henriette

henriette wrote on Oct 31^st, 2012 at 7:54am:

Not sure what you are trying to say here!?  OEM = original equipment manufacturer.  So, if you buy a brand name computer from Dell, or Sony, or Gateway....etc., you are buying an OEM type of system.  The Windows installed on that type of machine by the OEM is considered an OEM Windows license and is often *locked* to that hardware--especially to the motherboard and its BIOS which has a specific motherboard ID associated with it.  You can buy a *retail* copy of Windows that will have its own product activation ID, and that can be installed on an OEM machine--that will work fine.  But, you can not transfer the OEM Windows to another system using the OEM license.  And you can not replace the motherboard on an OEM system with an *identical* motherboard and still use the OEM Windows license--because the replacement motherboard will have a different BIOS ID and will not match the original equipment *lock*.

henriette wrote on Oct 31^st, 2012 at 7:54am:

Components may have the same *specifications*--but they are not *identical*.  Each NIC will have a specific MAC address that is unique to that particular NIC.  Each new NIC that you purchase and replace will have a different MAC address, and will be seen as a *different* NIC even if all other specifications are the same.

Same thing for CPU's--each will have a unique serial number ID, same for motherboard and its respective BIOS--unique ID's, HDDs will have unique IDs, etc.

henriette wrote on Oct 31^st, 2012 at 7:54am:

So, these changes are additive.  When you changed the NIC, you finally had made enough hardware changes that your system now no longer had enough *Yes* votes saying that it was the same system--and it triggered an activation event.

henriette wrote on Oct 29^th, 2012 at 9:25am:

Did you re-activate by phone by choice?  It sounds like you probably activated your original installation some time ago (greater than 120 days?)--if so, you should have been able to do the re-activation via the internet *automatically*--because after 120 days, you should not have been required to use the phone re-activation method.

henriette wrote on Oct 29^th, 2012 at 9:25am:

As I mentioned before, this doesn't sound like what *normally* happens when an activation is done.  Activation for me has never done something like this!  All's that occurs is a file is placed on the machine that shows it's a valid WinXP installation--no settings are changed during the activation process.

henriette wrote on Oct 29^th, 2012 at 9:25am:

So, the most common reason a computer boots slower is because something has changed as to what's being loaded during boot up--the more that is being loaded during boot, the more the system is being used and the CPU is being tied up with whatever is involved in the loading of those additional startup programs.

You mentioned: 

henriette wrote on Oct 29^th, 2012 at 9:25am:

Are you getting a *Dumprep.exe error messages*?  Or, why did you mention this?

If you want to see what program(s) during boot are taking up the most time during boot, you can use that same tool mentioned in the above link: 

Quote:

In that *Startup Tab*, you can look through the list of programs being loaded and see if they are really needed or not.  If you don't recognize a program, you can Google it and find out it's function--often you can tell what the program is for by looking at it's path listed in the *Command* column.  You can temporarily disable the program during startup by unchecking it, appling the change, and then rebooting (you will get a message on the next re-boot that you have used the *msconfig* program to disable one or more programs to remind you that you have done this--if you don't want to see the reminder anymore, check the *don't remind* me box).  Many programs are not needed to be loaded during boot.  They often are being loaded to make starting a related program more quickly if you ever need it.  But, often times we never use the program that the startup program is for--at least not often.  So, it can be a waste of boot up time vs being able to load a program you rarely use faster.  Common examples are graphics card control programs and Adobe Reader.

If you want to re-enable the program(s), just run the msconfig program again and re-check the box(es) for those programs you want to load during startup.

henriette

henriette wrote on Nov 18^th, 2012 at 5:58am:

Well, if the label says its an OEM version--I'm not sure what to say--the fact that you have a Product Key that allowed you to install Windows on your self built system, and it was activated way back when without a warning that your copy of Windows was not *Genuine*--your description is that of a *retail* version of Windows.

So, I would not worry about your motherboard dieing.  You should be able to re-install Windows and activate it without worry.  An OEM version of Windows has one or more files that *locks* the OEM version of Windows to the motherboard BIOS--the OEM manufacturer would have to *change the lock* if you were having to replace the motherboard that came on an OEM system.  But, your system is *NOT* an OEM system!  The OEM manufacturer has to make specific changes to establish the *lock*--and you are not in that situation.

Besides, if you have a recent Ghost backup, and if the replacement motherboard has the same specifications (not *identical*--it will have a unique BIOS ID)--you should be able to simply attach you current HDD and all should continue to run well--may just need to re-activate again.

If your HDD died along with the motherboard, then you would restore the Ghost backup after replacing everything, and everything should be okay.

If you replace with a substantially different motherboard (especially changes to the HDD controller type or brand--then things get more difficult.  If you have a new HDD and new controllers, you can transfer the Ghost image to the new HDD, and you can attempt a *repair* install to get Windows to detect and update the software needed to communicate with the new hardware.  This is full of potential pitfalls--success is questionable at best.  I have done it twice--once successfully and the other *not so much*--I now know that I might have been successful if I had tried a different series of steps--but I never went back to see if I could be successful with that different set of steps.  There's some information that says if you have updated your Internet Explorer above v6.xx, the repair install may fail--the repair install software (it's on the installation CD--so one would have to update the CD--and Microsoft doesn't do that!) has not been updated by Microsoft to take into account the more recent Internet Explorer versions.

