[TriLUG] image of hard drive question

David Burton ncdave4life at gmail.com
Sat Dec 22 15:22:42 EST 2012


Coincidentally...

Free Acronis TrueImage backup program from TigerDirect / TODAY ONLY
12/22/2012.
(Actually costs 2.70 NC state tax)
*http://tinyurl.com/cmozqzb*


On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 11:36 AM, David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com>wrote:

> Joe,
>
> I've replaced many hard disk drives in Windows machines, and never
> encountered software which failed to run afterward, because of the new
> drive. Windows, itself, may say that's installing new drivers the first
> time it boots on the new drive, but that never seems to cause a problem.
>
> Microsoft Windows checks many parts in the computer to validate that
> you're not using one copy of Windows on 2 or more computers, but it
> tolerates replacement of any one or two parts. So if you just replace the
> hard disk drive, there shouldn't be a Windows license problem. If you
> replace many parts in the computer, you might have to have a voice
> conversation with Microsoft (which involves reading and typing some very
> long numbers over the phone). You'll need to explain that you've repaired
> the computer and replaced parts. Be sure that your repaired computer
> contains at least one part from your old computer (maybe just a DVD drive),
> and tell them that, and they should let you validate the license on the
> repaired machine.
>
> If the old drive is healthy, then Acronis True Image is the easiest way to
> image it. Acronis can make a bootable CD, so that it's easy to restore the
> image onto a fresh, empty drive. Acronis understands NTFS, and can resize
> your partitions as needed, in case the new drive is a different size. It
> skips the free-space, so there's no need to zero the free-space before you
> make the backup. It does a reasonable job of compressing the resulting
> image, and it can break the image file into pieces, for storage on DVDs or
> M-Discs.
>
> When imaging a drive with Acronis True Image, I like to use an image file
> size of "1492MB" (remember Columbus<http://www.google.com/search?q=columbus+1492>!)
> and maximum compression. 1492MB is a hair smaller than 1/3 of a 4.7 GB DVD,
> so three of the files fit nicely on a DVD or M-Disc<http://www.google.com/search?q=%22M-Disc%22>,
> and it's smaller than the 2GB file size limit for FAT32 file systems (so
> you can copy the files onto thumbdrives).
>
> Recent versions of Acronis True Image allow you to create the image files
> on the same hard disk drive partition(s) that are being imaged. That's
> handy if your next step will be to burn them to DVDs or M-Discs.
>
> (*Note:* If the old drive is failing, then Acronis is *not* your friend...
>
*...[snip]... *



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