Vista - Is there a Microsoft 'recommended' approach to swap BOOT disk on VISTA?

Should be simple enough. I bought a new PC with a SATA boot drive and
a second SATA data holding drive (two drives). I simply want to swap
the boot drive (first drive) for a higher capacity drive. The new
drive is SATA also.

I can't find any specific Microsoft sanctioned approach to do this
under VISTA PREMIUM, and lots of fragments of discussions for folks
trying to do this, with random and limited success. I even saw a
reference to what appears that the OS actually binds itself the the
disk hardware ID itself in the 'registry'.

Does anyone know of any simple suggestions, perhaps using commercial
tools (microsoft or whoever) to allow the disk swap?

Look - there is no difficulty in "swapping" a HD for another of greater
capacity - it is a relatively common practice! A new drive package willl
contain a utility disk with explanations on copying/cloning an old drive to
the new. Basic procedure is to install the newHD as a "Slave" - copy/clone
old drive the "Master" to the slave - then make the slave the master -
remove old master or make it a slave and use for whatever.

There are several good programs available - such as Acronis and Norton's
Ghost - amd most likely one or two "freeware" programs.

BUT - keep in mind - most likely reactivation of the OS will be required and
probalby necessary by phone.

<markharris2000@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1183158216.392690.238560@n60g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Should be simple enough. I bought a new PC with a SATA boot drive and
> a second SATA data holding drive (two drives). I simply want to swap
> the boot drive (first drive) for a higher capacity drive. The new
> drive is SATA also.
>
> I can't find any specific Microsoft sanctioned approach to do this
> under VISTA PREMIUM, and lots of fragments of discussions for folks
> trying to do this, with random and limited success. I even saw a
> reference to what appears that the OS actually binds itself the the
> disk hardware ID itself in the 'registry'.
>
> Does anyone know of any simple suggestions, perhaps using commercial
> tools (microsoft or whoever) to allow the disk swap?
>

If this is a one-time swap (upgrade), use whatever utility your hard drive
manufacturer offers to copy the old drive to the new one and re-activate
when done. If you want to swap hard drives back and forth - nope, won't
work.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


<markharris2000@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1183158216.392690.238560@n60g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Should be simple enough. I bought a new PC with a SATA boot drive and
> a second SATA data holding drive (two drives). I simply want to swap
> the boot drive (first drive) for a higher capacity drive. The new
> drive is SATA also.
>
> I can't find any specific Microsoft sanctioned approach to do this
> under VISTA PREMIUM, and lots of fragments of discussions for folks
> trying to do this, with random and limited success. I even saw a
> reference to what appears that the OS actually binds itself the the
> disk hardware ID itself in the 'registry'.
>
> Does anyone know of any simple suggestions, perhaps using commercial
> tools (microsoft or whoever) to allow the disk swap?
>

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:35:01 -0400, "AJR" <ajrjdr@comcast.net> wrote:

>BUT - keep in mind - most likely reactivation of the OS will be required and
>probalby necessary by phone.

Could you explain this please?

We're told:
- Vista uses same activation system as XP
- XP watches 10 items, 7 must "survive" (i.e. lose 4, die)
- a new HD = 1 "life"
- loss of volume serial number = 1 "life"

If all of the above are true, then why should swapping HD - especially
if cloning and thus preserving volume secrial number - trigger Vista's
activation payload?



>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Tip Of The Day:
To disable the 'Tip of the Day' feature...
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Quite a while ago (many months actually) I read somewhere that the hard
drive constituted the largest point value against reactivation. If I can
find it again, I will post it here.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)



"cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" <cquirkenews@nospam.mvps.org> wrote in
message news:0tod83dleae5ftkd3ovc4h6o6vbgrbi20i@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:35:01 -0400, "AJR" <ajrjdr@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>BUT - keep in mind - most likely reactivation of the OS will be required
>>and
>>probalby necessary by phone.
>
> Could you explain this please?
>
> We're told:
> - Vista uses same activation system as XP
> - XP watches 10 items, 7 must "survive" (i.e. lose 4, die)
> - a new HD = 1 "life"
> - loss of volume serial number = 1 "life"
>
> If all of the above are true, then why should swapping HD - especially
> if cloning and thus preserving volume secrial number - trigger Vista's
> activation payload?
>
>
>
>>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
> Tip Of The Day:
> To disable the 'Tip of the Day' feature...
>>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

No Chris, I don't know who told you this but it isn't factual. Vista uses
an entirely different set of weights and algorithms for activation.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" <cquirkenews@nospam.mvps.org> wrote in
message news:0tod83dleae5ftkd3ovc4h6o6vbgrbi20i@4ax.com...

> Could you explain this please?
>
> We're told:
> - Vista uses same activation system as XP
> - XP watches 10 items, 7 must "survive" (i.e. lose 4, die)
> - a new HD = 1 "life"
> - loss of volume serial number = 1 "life"
>
> If all of the above are true, then why should swapping HD - especially
> if cloning and thus preserving volume secrial number - trigger Vista's
> activation payload?