But, you are now using Image for DOS.  There is a *bare metal* re-install of its image file that can address installing to another motherboard that has different drivers required compared to the original source motherboard system that the image was taken from.  So, you can probably transfer your current system to the new motherboard using their repair software that can add the needed drivers for the new motherboard system.

All of the this is *advanced* stuff--and you probably will never need to use it.  Don't worry about it for now!  If it becomes necessary--we can probably walk you through the necessary steps. 

Just keep making your regular image backups!

henriette wrote on Nov 18^th, 2012 at 5:58am:

My mistake!!!  You had already explained that, but I was focused on the other aspects of the problems you were mentioning--and it just did not register in my foggy brain!

Hiya 

Since there was no result searching for IFL (Img for Linux) on this forum, and we discussed it here already.

I have *IFL () v. 2.73*.

I love it! Works excellent!

However, I don't recall if we ever talked about the following:

My present primary HDD [size 500GB, NTFS, 5 partitions].
If - I had to replace the above HDD, I only have 400GB HDDs ['brandnew'  ] as replacement!
All of my HDDs are EIDE/PATA (oldies like me).

I've read the 'ifl_en_manual.pdf'. It's far too complicated for me to understand.
It reads e.g.: "command lines ...", "Boot into

BootIt Bare Metal"

 etc. etc.

--> Image for Linux (!) - how to

Mount (?) and resize a new unallocated SMALLER harddisk > restore *EntireDrive image* ... easiest way for me 

>>>> Attachment *.txt - manual.pdf is too long, not accepted.

I hope that BRIAN will read this post, because he taught me all about IFL - not forgetting NIGHTOWL 

[sorry about my English - I'm out of practice  ]

henriette

henriette

As NightOwl indicated, it should be easy. Do an Entire Drive restore and include these Options...

   Scale to Fit
   Align to Target

Or you could restore the partitions one at a time to unallocated space and ask IFL to resize the restored partition to your selected size as you go.

Fortunately, your attachment doesn't apply. Everything is done from IFL (GUI).
 
NighOwl mentions having enough space on the new HD to hold the data. In addition, IFL differs from Ghost 2003 in that it does a sector based rather than a file based restore. So 300 GB of data in a 500 GB partition might not fit in a 400 GB partition.

If  your original partition was....( * is sectors in use, - is free space)

[---**----**--]

then the target partition to restore into can not be smaller than...

[---**----**]


Hopefully this doesn't apply to you. It certainly does to people who want to clone their OS from a 1 TB partition to a small SSD. Here's what they need to do...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=554

By the way, the latest version of IFL is 2.82a

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/upgradehist-image-for-linux.htm

https://terabyteunlimited.com/product-download.php

henriette

henriette wrote on Jul 8^th, 2013 at 9:12am:


They are in the IFL Options screen.

henriette wrote on Jul 8^th, 2013 at 9:12am:

An Entire Drive restore means IFL does one restore. Restoring individual partitions means IFL does five restores.

henriette wrote on Jul 8^th, 2013 at 9:12am:

See http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/upgradehist-image-for-linux.htm

TeraByte Support says, "It's recommended that all users upgrade to this version."

henriette

henriette wrote on Jul 7^th, 2013 at 6:09am:


and

Quote:


Okay, so you are not looking at this scenario correctly! 

No, you probably do not want to restore an image to your currently installed active *production* 500 GB HDD if you are unsure of the possibility of success because you have never tried it, and you are unsure which *options* to select as part of a restore!

But, you have a *spare* 400 GB HDD!

Yes, it takes a little effort--but you will gain much in confidence if you do the following:  create your backup image of your 500 GB HDD, shut the system down, remove the 500 GB HDD and put the 400 GB HDD in its place, now do a test restore to the 400 GB HDD.  After the restore, re-boot using that 400 GB HDD to the OS and make sure everything is working okay! 

Actually, do multiple restores using the different options--i.e. do a *whole disk* restore, and then do a *partition by partition* restore to see how the options work differently.  After the restore, re-boot from the newly restored 400 GB HDD to test that everything is working correctly.  Each time you do a different restore type procedure, it should be over-writing the previous restore that you used.

Now, you will have *real life* experiences to refer to!  If you run into a problem--you can post a question here about a *real life* problem that you are having.  You can spend an awful lot of time twirling things in your head about *what if*--but, you will never know until you get down and dirty by actually doing the deed!

When you are all done testing the HDD replacement scenarios, shut down, remove the 400 GB HDD and put it on the shelf, replace your 500 GB HDD, re-boot and you now have confidence that you can recover your system to that spare HDD in the future!

(Advanced consideration:  some folks run into issues regarding restoring images to a *used* HDD and what Master Boot Record is in place.  This may come into play if the HDD had been used on different systems and the image restores have been from different OS versions. 

There are ways to truly *zero* the Master Boot Record of the HDD so it appears to be a brand new, off the shelf HDD.  If you are restoring images to the HDD that has only been used on your one system, and you are not changing from one OS to a new one, then it is unlikely there will ever be any problem with this.

But, like I said, there are ways to deal with this if it's ever necessary--but most likely you don't have to worry about this at all!)

Some info on the Scale to Fit option with an Entire drive restore...

Quote:


Quote: