will true image let me take my xp+progs and 'place' it on friend's formated hdd?

i have a harddrive with Linux on the first two partions (ext + swap), win2k on the 3rd (c, and winXP SP1 on the 4th (d

i want to take my XP installation copy it with all the stuff it has installed and paste it on to a friend's computer formatted harddrive as the only OS. Will True Image make this possible? or is what i'm trying to do impossible?

note: the reason i want to do this is to save time installing XP and programs on my friend's computer... i want to just take what i have on my computer and drop it on his...

 

This would not be some form of software piracy, would it now?

 

Yes TI should be able to do this, try hooking up both drives on the same computer with TI on it and then clone the system partition.

Note - Your friend will have to activate windows xp, as windows will detect this as a major hardware change

 

I am in the exact predicament.How amazing to have a question answered without even asking.Thanks,Chief.

No,it has absolutely nothing to do with piracy in my case.More like recycling redundant software now I've migrated to Linux.Have a lovely friend who I want to help out.She is elderly,incredibly smart but I'd like to make the "install" as hassle-free as possible for her.

Chief,can I confirm that it will be adequate for my friend to activate XP then "beam" the new hardware profile to Microsoft?It's retail,not OEM-and I'll be posting the whole shebang to her so she will have the genuine disc besides the clone.

 

Vis-a-vis hooking up the drives-no can do.They are on the otherside of the planet.Sorry if this sounds preposterous,but would it work via VPN/remote connection?

Should I upgrade to another TI package?

 

Activating XP with Microsoft is no problem, no questions asked, takes like a second. I think they just try to make sure that the same copy of Windows is not active on more than one PC (i.e. the version on your drive will become inactive as soon as she activates hers)


As far as your friend being on the other side of the world... no I'm fairly certain you cannot clone a partiton over the internet via VPN or anything, however I think you can do something. I think you just need to make an image file of your windows partition and then somehow send that image file to your friend, which is going to be several Gigs I'm sure. Your friend then can use TI to restore the image onto her drive. Shebang

 

Thanks so much,Chief.

The VPN thing..yeah,I did think that was kind of "way out there".I intended to just enclose a DVD of the clone with the retail XP Pro CD and send it over to Oz via snailmail.

Just got worried when you mentioned to the initial poster about rigging up the hds.

There wont be an XP in existence on this comp,so there's no way that'll be an issue.Thanks for answering,I appreciate the need to be cautious,but not everyone wants to break EULAs or illegally redistribute software.

"Certified Warez Free" is my middle name.Thanks again.I'll let you know if it works out.

 

This is an xp issue and not Ti.
Is your friend's hardware identical to yours. If it is not, chipset, mb drivers, ram, vidcard etc. The new image won't boot on the new box, even though it will be there in it entirety. The only possibilty would be to set your video drivers to basic vga, then make your image, then image the new box, then run a repair installation from the legal xp cd, and hopefully it will catch all the installed progs etc. This usually works, but is risky. Then she should reimage the working installation after activation.

 

Right,so,essentially,I just have to post the retail XP Pro.When it arrives Down Under,I'll simply have to phone my pal and talk her through a normal reinstall.

Ah well,if you don't ask,you'll never know.Thanks for saving me the time of an experiment that would've failed,anyway.At least I can burn all the essential programmes on an accompanying CD at any rate.

Thanks again for your advice.

 

The SIDs will be all wrong. Won't she need to run Sysprep or will the "repair" fix things up?

 

Doing the repair is probably easier for most people than doing sysprep which is ideal