Re: System Restore
- From: "Mike" <Mike@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:30:01 -0700
In regards to the actual question asked:
I don't think you can use system restore the way you are asking. Even if you
could (and if you mirror the drives) that copy of XP Pro is setup for
different hardware (motherboard, sound card, network card etc). In rare
cases I have actually seen people fry motherboards by trying to boot a copy
of XP from a drive that was setup on different hardware. Long story short,
you want to format the new systems and do a clean install of XP pro on them.
It would be a good idea to use a drive image program to image the new drives
before you do anything to them. That way if you later decide to sell the
laptops, you can restore them to the original XP home software first and
keep the Pro for yourself.
Assuming retail copies, you will need to call MS to get the keys for the
copies of XP Pro you are transferring to the new systems "deactivated"
before they can be activated on the new systems. If the XP Pro discs are
Dell, then you won't need a key to install them and they won't need to be
activated on Dell systems. But, as was already stated, that may not be
legal. IMHO if you are throwing the old systems away, you purchased a
license to use those two copies of XP Pro already and I wouldn't sweat it.
-Mike
"Tom Scales" <tjscales@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2EL3g.1507$d_4.1138@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Agreed, IF they are retail. Still waiting to hear from the OP.
"Christopher Muto" <muto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3pJ3g.4420$yI1.598@xxxxxxxxxxx
tom, if they are retail copies (not oem which came with a new computer
purchase) then my understanding is that they can be installed on any
machine as long as it is not on any other. in other words you can freely
move a retail copy of xp from one machine to another; you just can't have
it on multiple machine. the oem license is sold for use only be used
with the computer it came with. but in my opinion what they mean by "the
computer" is completely ambiguous (the case, the processor, the
motherboard, the memory, etc... and when you upgrade any or all of these
parts do you have to move the xp license with the old parts or use it
with the new upgraded parts)... i am not a pirate looking to rip off
software developers, i am just a consumer that doesn't care to be ripped
off by them.
op, i think that for about $75 per machine to get xp pro pre-installed
would have been the best way to save money... reloading the os or even
cloning it to another machine will certainly take some time, and time is
money. but given where you are (with legitimate retail xp pro licenses
in hand) i think the simplest thing to do would be to purchase a 2.5" to
3.5" ide adapter (about $5) or a 2.5" external usb drive cage (about $30)
and clone the drive with the xp pro image to the other new drives via a
desktop computer. actually with two of the 2.5" to 3.5" adapters you can
install the source and destination laptop drives in a desktop and then
use a free hard disk utility like maxtor's maxblast to clone them.
alternatively you could also just install the oem copy of xp pro from
scratch on the two new xp home laptops using the cd from the new xp pro
machine. this will not require you to activate xp, however it is a oem
edition and so your retail edition windows xp product code will not
activate them should you ever be challenged to do so. you could also do
this with ghost or partition magic but you have to buy those (and you
didn't say you had them) and spending money on spending time juggling the
operating system around is not exactly saving you money (or time).
"Tom Scales" <tjscales@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2BI3g.1837$%x.1143@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
First, why are the XP Pro licenses becoming "free". If they came with
prior machines, then they CANNOT be legally moved to the new machine.
Regardless, your best bet is a clean install of Pro. No other solution
will work nearly as well.
Tom
"Garry" <Garry@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e2ne90$po6$1$8302bc10@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am buying 3 new Inspiron laptops. One is coming with XP Pro already
installed. The other two only have XP Home (to save cost) as I have two
original full copies of XP Pro SP2 which will become free when the old
laptops are replaced.
I want the easiest possible way to install XP Pro on the two XP Home
machines - plus also to have a simple way to do a full restore at some
point
in the future if necessary.
Is it possible to copy the XP Pro restore information from the one
machine
into the restore partition on the other two and then do a system
restore to
create a clean install of XP Pro?
Alternatively can I use something like Drive Copy to mirror the entire
hard
drive (including restore partition) and so copy it across this way.
Any comments would be appreciated.
.
- References:
- System Restore
- From: Garry
- Re: System Restore
- From: Tom Scales
- Re: System Restore
- From: Christopher Muto
- Re: System Restore
- From: Tom Scales
- System Restore
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