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Possible to clone boot drive without losing activation?

Hulk

Hulk

Diamond Member
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate and would like to clone my SSD C: drive to a larger SSD using Clonezilla or some other similar application. If I am only changing the hard drive will I have to reactivate all of the software that requires activation to run?
 
Maybe or Maybe not. How is that for a definite answer. I have done what you are describing and had varying results. I have had to reactivate at times and have not had to on other swaps. Most of the time if it is nothing but a HDD swap Windows will activate without any problems. The worst that you will have to do is call Microsoft and activate over the Phone. I have had to do that a few times and have not had a problem.
 
I just did it with clonezilla and haven't had to activate again. But its always a toss up because I have had to in the past.
 
Depends on the software . Some software uses the disk serial to lock authorizations to the pc, some software uses network macs and others like win7 uses the motherboard slic.
 
Thanks for the replies. As for activation I have...

Just wish I'd gone for the 160GB Intel 320 instead of the 120GB in the first place.

I have some folders on a mechanical drive and when I have to access them I have to wait for the drive to spin up. So now I have things on the SSD which are accessed near instantaneously and others that take like 10 seconds to access. Total PITA.

Is Clonezilla the right application to use when I do this?
 
Hulk said:
I have some folders on a mechanical drive and when I have to access them I have to wait for the drive to spin up. So now I have things on the SSD which are accessed near instantaneously and others that take like 10 seconds to access. Total PITA.
Click to expand...

Just set the HDD to not spin down.

Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings (for selected plan) > Change advanced power settings > Hard disk > Turn off hard disk after > set to sufficiently high number
 
Hulk said:
Thanks for the replies. As for activation I have...

Just wish I'd gone for the 160GB Intel 320 instead of the 120GB in the first place.

I have some folders on a mechanical drive and when I have to access them I have to wait for the drive to spin up. So now I have things on the SSD which are accessed near instantaneously and others that take like 10 seconds to access. Total PITA.

Is Clonezilla the right application to use when I do this?
Click to expand...


Clonezilla should work fine. I used it and it was pretty straightforward and even provides the walk through steps of using a USB stick for your boot source in case you need that help.
 
It will be fine!

I take an image of all my installations to save me time installing and activating all my software.

I use Acronis True Image 2011, great software.
 
I do it every week (for the past 6-7 years!) on three systems - never had to reactivate. I have always used Acronis. Before that, DriveCopy (no longer exists.) I always clone with bootable media - never from within Windows. That's an old habit from years ago when within Windows would produce sharing violations. Anyway, the Linux-based GUI in Acronis bootable media is much better than what happens in Windows - i.e., it always has to reboot and do the deed offline and it uses the crummy Command Prompt screen.

I swap HDDs every week on all systems. Recloning doesn't need to be done unless something is bad or wrong on a drive. Reactivation never arises.

I amend that - there was one piece of software that was a PITA - full Adobe Acrobat. It had to be deactivated before cloning, and then reacivated after. Solution was easy . . . I dumped the program and replaced it with Nitro PDF. 🙂
 
Last edited:
Zap said:
Just set the HDD to not spin down.

Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings (for selected plan) > Change advanced power settings > Hard disk > Turn off hard disk after > set to sufficiently high number
Click to expand...


I'd do that except for my system is pretty much silent and the spinning drive is a lot louder. I think I'm just going to pony up for a larger SSD and be done with it. I know I could get a smaller SSD just for data. That's an option too I guess.
 
Just installed a new SSD in one of my systems using Acronis TI 2011 to copy the drive. Windows, Office, Street & Trips transferred without any activation required. Diskeeper did not as I had exceeded the activation count. A quick e-mail to them fixed that. The activation thing with Diskeeper is why I will probably switch to Perfect Disk.
 
I think it depends on what version of Win7 you have (retail or OEM). I have a free copy of Windows 7, which I got for attending a Microsoft conference. It doesn't say "OEM" on it, but I have to re-activate when I change just about anything. It used to be that I only had to activate after a motherboard change, but now it seems anything I chnage will trigger it, and I have to call up and talk to someone in India to get my huge activation code - what a pain.

I had to call up and talk to a person after changing the motherboard in my Windows Home Server as well (after one hardware upgrade!).
 
OP's question was specific about cloning a drive - nothing to do with any other hardware changes. Motherboard changes largely depend on the chipset. HD clonings are in effect, already activated. Nothing has really changed except for programs noted such as DiskKeeper and Adobe Acrobat. That depends on how they build their hash data.

Cloning has always been best done with bootable media and not from within Windows. That way, the OS is not involved in the process.
 
corkyg said:
OP's question was specific about cloning a drive - nothing to do with any other hardware changes. Motherboard changes largely depend on the chipset. HD clonings are in effect, already activated. Nothing has really changed except for programs noted such as DiskKeeper and Adobe Acrobat. That depends on how they build their hash data.

Cloning has always been best done with bootable media and not from within Windows. That way, the OS is not involved in the process.
Click to expand...

As I said, I had to reactivate when changing almost anything now - including when I switched to an SSD... So I know for a fact that the hard drive is part of their algorithm for detecting HW changes. On other versions of windows I've never had to reactivate after hardware changes - just on the version of WIndows 7 that I have, which is apparently some sort of OEM version.
 
If it is some sort of OEM version, that would explain it. They must have their eye on you. 🙂 BTW - any relation to Edward E. Matney, West Point, '51?
 
My machine is running an OEM Win 7.

However, it's a laptop, so besides memory and the HD, nothing ever changes, which may explain why re-activation isn't needed when I swap the drive.
 
You absolutely can clone a SSD primary drive without any problems.

I regularly use either of two products to clone my hard drive and have never had an activation issue. I clone regularly to have an on the shelf plug and play backup and I cloned an 80 GB Intel G2 SSD to a 120 Intel G2 SSD.

My preference is the old proven reliable DOS based Ghost 2003. Until I encrypted my drives with Truecrypt a few months back, I used Ghost because it did not matter if the new drive was larger than the original drive, it would reliably make the entire new drive available. With W7 it was necessary to use the W7 repair disk to make the cloned drive bootable but this was a very simple and quick evolution. The Ghost cloned drives work perfectly and performance wise I can see no difference. The relatively crude Ghost DOS based interface meant one had to very careful not to inadvertently mix up the source and destination drives but just being very careful deals with this risk.

I found Ghost would not work after I encrypted my drives with Truecrypt. A Ghost clone of Truecrypted drive will not accept the password. As a result I now use EaseUS Diskcopy. This is an excellent free program that is downloaded in iso form so you burn it to a CD or USB device and (like Ghost) is not installed under Windows. It works great but if the destination drive is larger than the source drive it does not make the extra space available for use. Another free EaseUS product will expand the cloned partition to use the entire drive.

In any case, with either Ghost or DiskCopy, there are no activation issues.
 
RhoXS said:
snip
It works great but if the destination drive is larger than the source drive it does not make the extra space available for use. Another free EaseUS product will expand the cloned partition to use the entire drive.

In any case, with either Ghost or DiskCopy, there are no activation issues.
Click to expand...

I'm long overdue to learn about drive cloning but am finally starting the process.

Regarding the above caveat, does Paragon's free edition have the same limitation dealing with the size of the destination and source being different?
 
I know for sure that Acronis TI 11 thru 2012 will clone any size to any size, up or down, as long as there is room for the resulting data.
 
I have ATI 10 Home. Never used it. I suppose I could see what the cost to upgrade would be. But, all else being equal, I'd prefer the freebie route. 😉
 
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