Bare Metal restore revisited.

I have three PCs that are identical Dells with WinXP on them. I want to fully load the first PC including software like Groupwise (Novell's e-mail) and Microsoft Office 2003. Then I want to clone the other two PCs to be exact copies of the first.

All 3 PCs will be on the same Novell domain.

To me this a basic "bare metal" operation.

I do not want to have to install TI 9 on any of the PCs.

How do I do this project?

What about SIDs?

How do I change the Microsoft Office 2003 license number so I am legal? I do have 3 valid licenses.

What other things do I have to worry over?

Thanks

Dan Maday

 

One option.....
Set up one drive the way you want it. Run SysPrep on that drive. Create your master image and store the master image on a drive OTHER THAN those you will run on the network. Then, restore the master image to each of your drives.

As long as you do not activate Office on your master drive before you image it, you can later enter the unique license number on each drive the first time you launch Office on each drive. However, if you already have an activated Office on your master drive, first uninstall it and then reinstall it without activating it.

 

But do you have 3 TI licenses?

 

That's a interesting question. The easy answer is I have one license and I am one user. This is the reason I asked if I could run TI 9 from a bootable CD. I want to use TI 9 as a tool to create PCs. I do not want to install TI 9 on the PCs because I respect the licensing restrictions. While I am using TI 9 on the bootable CD I am not using it on my regular office PC.

No one answered my question about creating a bootable CD that can run TI 9 in standalone mode - just like Ghost.

 

I think Howard is right. The one computer per license restriction applies to the Rescue CD as well. In other words, only one computer may benefit from one TI9 license. At least that is how I understand the License Agreement.

Regardless of how you'll use the standalone CD you are entiteled to, you should run the Create Bootable Rescue Media tool from the program's main screen to burn it.

 

Yes, but the product is also intended to be used to MOVE to another system.

The ONLY license I've ever seen that explicitly causes grief is Partition Magic, which states that PM can be used on ONLY 1 PC.

If you desire to move/use PM on another PC, then the previous PC MUST be "decomissioned".

Don't know whether that's ever been tested in the courts.

 

Yes, if you install a clone on - or restore to - a second computer, you should transfer the use of TI to the second computer too and stop using it on the first one. Same again, only one position forward, when you later move to a third machine. That would be a normal sequential use on one PC only at any time.

I wonder if performing multiple restores on several computers in parallel could be accepted as an equivalent case.

 

Technically, that would violate the license.

 

Hi again Howard,

The point you raised in your previous post made me do some more thinking.

The picture comes out clear when you look at a particular situation in terms of "intent and purpose", as it would eventually be done in a litigation.

The purpose of the standalone CD version of TI is to enable the user to restore the system disk and certainly not to let him transport the program across several computers, effectively serving them all even if the program is running just on one computer at any given time and perhaps installed on none.

 

In litigation, if one gets the right/wrong judge/jury/arbitrators, anything could be ruled.

A warranty must be read literally, just as a standard, do not ASSuME anything.

Other than certain development products, such as VB or VS .NET or ..., one can expect that a license restricts use of software to a set number of computers.

Also, many include statements about transferring software to others or to other systems. IMNSHO, any onerous requirements on transfer would not be upheld in litigation.

 

From the TI User's Guide:

Regards​

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