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:03:20 -0400, "Richard Urban"

>Quite a while ago (many months actually) I read somewhere that the hard
>drive constituted the largest point value against reactivation. If I can
>find it again, I will post it here.

Please do - that's a very significant change that will bite deep, as
HD failure and "just format and rebuild" are failrly common
maintenance crises. It's also a move away from XP SP2's weighting of
the network adapter, as a way of reducing false-positives.

As it is, tracking the volume label (which is what elevates a HD swap
to 2 lost lives in XP) is itself a breaking of the assurance that
activation watched only "hardware" changes.

So it looks as if MS has taken something that broke their original
word to us, and made it even more aggressive. Ungood.

"Trusted computing" starts with trustworthy vendors!


The other thing that makes it hard to track these problems, is
confusion between what WGA does and what Product Activation does.

AFAIK, there's no interplay between these, or has that also changed?

For example, if WGA "thinks" you are not legal, does it pull the pin
on the Product Activation payload?



>------------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
The rights you save may be your own
>------------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

On Sun, 1 Jul 2007 05:36:20 -0400, "Richard G. Harper"

>No Chris, I don't know who told you this but it isn't factual.

I can't recall the URLs, but it was a claim I have seen in more than
one place, and not using the same phrasing either.

>Vista uses an entirely different set of weights and algorithms for activation.

Where are these documented?

Is there a tool for Vista to monitor lives as they are lost, much as
Licenturion's XP Info tool does for XP?

Thanks for picking up on this...



>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Tip Of The Day:
To disable the 'Tip of the Day' feature...
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

After I installed a pushed update for my Silicon Image SATA controller, upon
a reboot I found that Windows was no longer "Genuine". Product activation
was OK.

No other changes were made and no new hardware was installed. Due to the
changes in the SATA implementation, the O/S apparently thought I had
installed the O/S on a new hard drive.I could not solve for this problem.

I could not solve for the problem. I rolled back to a previous image I had
created the day before using True Image.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)



"cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" <cquirkenews@nospam.mvps.org> wrote in
message news:uoaf83l2fviagcm0psskt1ud5mcspka9m3@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:03:20 -0400, "Richard Urban"
>
>>Quite a while ago (many months actually) I read somewhere that the hard
>>drive constituted the largest point value against reactivation. If I can
>>find it again, I will post it here.
>
> Please do - that's a very significant change that will bite deep, as
> HD failure and "just format and rebuild" are failrly common
> maintenance crises. It's also a move away from XP SP2's weighting of
> the network adapter, as a way of reducing false-positives.
>
> As it is, tracking the volume label (which is what elevates a HD swap
> to 2 lost lives in XP) is itself a breaking of the assurance that
> activation watched only "hardware" changes.
>
> So it looks as if MS has taken something that broke their original
> word to us, and made it even more aggressive. Ungood.
>
> "Trusted computing" starts with trustworthy vendors!
>
>
> The other thing that makes it hard to track these problems, is
> confusion between what WGA does and what Product Activation does.
>
> AFAIK, there's no interplay between these, or has that also changed?
>
> For example, if WGA "thinks" you are not legal, does it pull the pin
> on the Product Activation payload?
>
>
>
>>------------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
> The rights you save may be your own
>>------------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Contained in the FAQ, Mary Jo discovered the following question and answer:

Q. How do hardware changes impact system reactivation requirement?

A. As long as the change is below 25 points you do not need to re-activate.
Here is the table to determine total points. This applies to both Windows
Vista client and Longhorn server for retail activation, MAK activation and
KMS activation. [Emphasis added]

Component Class Name Default Weight
CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM 1
IDE Adaptor 3
Physical OS Hard Drive Serial # 11
Display Adaptor 1
SCSI Adaptor 2
Audio Adaptor 2
Network Adaptor MAC Address 2
Processor 3
RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-512mb, 512-1GB) 1
BIOS ID ('0' always matches) 9


"Richard Urban" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:OFdF7M3uHHA.3356@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Quite a while ago (many months actually) I read somewhere that the hard
> drive constituted the largest point value against reactivation. If I can
> find it again, I will post it here.
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>
>
>
> "cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" <cquirkenews@nospam.mvps.org> wrote in
> message news:0tod83dleae5ftkd3ovc4h6o6vbgrbi20i@4ax.com...
>> On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:35:01 -0400, "AJR" <ajrjdr@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>>BUT - keep in mind - most likely reactivation of the OS will be required
>>>and
>>>probalby necessary by phone.
>>
>> Could you explain this please?
>>
>> We're told:
>> - Vista uses same activation system as XP
>> - XP watches 10 items, 7 must "survive" (i.e. lose 4, die)
>> - a new HD = 1 "life"
>> - loss of volume serial number = 1 "life"
>>
>> If all of the above are true, then why should swapping HD - especially
>> if cloning and thus preserving volume secrial number - trigger Vista's
>> activation payload?
>>
>>
>>
>>>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
>> Tip Of The Day:
>> To disable the 'Tip of the Day' feature...
>>>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
>