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#220
Last edited by Brink; 30 May 2011 at 15:01. Reason: added quote
Oh, I possess an Ultimate Retail, this will be the least of my troubles. I was worrying about hardware IDs of the disks. Also, some two weeks will pass between backup & restore. I'm anxious & apprehensive..
At most you may have to activate by phone. Of course, anything on the laptop after the system image was created will not be included though.
Windows uses a mutipoint hardware check for internet activation. Around 8 elements.
ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Product_Activation
This sort of information has also been posted on the MS's own answers forum site.
To me, MS try to balance theft against inconvenience to genuine customers who clearly do change hardware elements (inc. serial numbers).
I think you may need a phone call but I'd be surprised if you had other functional problems.
I think transferring between "identical" OEM PCs may be more difficult because of their different activation method.
It seems I didn't state my real worries too clearly.
I'm worried about the Windows recovery process. Will it behave nicely or will it trouble me when it realizes: ''Whoa, whoa, waitaminute, this is not the same computer! This is not where I came from! You tried to fool me, it all looks the same, but I'm smart, Microsoft made me..I can see right through it! I'm gonna give you trouble now....!''
That sort of thing.
Unless the system image backup itself is corrupted, you will not have any problems with the recovery since you are restoring the image to an identical computer that the image was created from. This includes your drivers and such.
At most after the recovery is finished, Windows 7 may recognize that it is a different computer, and may have you activate via online or phone again. :)
FWIW: and my $0.02 worth.
For $25 you can buy Acronis Home backup imaging software that will allow you to create and restore images easily. One of the problems with microsofts imaging software is that in order to save multiple images you have to put them on a separate drive or use some convoluted method to rename them. (It always wants to store in in the root of a drive.)
With Acronis, you give it the name and where to place it, you can make an image every day and restore is quite fast. I don't have any financial interest in acronis but I buy mine from the user group store at ugr.com and they support it. Best $25 I have spent in a while.
Rich
It seems many people find a 3rd party app. easier to use and more flexible.
Rich really likes his 3rd party backup app. - seems to talk about it in most of his posts.
You might want to look into it - and several others - there are plenty to choose from .
Some very good free versions, too.
I think we understood your question????
My comments are aligned with Brinks.
ie. The PC should technically/functionally work but the activation process may require a phone reactivation (need for activation will depend on how rigorous the 8 point check is).
Your choice of imaging software is up to you. Spend if you want to.
This tutorial does not work for me.
If I pick the " Select a System Image” (Step 2 #6) rather than use the recommended latest one, I get an error message stating that the system image is on a hard disk but Windows need to format that disk to restore your computer.
Everything works fine when I select the select the recommended latest system image but not when I select one of the older system images. It doesn't get to #7 and I get the error msg " the system image is on a hard disk but Windows need to format that disk to restore your computer". The only option I get is back or cancel.
The images were created in the Windows 7 Pro Backup & Restore utility and I'm running the image restore from the System Recovery disk.
I have 2 internal hard drives. The system images of the primary drive were stored on the secondary drive. And now I'm trying to restore the primary drive system image.
Any suggestions?
Last edited by JWrn; 17 Jun 2011 at 13:03.