Adobe registration settings lost

I am still hesitating over buying this product. A friend with the product (latest version), who does not trust the Windows back up and who always uses the CD, tells me that on the several times he's used restore that he has lost all his Adobe Product registration details.

As the product is supposed to back up an image of the disk, I find this very odd. Looking around the forum I see the problem is not unknown.

Why does this happen??

 

By "registration settings" do you mean "activation"?

Apparently when TI restores a partition the sectors are not restored in exactly the same postition as they were in the original so in that scenario the drives are not absolutely identical.

My friend uses Adobe Photoshop CS and he claims it is the fussiest piece of software on earth regarding activation. During his last call to Adobe they told him the newest version isn't as picky.

It could be some trivial change TI is making to the disk layout is upsetting Adobe. I don't use Photoshop and I have never had any trouble with Windows or other activations.

 

The activation of Adobe products is stored in normally unused sectors of the harddisk. If you want to back up the registration you must make an exact sector copy (not only used sectors, also called "smart sector copying") of the drive.

Greetings

Volker

 

Thanks for the info. Surprised defragmenters don't upset it too?

 

Hi

You must restore the Hole Disk not a Partition alone. Then its
works withe the Reg datas.

nice day
mangray

 

How do you do that? Looking at the trial version I cannot tick C: without the partition being ticked as well. There seems to be no option for an Image only? My old copy of Drive Image does this OK but I was hoping Acronis would be easier to use.

 

Yes, when you select the whole disk you get the partitions selected as well. After all, they are what is on the whole disk. This also has the advantage of getting the Master Boot Record as well. I wonder if Adobe is putting data in the MBR?

 

I have read elsewhere on this board that Acronis does not write to the same same sectors as the original. If adobe keeps that sector info and it is written elsewhere then it will be lost.

'R-Drive Image' keeps the sectors if you choose. I was looking for 'sector by sector' backup on Acronis and I have yet to find it. I suspect it does not exist. Please prove me wrong.

 

It is my understanding that TI might do sector by sector if it doesn't see the file structure as one it supports. In that case it does all of the sectors on the partition, not just the ones in use. Afterall, if it can't understand the structure it can't determine what is "in use".

Adobe can't just write info in some random sectors or else it would get overwritten. Something has to tell the file system not to use those sectors wherever they may be. The person who mentioned defraggers made a good point.

 

So, you are saying if I understand you correctly, that if I somehow destroy XP's file structure so that TI doesn't recognise it then it might do what I want it to do!!!!!! In addition, defragging does not lose Adobe registration. I believe he lost his Flashget reg too.

I really feel that I'm being given the run around here. The facts seem to be clear :-

1. If you restore a TI backup then you will lose your Adobe reg.

2. TI does not and cannot be made to do a sector by sector backup and put them back where they belong with a restore.

I realise that a R-Drive Image sector backup is over twice the size of a 'normal' one but at least you have an accurate mirror of your disk. I shall stay with DI until someone proves me wrong.

 

Nobody's giving you the runaround. You asked why Adobe lost its registration and some users gave their opinions about what might be happening and where the activation data might be stored. If Acronis staff gave you vague answers then you might consider it a runaround.

Obviously, wiping out XPs file structure isn't going to be of any use to you but unknown structures are the only way you are going to get a sector by sector copy with TI as far as I know.

If Adobe loses its activation data then by all means use something else if it is preferable for the way you use your PC. I haven't had to reactivate anything using either DI or TI so maybe some beating on Adobe is required. Like I said, my friend was told by Adobe the latest Photoshop CS is supposed to have more relaxed re-activation requirements.

 

Apologies Seek. I just felt that people were suggesting things that were practically impossible! In the circumstances it is no surprise that Acronites have not responded.

My life revolves around Photoshop etc. It would be no big deal having to re-enter the codes just that I would prefer not to!

Thanks for your input.

 

No problem at all. I'll admit my answer about not having a known file structure causing a sector by sector backup was not worded well.

I know how you feel, something isn't a major issue but you want it to work the way you think it should. I'm like that too and it seems to cost me a lot of money!!

Regards

 

I have done some further research on Adobe. It would seem that the activation info is probably stored on Sector 6 so the restoration software must restore at least the early sectors which something like Snapshot allows you to do. However, this would only work if you were restoring to the same drive as the original backup because part of the Adobe activation is the hard coded Drive ID, so restoring to a different HD would never work with any backup software.

Only reason I thought Drive Image 'worked' was because I'd never actually tried it on a new drive.

 

Thanks for posting what you learned.

The "new" drive issue is certainly a real one. I could swear TI always makes a drive bootable because everytime I restore just a single partition image, my drive boots fine. Of course, if I restored my image to a new drive it wouldn't boot because there is no old MBR present - fortunately, from this forum I know that!

 

re: adobe, and activation -
this is why I won't buy products that have screwy activation schemes. I have purchased several thousands of dollars of software in my life, and I get fed up with having to PAY to get aggravated with programs that do screwy things on my hard drive.
That's where the aggravation should be vented; to THOSE companies.
THEN, TI would not have to worry about sector by sector, etc
(ALTHOUGH having a forced sector-by-sector option would NOT be a bad idea, and since TI CAN do sector by sector when IT wants to, then it SHOULD be abole to do this when WE want it to.....)

Anyway, enough ranting and raving, and back to testing how to recover my encrypted drives..... (see my encrypted drive threads..)
Nick

 

Drive snapshot does sector by sector.

It'll be slow as hell though

 

wwhere is drive snapsshot option?
I don't remember seeing that (TI ver.9)

 

I belive he is referring to another vendor's product.

http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/intro.htm

 

May I interject a quick question here for clarification. Are we saying here in the Acronis forum that version 9 of TI cannot make a full-disk backup of your boot drive that could then subsequently be restored to a new HDD where the new HDD would be bootable into Windows? Please tell me I am under a serious misapprehension here. Surely TI can backup my C:\ drive and then after pulling out the old drive and installing a new HDD - restore my backup to the new HDD and go about my business without a hiccup?

 

Acronis TI 9 CAN and does exactly that. It is one of it's main features and is the reason that I use it. It works !!

Xpilot