Guest Pat Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from being moved to a larger drive? I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with two partitions). On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic 8, then files cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still boot from a floppy. Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the Windows welcome screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the boot process, not even to get to the command prompt. A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when moving XP to a significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product Activation won't let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating (even though it's all the same motherboard, etc).
Guest JS Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? I did this same thing recently using Ghost, had no problems with Windows starting or WPA. Only thing is that I went from an 80GB WD to a 160GB Maxtor. Partitions were created using Windows XP. JS "Pat" <pat929@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:%23Upa3VwyHHA.4184@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... > Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from being > moved to a > larger drive? > > I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with two > partitions). > On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic 8, > then files > cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still boot > from a floppy. > > Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the Windows > welcome > screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the boot > process, not > even to get to the command prompt. > > A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when > moving XP to a > significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product > Activation won't > let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating > (even though > it's all the same motherboard, etc). > > >
Guest Anna Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? "Pat" <pat929@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:%23Upa3VwyHHA.4184@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... > Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from being > moved to a > larger drive? > > I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with two > partitions). > On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic 8, > then files > cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still boot > from a floppy. > > Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the Windows > welcome > screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the boot > process, not > even to get to the command prompt. > > A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when > moving XP to a > significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product > Activation won't > let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating > (even though > it's all the same motherboard, etc). Pat: We'll assume the following... 1. Your "source" HDD - the 80 GB one - was non-defective and contained a bootable, functional OS. In other words, there were no problems with that 80 GB HDD of any kind that affected the OS, and, 2. Your "destination" HDD - the 250 GB one - is similarly non-defective, and, 3. You've connected & configured both drives correctly prior to the disk-cloning operation. We'll further assume that during the disk-cloning operation, it went without a hitch - no error messages of any kind or any other untoward problems, right? Assuming all of the above... Following the disk-cloning operation, did you disconnect your source HDD from the system and make the initial boot *only* with the destination drive connected? That may be at the root of your problem if you didn't do the preceding. There should be no problem using the Ghost 2003 program to clone the contents of a smaller HDD to a larger one in an XP environment. You must ensure that *immediately* following the disk-cloning operation the *initial* boot to the destination HDD is made *only* with that drive connected. There may be, of course, another reason why the disk-cloning operation failed but the preceding is one of the common ones. So repeat the disk-cloning operation if the above may be the cause of the problem Anna
Guest David B. Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? Prevent it? No. You may or may not be required to reactivate. Your problem has nothing to do with activation, it's likely you have a bad image. -- ---- Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375 How to Post http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm _________________________________________________________________________________ "Pat" <pat929@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:%23Upa3VwyHHA.4184@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... > Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from being > moved to a > larger drive? > > I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with two > partitions). > On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic 8, > then files > cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still boot > from a floppy. > > Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the Windows > welcome > screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the boot > process, not > even to get to the command prompt. > > A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when > moving XP to a > significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product > Activation won't > let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating > (even though > it's all the same motherboard, etc). > > >
Guest Pat Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? "Anna" wrote... > > "Pat" wrote.. > > Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from being > > moved to a > > larger drive? > > > > I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with two > > partitions). > > On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic 8, > > then files > > cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still boot > > from a floppy. > > > > Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the Windows > > welcome > > screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the boot > > process, not > > even to get to the command prompt. > > > > A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when > > moving XP to a > > significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product > > Activation won't > > let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating > > (even though > > it's all the same motherboard, etc). > > > Pat: > We'll assume the following... > 1. Your "source" HDD - the 80 GB one - was non-defective and contained a > bootable, functional OS. In other words, there were no problems with that 80 > GB HDD of any kind that affected the OS, and, > 2. Your "destination" HDD - the 250 GB one - is similarly non-defective, > and, > 3. You've connected & configured both drives correctly prior to the > disk-cloning operation. > > We'll further assume that during the disk-cloning operation, it went without > a hitch - no error messages of any kind or any other untoward problems, > right? > > Assuming all of the above... Yes to all of the above! > > Following the disk-cloning operation, did you disconnect your source HDD > from the system and make the initial boot *only* with the destination drive > connected? That may be at the root of your problem if you didn't do the > preceding. No. I booted from the original, with the new 259G as a slave, to verify that all files were there. > > There should be no problem using the Ghost 2003 program to clone the > contents of a smaller HDD to a larger one in an XP environment. > > You must ensure that *immediately* following the disk-cloning operation the > *initial* boot to the destination HDD is made *only* with that drive > connected. > > There may be, of course, another reason why the disk-cloning operation > failed but the preceding is one of the common ones. So repeat the > disk-cloning operation if the above may be the cause of the problem > Anna Are you saying I can I just wipe the destination 250G drive and start over?
Guest Pat Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? If I understand correctly, Windows 2000/XP keeps track of hard drives by the HD's volume ID in the registry?
