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PSA - You can not Clone-backup Win 7.

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It must be your license type.
Click to expand...

That's my vote.

I just installed w7 Ultimate 64bit and other than Acronis moaning about a server password it imaged just fine.

Did you use some kinda upgrade disk?
 
At work we have an image of windows 7 before it's activated that we clone to machines then activate with their own keys. Doesn't bother the system any...
 
Ok, so it seems it's the license type. Home Premium probably doesn't allow it. The Microsoft tech roundly denied that and said it was not possible for any license type but he was obviously FOS. Guess you need Pro or Ultimate to clone. Can someone else with Home Premium confirm this by trying to clone?
 
The Sauce said:
Ok, so it seems it's the license type. Home Premium probably doesn't allow it. The Microsoft tech roundly denied that and said it was not possible for any license type but he was obviously FOS. Guess you need Pro or Ultimate to clone. Can someone else with Home Premium confirm this by trying to clone?
Click to expand...

I've cloned Home Premium without problems.

I've got a new hard drive coming in today and will be cloning my main main boxes' drives. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
First system with W7 Home Premium worked fine. MS Activation came up briefly, then went away. W7 lists itself as valid, so no problems.
 
Hmmph... I tried it with two different destination drives and three different cloning programs and none of them worked. Wonder what the issue could be.
 
The Sauce said:
Hmmph... I tried it with two different destination drives and three different cloning programs and none of them worked. Wonder what the issue could be.
Click to expand...

Which cloning programs are you using?
What settings of the software are you using?

I know that even Ghost 2003 has a switch to "lock" an image to a specific computer.

Why don't you try to do a BCDedit to reset boot drive signature before the cloning?

Make a .BAt or .CMD file with these commands:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot

Run it as administrator BEFORE making the cloning.
Good luck.



Alex
 
wow, what a misleading thread title.

Sure, you may have to re-enter your COA product key, but you can definately make a bajillion copies of a Win7 install
 
I don't use the cloning software mentioned in the original post. But, last night I installed a copy of Win7 Home Premium into a Windows 7 Virtual PC virtual machine, made system image backups using the built-in Windows Backup and using Windows Home Server, and restored the system to blank virtual disks. Both restorations booted with no problems and subsequently passed Genuine Windows Validation.

I also did a Clonezilla direct disk-to-disk clone, from a 30 GB virtual disk to a 30 GB virtual disk, which also booted fine and passed Genuine Windows Validation.

==============================

Here's what I did:

In original PC (running Virtual PC 2007 on Windows 7 Ultimate). I created two 20 GB virtual disks. The first had the OS and the second was used for holding Windows backups of the first disk. The original install was from a Retail (full) version of Win7 Ultimate DVD.

Disk Management showed the following partitions:

"System Reserved" partition shows up in Disk Management as 100 MB.
C: shows up as 12.8 GB free of 19.4 GB
E: shows up as 14.1 GB free of 19.5 GB - this was where Win7 made its backups

Win7 creates that 100 MB "System Reserved" partition when a "new" (not an in-place upgrade) of Win7 is installed. When restoring a Win7 system, you need to be sure that the 100 MB "System Reserved" partition (if it exists) is restored and made "Active".

Then, I ran both Windows 7 System Image backups and WHS backups. Then I renamed the first disk and created an empty new boot disk, causing Windows to not boot.

=============================

Windows 7 Backup/Restore:

Renamed the original VHD and created a new 20 GB virtual disk.
Tried to boot VHD and it failed.
Booted to Win7 Install DVD image, selected "Repair My Computer", and ran Windows Image Restore. It automatically restored both the System Reserve Partition (100 MB) as well as the c: partition.
Boots perfectly. Passes Genuine Windows Validation (not Activated, no Key installed)

I also did a restore to a 30 GB blank disk. After restoring, I had to manually extend the C: partition from inside Win7 to take advantage of the new 30 GB disk.
Again, the restored system booted perfectly and passed Genuine Wnidows Validation.

Each system restore took about five minutes.

