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Transfering Software Licenses

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I migrated my hard drive backup from my old laptop to my new lap top and now when I try to open software I get an error message about the licensing is not valid.  I was under the impression that this would be a seamless process to transfer everything to the new hardware and go on without having to reload and re-activate the software.  What am I missing?

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Mark, welcome to these user forums.

I am afraid that your impression is not correct.

Yes, you can transfer your old laptop Windows OS and installed programs / data etc to new hardware, but the version of Windows will determine whether this will need to be reactivated on the new hardware or not.

If your old laptop was running an OEM version of Windows, i.e. one branded by Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer etc, then this is not transferable to any other computer as its activation is valid only for the computer where it was originally activated.

You would need to have either a full Retail version of Windows to allow it to be moved, or have a license for the same version of Windows for the new hardware.

You may also need to reactivate other software on the new system too, if that software activation is based on the hardware signature where it was installed, as some MS Office type applications use.  Acronis True Image is also activated based on hardware signature but you can move a license to your new hardware and reactivate it by following a process that will be shown when the number of valid licenses for activation is exceeded.

Steve Smith wrote:

Mark, welcome to these user forums.

I am afraid that your impression is not correct.

Yes, you can transfer your old laptop Windows OS and installed programs / data etc to new hardware, but the version of Windows will determine whether this will need to be reactivated on the new hardware or not.

If your old laptop was running an OEM version of Windows, i.e. one branded by Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer etc, then this is not transferable to any other computer as its activation is valid only for the computer where it was originally activated.

You would need to have either a full Retail version of Windows to allow it to be moved, or have a license for the same version of Windows for the new hardware.

You may also need to reactivate other software on the new system too, if that software activation is based on the hardware signature where it was installed, as some MS Office type applications use.  Acronis True Image is also activated based on hardware signature but you can move a license to your new hardware and reactivate it by following a process that will be shown when the number of valid licenses for activation is exceeded.

So why did the "cloning" process work for essentially the same hard drive that started in a Toshiba to my existing Lenovo?  I am now trying to go from a Lenovo purchased in 2012 to one recently purchased and yet what worked before won't work now?  Apologies I am a Mechanical Engineer and not a computer whiz.  Where do I find the process to transfer licenses?

Mark - hard to say what your situation and process was in the past.  Microsoft licensing is finicky.  Windows XP, 7, 8 and 8.1 OEM licenses - those that come with the specific hardware, are non-transferable as they are only legally licensed to the original hardware they were installed for.

That said, if you have OEM PC A and OEM PC B and both use the same type of OS (Win 7 Home and Win 7 Home), you should be able to transfer the OS and use the same OEM key from the new hardware to reactivate the PC.  But if PC A had Win 7 Home and new PC B came with Win 8.1 Home, then no, you can't just transfer OS A to system B and expect it to license properly.

Windows 10 is a different beast than the previous Windows OSes.  If both systems have Windows 10 Home or both have Windows 10 Pro and have registered wiht Microsoft, the hardware is licensed for life so you can change similar OSes all day long to that same hardware since it's the hardware that Microsoft checks to make sure it has a digital license on record already.

As for "CLONING". A clone is an exact copy of the original.  In most cases, your hardware is not the same.  Think of computer A as a Honda Civic and Computer B as a BMW 3-series.  You can't just take everything under the hood from the honda and dump it directly into the BMW and expect it to work.  That's the the theory behind a clone which is really designed to clone a hard drive to another hard drive to be used in the same computer, with the same hardware, hence the same Windows drivers.

If you try to clone computer A into Computer B and the hardware is very different, the drivers from OS A may not work in OS B directly.  5 years ago, PC's were also more simple as all of them had one type of bios (legacy/CSM/MBR).  New computers are mostly UEFI - it's like Gasoline vs Diesel - they're not compatible.  However, many newer PC's that come with UEFI, also have a legacy mode that can be enabled in the bios.  Each bios has a different setup and features that vary from system to system, but are all likely to be UEFI by default now.  Whether or not they have a legacy mode that can be enabled, will vary.  

So yes, Acronis can absolutely clone a drive for you (or better yet, backup and restore it) to be used in the the new computer.  However, whether or not the new computer hardware is so different, or the bios needs to be configured first by the user, or the type of license you're trying to migrate, may be a limiting factor outside of the clone or backup and restore process.  

When you go to do this...

