One copy of Vista on two hard drives?

[PCJake]

I've got the system builder's edition of Vista 64-bit installed on a Raptor 150GB right now. I've got a velociraptor coming, and once I get it I would like to be able to install Vista on it using the same disc. Will I be able to activate the new install? If so, will I be able to keep Vista installed on the old Raptor?

 

[DrGreen2007]

Sounds like it would be much much easier to image the 150gb to the 300gb drive, why bother reinstalling everything?

 

[PCJake]

Originally posted by: DrGreen2007
Sounds like it would be much much easier to image the 150gb to the 300gb drive, why bother reinstalling everything?

I've never done it before, so I haven't thought too much about imaging it. I've always liked to start things completely fresh and build up from there, that way the new drive would be free of all the little unsuccessful tweaks and corrupted installs that can be found on the old one.

I really want to know if it would be possible to have the same OEM copy of Windows on two different hard drives.

 

[nerp]

With Vista you don't really have to worry about the "junk" aspect of an OS that has been around a while anymore.

I strongly suggest you d/l the 15 day trial of Acronis True Image home, clone the drive to the new one, choose automatic (it will resize the volume to use all the extra free space on the new drive) done.

If you insist on doing it the slow way, you won't have a problem activating the OS on a new HD. If it forces you to do manual telephone activation, just tell them you're replacing a HD and not using the OS on more than one machine.

 

[PCJake]

Originally posted by: nerp
With Vista you don't really have to worry about the "junk" aspect of an OS that has been around a while anymore.

I strongly suggest you d/l the 15 day trial of Acronis True Image home, clone the drive to the new one, choose automatic (it will resize the volume to use all the extra free space on the new drive) done.

If you insist on doing it the slow way, you won't have a problem activating the OS on a new HD. If it forces you to do manual telephone activation, just tell them you're replacing a HD and not using the OS on more than one machine.

Excellent, thank you. Will I be able to keep both installations activated at the same time? It would be great to have a working bootable installation of Vista on each hard drive, just in case I have a problem with one.

 

[rudder]

You will have 30 days before you have to activate.

 

[PCJake]

Originally posted by: rudder
You will have 30 days before you have to activate.

Yes, but will I be able to activate the new installation on the velociraptor without deactivating the old installation on the raptor?

 

[corkyg]

If you have it activated on the old drive, and then clone to the new drive, it requires no further activation. I clone drives regularly on several systems and activation never rears its ugly head.

 

[DrGreen2007]

Just changing the HDD shouldnt trigger reactivation, unless a few other items were changed as well

 

[Griswold]

Originally posted by: DrGreen2007
Just changing the HDD shouldnt trigger reactivation, unless a few other items were changed as well

It does. I did that a couple months ago and had to reactivate. Thing with reactivation is, it depends on your history. If that is the first hardware change, you likely wont have to do it. If its after changing the mobo and maybe the vid card before, you're ripe for more reactivation fun in the future.

And by the way, I did this by cloning my system partition with acronis true image and vista still figured it out.

There simply is no one size fits all answer to this matter.

 

[corkyg]

Interesting! I rotate HDDs every week after cloning with TI 11 or 12 - on two different machines, and never have run into a reactivate.

The key is to only have one drive connected at a time when booting to Windows. All it ever does is find new hardware and insist on a reboot.

 

[RebateMonger]

Microsoft whitepaper on Product Activation for Vista and Server 2008.

I recently cloned my deskotp's Vista Business (using Windows Home Server) to an IDENTICAL hard drive, and I given three days to re-Activate. I don't know of ANY other hardware changes I'd made to that (Retail-version) Vista box. MS' Product Activation sometimes does mysterious things.

 

[PCJake]

Once again I'm glad I brought my questions here. Imaging with Acronis True Image is starting to look pretty convenient. Will I have to reset or redo anything if I choose to just clone the drive (besides activation)? I've tweaked Vista somewhat extensively, so keeping the settings would be nice, but I also don't want to do it and then start encountering little glitches everywhere!

 

[n7]

Acronis is your friend

 

[PCJake]

Originally posted by: n7
Acronis is your friend

Heh, is that a "no"?

 

[KGB]

Originally posted by: PCJake
Once again I'm glad I brought my questions here. Imaging with Acronis True Image is starting to look pretty convenient. Will I have to reset or redo anything if I choose to just clone the drive (besides activation)? I've tweaked Vista somewhat extensively, so keeping the settings would be nice, but I also don't want to do it and then start encountering little glitches everywhere!

In short, no you will not have to redo or reinstall anything.
The transition will be transparent.

The only issues I have seen are with some AV programs (NAV specifically) where once you boot into the clone it requires further authentication and reactivation.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: KGBMAN

Originally posted by: PCJake
Once again I'm glad I brought my questions here. Imaging with Acronis True Image is starting to look pretty convenient. Will I have to reset or redo anything if I choose to just clone the drive (besides activation)? I've tweaked Vista somewhat extensively, so keeping the settings would be nice, but I also don't want to do it and then start encountering little glitches everywhere!

In short, no you will not have to redo or reinstall anything.
The transition will be transparent.

The only issues I have seen are with some AV programs (NAV specifically) where once you boot into the clone it requires further authentication and reactivation.

Thats why I use AVG. Also, I have used Vistas built in complete back up and restore a few times and never have to reactivate. Doesnt extend the larger drive, just makes a samsize partition on the larger drive.