about 12 years ago for their businesses and since the "owners" are dementedly fearful of technology change have stayed with them since. Accepting the fact that they are getting hosed by the company/coder.

The company/coder is a custom shop who has a 'tude about his product. You won't find this on a shelf someplace. He basically considers himself a bit of a coding guru (more like diva!) and thinks everyone who buys off the shelf is an idiot.

The app is a custom database which has all the foreign keys wrapped in the code and the data is encrypted inside the db. This was supposedly a selling point 12 years ago when they bought it, and now is once again coming back to haunt them.

 

[DeaconFrost]

That all sounds like a nightmare, to say the least, but they still don't have a burned copy of the installation media or anything of the sort? Hard drives die and installed applications are lost all the time.

 

[mikenola]

What happened to the original poster ??????

And what do you mean by the laptop died ?

It could just need a new motherboard.

I would look to find a used one. Good suggestion.

Zomby,

The original poster has been running in circles with one foot nailed to the floor

The laptop refused to power up and the main obvious symptom was that the power button would not depress.

Since the owner had purchased this thing at bestbuy and gotten the hardware warranty, it went back there.

They sent it off and then waited quite a bit to report that the "case was cracked", which is crap, and that they would be junking it under the warranty. None of those options was acceptable, so I was able to get the HD back but not the chassis and MOBO. If I had been able to get the chassis back, after warrant set to junk, I could have made it work but that was not to be.

Apparently (according to BestBuy) the particular model was a lemon from the start and Gateway stopped making them pretty quick due to the design flaws. There is some stuff on the Gateway website backing that up so I presume BestBuy is not blowing smoke on that topic.

The data is backed up , it is getting at it that is screwing us, because as I have explained above,. the company/coder is holding them hostage to drain the last little bit of income out of this company before they migrate the data to a new system.

The license agreement at the last update (about 8 months ago) specifically rejects free re-installs for any reason, which of course they did not know as they have been using this damn product for 12 years (and hated every minute of it).

All that said I am going to get a cradle and run sysprep /generalize on it and then face MS activation by phone. Which is the least of my worries.

To hedge my bets I am going to image the drive and turn it into a VHD, If nothing else I will try to sysprep the VHD and bare metal boot from that on the "new" drive.

I will post back once I get a solution that works, just to pass on the info I gain about the process.

 

[mikenola]

That all sounds like a nightmare, to say the least, but they still don't have a burned copy of the installation media or anything of the sort? Hard drives die and installed applications are lost all the time.

Deacon,

The people who own this company are friends of mine, and for the last 10 years I have been working on them to get over their fear of tech change. Without much success.

They are reactive when it comes to tech, not proactive. They prefer to stay on the blunted edge instead of the bleeding edge.. ARRRGGGGHHHH... almost Ludites but not quite. They just got cell phones this year and won't touch a smartphone. go figure.

I was able to get them to actually run the data backup off the machine and I cannot tell you how long it took me to get them "taught" how to do that. It is "FM" to them and scares the crude out of them to change anything with their 'puters.

The challenge to get them to a laptop alone required a hurricane evacuation and the fact they had to load a full tower into their car to evacuate! They are so paranoid they even paid me to block all internet access on the laptop, on the off chance a "hacker" saw them on line and attacked their machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As it stands, if I cannot get the current copy of the app to run, they will bite the bullet and pay for a new license/install and agree to some asinine contract for 10 years of support with the company/coder. All the while knowing they are getting hosed.

This has them losing sleep, literally! They call me all hours of the day or night, every day, to find out the most recent status..... I may kill them and solve this problem if the sysprep does not work..

 

[Bill2]

I'm intrigued why the OP needed a "comparable" laptop. Why couldnt he have purchased any standard gateway laptop to get the data off that drive?

 

[mikenola]

I'm intrigued why the OP needed a "comparable" laptop. Why couldnt he have purchased any standard gateway laptop to get the data off that drive?

Because of the "junk/repair" warranty which says that BestBuy controls what they can get. The "owner" asked for a Gateway and was told they carried nothing that met the "comparable" standards. They were told that this was their option.....I really hate bestbuy for many reasons and this is one of them.

From the activation/booting stand point, not all MOBO's from an OEM will boot HD's from other products of the same OEM on Win 7 and up.

being able to run sysprep /generalize will reset the hardware specific information without deleting the user information. It sets the machine to be able to run in Audit Mode or OOBE, both of which will run "detectHal" which will load the baseline drivers to run the machine with that "foreign" HD installed.

Anything HP specific will have to be worked around, but as long as the sata driver, screen, keyboard and mouse run, I am golden. I will then have to face phone activation with MS, which I can do, but even if it MS won't let me activate I will have enough time to do the data migration I need to get the stuff they need out of the proprietary app database in a way that is not encrypted into the code wrapping the foreign keys.

The best of all worlds is that the HD and OS license will activate and once I migrate the data, they can hold onto a "working' HD as a backup in case they need to get other information out of the program before it needs to re-license in about 4 months.

 

[metalmania31]

Sounds like your company needs a better solution for data storage that's not tied to some proprietary software.

 

[mikenola]

Sounds like your company needs a better solution for data storage that's not tied to some proprietary software.

well matalmania I can certainly agree with that, which is the whole reason for moving them off this P.O.S stinker of an app.

Unfortunately the Tron Gods decided to throw a monkey wrench into the plan.

On the upside I located a nearby sata drive enclosure for sale (not at BESTBUY!) for about 20 bucks and will be getting it tomorrow.

In the mean time I have the old HD in the new HP chassis and boot to Macrium Relfect and am imaging the system partitions with the app etc.

Oddly my usb storage drive is not playing nicely with this HD and macrium. It works fine with the Toshiba and HP drives.

It sees it but it is marked read only, gotta figure out why.

If nothing else, once I get the enclosure it should word to create the image and then convert to VHD and/or restore to new metal.

I am heavily leaning to loading this as a boot-to-bare-metal-VHD and telling them to suck it up on dealing with new tech.