1) Backup your new computer "as is" first - just in case.  You want a backup copy of whatever OS came with it since you don't get an installer disc from computer manufacturers these days.  This initial BACKUP (not clone) gives you the ability to restore to factory settings if you need to.

2) Backup your old computer "as is" first - just in case - again, it's your safety net.

3) Now, you can do any of these...

   a) move drive from computer A to computer B and see if it boots - probably not

   b) clone drive from computer A to drive on computer B and if it boots - probably not

   c) restore backup of computer A to hard drive on computer B and see if it boots - probably not

   d) remove hard drive of new computer B and hold onto "as is".  PUt in a new hard drive in computer B.  Restore backup of computer A to new drive in computer B or clone hard drive from computer A to new drive on computer B and see if it boots - probably not.

4)  After finishing the clone or restore, now run Acronis Universal Restore on the newly restored hard drive or newly cloned hard drive.  This generalizes the Windows drivers to "out of the box" windows drivers which will normally make it bootable.  This assumes teh bios is configured correctly on the new machine (SATA mode matches the old machine, disabling secure boot in the bios if need be, enabling CSM\legacy\MBR in the bios if need be, ensuring the boot order of the bios shows the new drive as the first priority if need be).

It's 100% doable in 99.9% of all machines.  The complications are really do to the newer UEFI bios firmware which has increased security features and manyh OEM's restricting settings on them.  The licensing has always been an issue if you are using OEM licenses.  If your new computer came with Windows 10, but the old computer has Windows 7 and there are no Windows 7 drivers available for your new computer, that may be another sticking point.  There are a lot of what ifs, because there is very little to go on other than what you want to accomplish.  Again, should all be doable, but there are many things to consider, beyond what Acronis will due to just replicate your drive content from computer A to computer B in the clone process.  

I hav to ask what is the point of the Knowledge Base Article "58579: Acronis True Image 2017: Restoring to Dissimilar Hardware with Acronis True Image"?  This article describes what I want to do for transfering to a new computer.  I will say for me the instructions were not as idiot freindly as I would like.  Like I said in a previous post I am a Mechanical Engineer not a computer technician.   For me a detailed step by step list of instructions would help greatly with all the perceived gaps in the KBA from my perspective.  The other issue I had was what I saw on the screen did not match what are in the instructions and how to videos.  Here is what I did:

1) Created a bootable media with a USB flash drive

2) Backed up my old computer (Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520) hard drive to a new hard drive (2TB) mounted in a case with USB connections.

3) Removed the hard drive from the new computer (Lenovo ThinkPad P50) and set aside.  This was a 500GB drive.

4) Install a new hard drive in the new computer (2TB same brand & model as the one in the USB case)

5) Start the new computer with the bootable media.

6) Run Acronis Universal Restore to "restore" the new computor with my old computer programs & files.

Both machines run Windows 10 Pro.  One thing I was unsure of is the "driver preparation" in the instructions.  All seemed to work ok so I did not do a reboot with the bootable media.  A question is would that make a difference?

 

You missed a step between 5and 6 - to clarify, the rescue media and Universal Restore are not necessarily one in the same unless they are both on the rescue media - it's a 2 step process though.

5) Start the new computer with the bootable rescue media - Acronis True Image Home

6) Restore the previously created image to the newly installed 2TB hard drive

7) Start the new computer with the bootable rescue media - Universal Restore

8) ** Run Acronis Universal Restore to "restore" the new computor with my old computer programs & files.

** Windows 10 handles drivers WAAAAAAAAAAAY better than previous OSes.  In most cases, if you are restoring Windows 10 from one piece of hardware to another, you don't even need to run universal restore.  You do, however, need to ensure the SATA mode in the bios is the same and again, if moving from legacy to UEFI, that's another variation to the equation.

There are some good user-provided YouTube videos of the restore and UR processes - Sticky: Great Acronis "How-To" videos and other Acronis Resources

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Additionally, there are options/settings in the bios that need to be configured and verified - these are not identifed in the guides because they are completely dependent upon your bios firmware options and will vary from system to system.  Some bioses can be configured to change 

A) disable secure boot in the bios

B) Ensure the SATA mode of the new machine matches that of the old system

C) If the old OS was a CSM\legacy\mbr\bios install - ensure the new system has a CSM\legacy\mbr\bios setting and enable it - for ease of restore, restoringapples to apples is ideal. If not, then you'll be working under the assumption that Acronis is goign to convert your old CSM\legacy\mbr\bios install to the newer GPT\UEFI method.

D) You can never transfer a 32-bit UEFI/GPT system toa 64-bit UEFI/GPT system or vice-versa - this is a bios hardware limitation.  Not many mainstream systems use 32-bit UEFI/GPT, but there are several cheap tablets and budge systems that do (mostly those that use 16, 32 or 64GB emmc flash hard drives and only 1 or 2GB of RAM)

E) How you boot the rescue media makes a difference.  If the old machine was a Legacy/BMR OS install, you want to boot the rescue media in legacy mode if your new system supports it.  It is easiest to restore apples to apples (legacy to legacy or UEFI to UEFI).  However, Acronis can restore MBR to UEFI if desired and still be bootable (Moving from old technology to new technology is supported), but is another layer of complexity.  Acronis can restore from UEFI to MBR, but it will not be bootable (can't move from new technology back to old technology as far as the OS is concerned).

You'll face these issues with jus about any backup and restore product and it's not always easy to find out what bios options you have in a new system until you've had a chance to reserach them or play with them first. 

 

 

 

I backed up and punted on this one.  I repeated the entire process and when applying Universal Restore during the restore process in the 'Applying Universal Restore' Details dialog box I am flagged with "There are activities that need user interaction: 1" at the top.  I click the show details button and get "Cannot find device driver 'PCI \VEN_8086&DEV_A102&SUBSYS_222E17AA&REV_31' For Windows 10'.  I downloaded the drivers from Intell and Lenovo, and still they same result.  What is this driver and where can I find it?

Have you tried just ignoring the driver request?  The only time I've ever really had to supply a driver is if using RAID as the SATA mode (assuming the SATA mode remains the same between systems ... AHCI >>> AHCI     or     RAID >>> RAID      or     IDE >>> IDE?  

I can't find your exact driver reference (with 31 at the end), but it looks like it could be the Ethernet controller.  This wouldn't prevent bootability if the driver was not provided, but you may need to have the ethernet driver or application ready to go in case you need to get it working so you can get back online.

If you just google "PCI \VEN_8086&DEV_ A102&SUBSYS_222E17AA"

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet…

IF bios is configured correctly with the right SATA mode, secure boot disabled, legacy/csm/mbr enabled and the rescue media is started in the correct mode to match the original OS install type (UEFI or Legacy), with Windows 10, universal restore may not even be needed.  If it is though, just skip the driver request and reboot and see if you get a BSOD or not.

 

Ok.  I am still trying to get this done where I can use my old software on my new computer.  I am repeating the process, and the one thing I keep having a question in is the step on "Preparing the Drivers".  For this step am I to put the OE hard drive for my new computer back in and copy the drivers from it to the Universal Restore USB?  Or is there another way to do this?  I have downloaded the drivers from Intel, and Lenovo for my laptop and still have issues.  I put the OE hard drive back in I find drivers labeled *mui and none that are *.inf, *.sys, or *.oem as the KB article 58579 states.  Both computers are using Windows 10 Pro.  My old one is the upgrade from Windows 7,  the new one is the OE install.  The main issue with me is I can restore my old system to the new laptop and it will boot and work it is that the software (like AutoCad, Solidworks, MS Office, and even Acronis for example) come up with a warning that 'A hardware change has been detected, and I have reached my activation limit for tis software' or similar type message.  I was under the impression that the "58579: Acronis True Image 2017: Restoring to Dissimilar Hardware with Acronis Universal Restore" would lead me to make my new laptop look, and work like my old one.  I am seriously doubting this.  Any actual Acronis people out there that can clarify this.  As you can tell I am getting pretty frustrated with this proces, and feel misled by the KB article, and the video Acronis has on this.  At the least I feel the instructions are written by computer geeks for computer geeks and leave out some details for non computer geek users like me.  As I stated above I am a Mechanical Engineer not a computer tech.  Is there a way to get this accpmplished, or did I waste my money?

Mark, when using Universal Restore, the only drivers you may need to provide are those for the new motherboard / chipset and possibly drivers for the new internal disk drive controller (if this is non-standard).

You should not copy any drivers from the old system as these are not relevant to the new hardware where you are attempting to migrate your old OS to.  Drivers will only ever be required for the new system hardware, and only those that Windows cannot start successfully without - any others will be discovered during the Windows startup process along with 'New hardware found' type messages.