Guest Anna Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? > "Anna" wrote... >> >> "Pat" wrote.. >> > Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from >> > being >> > moved to a >> > larger drive? >> > >> > I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with >> > two >> > partitions). >> > On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic >> > 8, >> > then files >> > cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still >> > boot >> > from a floppy. >> > >> > Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the >> > Windows >> > welcome >> > screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the >> > boot >> > process, not >> > even to get to the command prompt. >> > >> > A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when >> > moving XP to a >> > significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product >> > Activation won't >> > let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating >> > (even though >> > it's all the same motherboard, etc). >> >> >> Pat: >> We'll assume the following... >> 1. Your "source" HDD - the 80 GB one - was non-defective and contained a >> bootable, functional OS. In other words, there were no problems with that >> 80 >> GB HDD of any kind that affected the OS, and, >> 2. Your "destination" HDD - the 250 GB one - is similarly non-defective, >> and, >> 3. You've connected & configured both drives correctly prior to the >> disk-cloning operation. >> >> We'll further assume that during the disk-cloning operation, it went >> without >> a hitch - no error messages of any kind or any other untoward problems, >> right? >> >> Assuming all of the above... > "Pat" responds... > Yes to all of the above! >> Following the disk-cloning operation, did you disconnect your source HDD >> from the system and make the initial boot *only* with the destination >> drive >> connected? That may be at the root of your problem if you didn't do the >> preceding. > "Pat" responds... > No. I booted from the original, with the new 259G as a slave, to verify > that all files > were there. >> There should be no problem using the Ghost 2003 program to clone the >> contents of a smaller HDD to a larger one in an XP environment. >> >> You must ensure that *immediately* following the disk-cloning operation >> the >> *initial* boot to the destination HDD is made *only* with that drive >> connected. >> >> There may be, of course, another reason why the disk-cloning operation >> failed but the preceding is one of the common ones. So repeat the >> disk-cloning operation if the above may be the cause of the problem >> Anna "Pat" <pat929@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:uxLr7ExyHHA.1164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... Are you saying I can I just wipe the destination 250G drive and start over? Pat: No, you need not "wipe" your destination HDD prior to the disk-cloning operation. The disk-cloning process itself will take care of that. Just begin again. But as I've indicated, when the disk cloning operation has completed, immediately shut down your machine, disconnect your source drive (the 80 GB one) from the machine, re:connect the newly-cloned drive as Primary Master and boot. Again, ensure it's the *only* storage device connected to machine during that initial boot. Assuming all goes well you can later connect your former boot drive as a Slave to the new PM or connect it anywhere on the motherboard's secondary IDE channel if that's more convenient. I assume you plan to use that drive for storage/backup purposes. Anna
Guest C.Joseph Drayton Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? Pat wrote: > Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from being moved to a > larger drive? > > I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with two partitions). > On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic 8, then files > cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still boot from a floppy. > > Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the Windows welcome > screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the boot process, not > even to get to the command prompt. > > A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when moving XP to a > significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product Activation won't > let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating (even though > it's all the same motherboard, etc). > > > Hi Pat, If the drive type is different (not size . . . type, ie SATA, PATA, eSATA, SCSI, etc) then you may have to do a repair install. Ciao . . . C.Joseph "A promise is nothing more than an attempt, to respond to an unreasonable request."
Guest cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user) Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? On Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:38:05 -0400, "Pat" <pat929@yahoo.com> wrote: >Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from being moved to a >larger drive? It shouldn't, no. >I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with two partitions). >On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic 8, then files >cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still boot from a floppy. >Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the Windows welcome >screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the boot process, not >even to get to the command prompt. That looks like an activation problem, but is not. XP is too fragile to survive a file-level scrape-over, even if careful to move all files. What worked so well with Win9x, is broken in XP. Instead, you should image the partition from the old HD to hte new one, making sure that the new HD is set in the corresponding device position (i.e. if old HD was 1st HD in the BIOS discovery sequence, then the new one should be as well, at the time you image to it; else you may get the wrong self-reference value in the PBR). >A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when moving XP to a >significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product Activation won't >let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating (even though >it's all the same motherboard, etc). To manage activation risks in XP, get Licenturion's tool here: http://www.licenturion.com/xp/xpinfo-exe.zip The parent site URL is... http://www.licenturion.com/xp/ Run this on the old PC. It will either tell you it can't read the license acivation status, as applies to BIOS-locked OEM, no-activation VLK, or an installation not yet activated, or it will show you your component "lives". If you lose 4+ lives, you die. Changing the HD loses 1 life. Changing the HD controller (e.g. replacing an IDE HD with a S-ATA one) may lose 1 life, plus trigger other problems. Changing the volume serial number will lose 1 life, but this is preserved if you image the original partition. So unles you have already "lost" other lives, the process should not trigger an activation demand. In any case, the failure pattern you are seeing is not an activation demand, but a deeper problem. There is no Licenturion tool for Vista. If you need to know your activation life status in Vista, you're stuffed. Other caveats: 137G limit - BIOS must support > 137G - OS installation must be at least SP1, preferably SP2 - if possible and prudent, install SP on old HD before swap Bad cluster markers - imaging process will carry over inappropriate bad cluster markers - this is the only context where these no longer mean trouble :-) - shrinking the volume may invalidate over-the-edge markers - this may cause ChkDsk /F to clean them up On the last topic, see... http://cquirke.blogspot.com/2007/02/hd-replacement-and-bad-cluster-markers.html ....and this page that is referenced by the above: http://www.djkaty.com/drupal/ntfsbadsectors >---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - - When Occam's Razor meets the Halting Problem, the Halting Problem wins >---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Guest Andy Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? On Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:07:36 -0400, "Pat" <pat929@yahoo.com> wrote: >If I understand correctly, Windows 2000/XP keeps track of hard drives by the HD's volume >ID in the registry? > Windows uniquely identifies a hard drive by the disk signature contained in the drive's MBR. In addition, it identifies partitions in a hard drive by using the disk signature in combination with the location of the partitions on the drive. This information is contained in MountedDevices in the registry. When you boot the computer from the original drive, the Windows loader checks the disk signatures of other drives. If it finds more than one identical signature, as in the case of a clone, it changes the disk signature of the duplicate disk. Once this happens the clone is rendered unbootable without the original disk present, since the information in MountedDevices in the clone's registry points to partitions on the original disk. One way to fix the problem is to restore the disk signature in the clone's MBR with the disk signature of the original drive. Another way to fix the problem is to boot the computer with a DOS diskette, and run the command fdisk /MBR, which has the side effect of zeroing the disk signature. Then when you boot the clone, the Windows loader will see that the disk signature is zero, create a new disk signature, and modify the MountedDevices data in the registry to correspond with the new disk signature.
