Clone a Computer

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I have seen some posts about this topic, but none addressing my specific situation.

I back up my computer on BackBlaze and with four external hard drives. One of THOSE drives failed completely and it happened to be my primary archive of installation programs for my most important applications (especially all of my digital keyboard programs).

BackBlaze does not back up programs, just photos, files, and documents.

My Dell 9000 is running fine, but if it should fail at some point I will have no way to recover or reinstall the programs I have on this computer.

I stopped by the Geek Squad and asked if there was a way to back up or copy an entire computer, including installed programs. I'd like to have a copy of this computer as a backup - I would buy a new Windows 7 computer and duplicate this one on that one.

Geek Squad nerdy guy said it can't be done - you can't copy, save or reinstall programs from one computer on to another - they have to be installed using the original .exe applications (most of which I lost when the external drive crashed). The Acronis True Image 2015 program says:

"Full System Image Backup

Backup your entire system image – that is all your apps, files, user accounts, exact configurations, and even the OS in one compressed file. Reliable image backup and recovery of your entire system – email, music, photos, videos, documents, personal settings, bookmarks, and all your applications.

Universal Restore

Move your system from any PC to any PC – no matter what make or model you use."

Can this be done? I would buy the same brand (a newer version and model) with the same operating system. I really just want to backup/duplicate/clone/copy my existing computer in case something happens.

Thu, 10/02/2014 - 01:26
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The answer is that Geek Squad are both correct and wrong at the same time! :)

Yes, you can restore to another machine, and, if it has different hardware (including chipsets) Universal Restore will allow th einsertion of the correct drivers. So physically it is no problem.

The problem becomes -

1. Windows, legally it requires a new serial number and because things like the MAC will be different, will probably require re-activating. (Linux and OS2 etc will not ahve this annoyance).

2. Some of your programs may become node locked, if their activations are tied to hard drive ID's, serial numbers or MAC, motherboard ID, CPU ID etc and will require unlocking.

Even though you may ostensibly be purchasing the same PC, it can happen that minor details (network chip vendor for example) can either change manufacturer or version. However UR sorts those problems out.

I would always be inclined to make an image of a system rather than cloning, purely because imaging on restore offers more flexibility than cloning. Having said that the disadvantage would be you'd need a 3rd disk.

Fri, 10/03/2014 - 02:59
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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
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Thank you for your response - this makes a lot of sense now.

My main concern is saving installed programs (applications and games), the installation software for which I saved on an external hard drive - that failed.

Will creating an image of my current system allow me to recover those programs without repurchasing them from the original vendors? Or will the locked nodes, etc., prevent me from restoring them on a new computer?

I already have a couple of large capacity external drives I could use to store a system image.

Thanks again.

Robert

Mon, 10/13/2014 - 17:09