Software activation cannot be bypassed by using Acronis Universal Restore - this cannot alter the hardware signature of the new computer if this is how the software is activated, i.e. based on the unique hardware signature derived from the motherboard, CPU, MAC address of embedded LAN etc.  If any of your products are activated in this way, then you will need to reactivate them on the new computer via the methods provided by the vendor of that software.   With Acronis True Image, you can move the activation license to the new computer by removing it from the old in the process described in KB 58554: Acronis True Image 2017: "You've exceeded the maximum number of activations for this serial number"

The "58554: Acronis True Image 2017: "You've exceeded the maximum number of activations for this serial number"" applies to Acronis True Image.  What about the other software.  If I will have to go through the process all over again of loading/ractivating then I feel I have not been fully informed on the limitations of ATI2017 in their articles and videos on restoring to disimilar hardware.  Acronis should be up front and honest that this can't be done.  At this time I feel I wasted my money on a belief I could do something that was not possible with ATI2017.  Can an actual Acronis representative explain this to me?

Mark, see KB 58579: Acronis True Image 2017: Restoring to Dissimilar Hardware with Acronis Universal Restore which has a very clear statement of the purpose of AUR when it says:

Acronis Universal Restore is a tool that allows changing Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL.dll) and install mass storage boot device drivers into the system.

It installs boot device drivers (e.g. hard drive or RAID controller drivers) into the system during the recovery process, so that the operating system can boot from this boot device. If there are proper NIC drivers present in the folder with the drivers, Acronis Universal Restore will copy them into the restored system and will schedule their installation on Windows boot-up.

(!) All the other drivers (e.g. video and sound card drivers, plug and play drivers) are not installed by Acronis Universal Restore, as they can be installed in Windows after the successful migration.

See also KB 2149: Acronis Universal Restore which confirms the above statement where it says:

Acronis Universal Restore lets you restore your system to different hardware environment; Acronis Universal Restore allows to change Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer and install HDD controller and NIC drivers

There is no mention in any of the Acronis documentation that would suggest that Acronis could transfer the activation for other OEM Software products, including for the Windows OS itself - it is your responsibility to ensure that you have valid / correct licenses for your software to allow this to be activated on your new hardware.

In watching this video from Acronis ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbe8yTOaVGg  ) it mentions transfering operating system, programs and files to restore to a new computer.  Why are they not clear about not tranfering the activations?  It seems they need to be clear for people like me by having a specific statement this will not transfer the program licences and activations.  In the statements above it may seem clear to you what the intent is, but for non computer techs like me the full meaning does not come through. As I see it now The only choice I have is to clone my OE hard drive (512G) to my new drive (2T) then reinstall my programs and go through reactivation of those products.  Something I wanted to avoid due to the time and effort required.  

Each application licenses itself differently. Most likely, there will only be a few apps to re-register though. The big one is OEM Windows licenses which are non transferable. These are listed in the Microsoft license agreements and in most software EULAs (end user license agreement) which you accept during installation of that application.

whether using Acronis or some other recovery method, makes no difference for the software licensing of an operating system or application and the restrictions imposed by each one.

for the most part, it's usually just a matter of entering a license key again so it rerehisters with the new hardware, which logs it with the application vendor so they can see you've moved it or are trying to use a license concurrently on more than one machine. Again though, each application handles this differently so some will nust work, some will need you to enter the license key and some will require you to reactivate with the vendor after explaining you migrated to a new system and are not using it on the old one anymore.

... If you go from hard drive 1 to hard drive 2 on the same computer, licensing is no issue... it's the change to a new computer (typically any motherboard change) that triggers with software that it's now on a different computer it didn't register with before. I've had a few that toe themselves to the MAC address of the Ethernet adapter too. It logs that somewhere and checks against the current one. 

This is just total crap. I have software that is open license and acronis will not move it or restore it to a new system. Disaster recovery means complete recovery of all data and software.

Craig, welcome to these User Forums.

Sorry but what is the context of your comments just posted to this forum topic?

Acronis can recover a total Windows OS installation complete with all installed applications and data to the same hardware, and can attempt to do the same to different hardware subject to certain conditions being met.

What Acronis cannot do is to move individual applications that you may have installed on your Windows computer.  This is not the purpose of this software and is documented very clearly in KB 19296: Acronis products cannot be used to transfer applications to different system or upgrade OS

In my experience there are very few products that are able to do such application / software migration and those that do claim to do this often rely on having monitored the installation of that software (to capture all registry changes etc).