================================

Windows Home Server (Power Pack 3) Backup/Restore:

Renamed the original VHD and created a new 20 GB virtual disk.
Tried to boot VHD and it failed.
Booted to WHS PC Recovery CD image
It recognized the Intel NIC and the disks.
It found the WHS server
It wanted to restore the "System Reserved" partition to the c: disk (20 GB), which is the wrong place. I would need to create a small partition where I could restore the "System Reserved" partition.
I opened the “Advanced” menu to get the Disk Management panel.
Disk Management wanted to initialize the 20 GB disk, which I did.
I created a 100 MB partition and then made another partition of the remainder (19.x GB).
I did NOT assign a drive letter to the System Reserved (100 MB) partition, but I did mark it as "Active" in Disk Management.
I changed the volume names around until I got the original drive letters for the c: and the e: volumes.
- No letter for System Reserved – Marked as “Active”
- C: for Main
- E: for Backups

It automatically restored both the System Reserve Partition (100 MB) as well as the c: drive.
Boots perfectly. Passes Genuine Windows Validation (not Activated, no Key installed)

=============================

Clonezilla clone from disk to disk

Created a new 30 GB virtual disk to hold the cloned disk
Booted ISO of Clonezilla
Told Clonezilla to make a disk-to-disk clone (this clones the ENTIRE DISK). If you tell Clonezilla do first do an image, you’ll have to image both the System Reserved (100MB) partition AND the main partition and restore them separately.
Took about fifteen minutes to clone the entire virtual disk. – Clonezilla says 530 MB/minute rate.
Clonezilla says that about 6.8 GB of space is used on the 31.3 GB virtual disk.

It booted fine to the new, cloned, disk. It also passes Genuine Windows Validation.
 
Last edited:
Old Hippie said:
Did you use some kinda upgrade disk?
Click to expand...
That's something to look at, since most folks are probably using Upgrade versions of Win7. If they used an Upgrade version to install Win7 to a blank disk, then some sort of "trick" (either a double-install or a Registry hack) was done to make the install happen. The Registry hack is known to trigger a "Not Genuine" alert with the new Win7 version of "Genuine Windows" validation.
 
I just cloned a Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit install from one drive to another last weekend using Acronis True Image Home 9. Worked like a champ with no issues whatsoever.
 
Win7 uses some weird encryption stuff for the profiles, so you'll definably lose those. They cannot be restored. Best to back those up within the OS session.
 
RedSquirrel said:
Win7 uses some weird encryption stuff for the profiles, so you'll definably lose those. They cannot be restored. Best to back those up within the OS session.
Click to expand...
RedSquirrel:

You've mentioned that encryption before. Why do believe it's encrypted? Link?

Thanks,
RebateMonger
 
RedSquirrel said:
Win7 uses some weird encryption stuff for the profiles, so you'll definably lose those. They cannot be restored. Best to back those up within the OS session.
Click to expand...

As I said in my previous post I lost nothing. Windows 7 booted and looked identical to what it looked like the previous boot on the old drive. Even the desktop icons didn't move. The only way I can tell I imaged the machine is to look at the drive hardware and see that it is now on a different physical drive.
 
Linflas said:
As I said in my previous post I lost nothing. Windows 7 booted and looked identical to what it looked like the previous boot on the old drive. Even the desktop icons didn't move. The only way I can tell I imaged the machine is to look at the drive hardware and see that it is now on a different physical drive.
Click to expand...

And even if it was encrypted you'd still be fine since a full image would include your account and any certificates and private/public keys needed for decryption.
 
RU482 said:
wow, what a misleading thread title.

Sure, you may have to re-enter your COA product key, but you can definately make a bajillion copies of a Win7 install
Click to expand...

Nopers. If you read the OP you would have known that there is no option for that. Just a blank blue screen that says 'not an original copy of windows."
 
The Sauce said:
Nopers. If you read the OP you would have known that there is no option for that. Just a blank blue screen that says 'not an original copy of windows."
Click to expand...
Yeah, there are some cases on the Internet of others having a similar problem. But I don't think it has anything to do with it being Home Premium. It's something else.
 
RebateMonger said:
RedSquirrel:

You've mentioned that encryption before. Why do believe it's encrypted? Link?

Thanks,
RebateMonger
Click to expand...

Well it does do something weird to obsfucate the files. I've tried many times to access files from another machine (ex: plug to another machine, or boot with a linux CD) and the directory is actually empty even though there should really be files in it. If it's not encryption then it's something else. It's weird really. They sure did lot of changes in this new platform. I'm sure there must be some kind of tool to restore that or something, at least I would hope.
 
When i first got my laptop after i installed linux to dual boot i pulled the drive and cloned it to a bigger drive(Hitachi 250GB to a WD 500GB) i used WD's free acronis software and it went fine. This was with win 7 home premium 64bit OEM key.
 
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