Guest Pat Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? Thanks for the terrific information! "cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" wrote... > On Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:38:05 -0400, "Pat" wrote: > > >Will windows product activation prevent Windows XP Professional from being moved to a > >larger drive? > > It shouldn't, no. > > >I moved from an 80G drive (with one partition) to a 250G drive (with two partitions). > >On the 250G, partitions were created and formatted with Partition Magic 8, then files > >cloned over using Norton Ghost 2003. Drive is FAT32, so I can still boot from a floppy. > > >Now, with the new drive, Windows will boot, but it will get to the Windows welcome > >screen and then stop. Even in Safe Mode, it won't let me finish the boot process, not > >even to get to the command prompt. > > That looks like an activation problem, but is not. > > XP is too fragile to survive a file-level scrape-over, even if careful > to move all files. What worked so well with Win9x, is broken in XP. > > Instead, you should image the partition from the old HD to hte new > one, making sure that the new HD is set in the corresponding device > position (i.e. if old HD was 1st HD in the BIOS discovery sequence, > then the new one should be as well, at the time you image to it; else > you may get the wrong self-reference value in the PBR). > > >A search of the web show that this is a somewhat common problem when moving XP to a > >significantly larger drive. Some people theorize that Windows Product Activation won't > >let you move Windows to a new larger drive because it might be pirating (even though > >it's all the same motherboard, etc). > > To manage activation risks in XP, get Licenturion's tool here: > > http://www.licenturion.com/xp/xpinfo-exe.zip > > The parent site URL is... > > http://www.licenturion.com/xp/ > > Run this on the old PC. It will either tell you it can't read the > license acivation status, as applies to BIOS-locked OEM, no-activation > VLK, or an installation not yet activated, or it will show you your > component "lives". If you lose 4+ lives, you die. > > Changing the HD loses 1 life. > > Changing the HD controller (e.g. replacing an IDE HD with a S-ATA one) > may lose 1 life, plus trigger other problems. > > Changing the volume serial number will lose 1 life, but this is > preserved if you image the original partition. > > So unles you have already "lost" other lives, the process should not > trigger an activation demand. In any case, the failure pattern you > are seeing is not an activation demand, but a deeper problem. > > > There is no Licenturion tool for Vista. If you need to know your > activation life status in Vista, you're stuffed. > > > Other caveats: > > 137G limit > - BIOS must support > 137G > - OS installation must be at least SP1, preferably SP2 > - if possible and prudent, install SP on old HD before swap > > Bad cluster markers > - imaging process will carry over inappropriate bad cluster markers > - this is the only context where these no longer mean trouble :-) > - shrinking the volume may invalidate over-the-edge markers > - this may cause ChkDsk /F to clean them up > > On the last topic, see... > > http://cquirke.blogspot.com/2007/02/hd-replacement-and-bad-cluster-markers.html > > ...and this page that is referenced by the above: > > http://www.djkaty.com/drupal/ntfsbadsectors > > > > > > >---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - - > When Occam's Razor meets the Halting Problem, > the Halting Problem wins > >---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Guest Pat Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 Re: Moving WinXP to a larger drive and WPA? Based on what you all told me, I cloned to the new HD all over again. But what I did differently was instead of cloning from WinXP, I created a WinXP boot disk with DOS Ghost on it. Booted to the Ghost disk, and performed the clone. Aftter the clone was complete, I shut down the computer, removed the original HD, and put the new HD in the first cable position (remember, these are IDE drives). After one boot, XP popped up that it recognized new hardware and wanted a new boot. Rebooted, and everything seems to run great! Because I am paranoid, I'm saving the original HD as a backup. The new HD is a very fast DeskStar and Wow, does this computer scream! I'll next be converting the HD to NTFS, and then setting it to two partitions. Thanks very much to everyone that helped! Pat
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