Will this work?

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,505
8,102
136
My RCA Cambio W101 Windows 10 tablet/laptop screen cracked and I can't use it's touchscreen feature, but am (sometimes at least) able to do some stuff when the keyboard is attached.

l just bought the same machine online, should be here in a week or so. I'm wondering this:

If I image the OS partition of the damaged machine, can I restore the image to the replacement machine (it's the same model). Or does Microsoft's anti-piracy system make this impossible?
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,505
8,102
136
nobody knows the answer? It seems like it would be apparent and obvious to someone in-the-know. Hmm.

Well, I found a seller-refurb RCA W101 V2 at ebay and it's in shipment. A day later (yesterday) I stumble on one for sale at ebay (by virtue of an email reminder) and the listing said the screen had cracked and they replaced it (the "digitizer"). Whoa! I could have fixed mine! Noone here said I could do that (dozens had viewed my post, I thought "surely, if it were repairable, someone would have posted that already"), I figured it wasn't possible, my bad. I should have dug deeper, maybe posted in SFF or searched on replacing broken screen on my tablet. Sigh. Well, I bought a new digitizer online and after replacing with it (not the simplest of jobs), I should have 2 of these (for good or ill).

I'm still wondering if I can image the OS partition of one machine and restore that image to the other. Same make and model of machine. Will this be impossible by virtue of Microsoft's anti-piracy system. Anyone?
 
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Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
3,752
25
91
It should be fine as they are essentially the same system. I had done similar things with pcs where the hdd is fine but something else failed and just moved the pc from the dead to same working one.

Worst case is it might need to be reactivated, which you can do by phone or now through a website
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,545
236
106
On pre-10 systems, this wouldn't have been a problem at all. Should work on 10, unless there are additional identifiers used it the activation process (digtial serial numbers on chips, etc) that might prompt for reactivation. And it that was the case, I don't think Microsoft would give you a hard time about fixing that.