HDD question

I use Paragon Disc Manager. Cheap, and I've used it for years.

I use Disk Utility. Perfectly adequate for all purposes. I can also format a disk to be FAT if necessary.

Doesn't Win7 Disk Manager allow this?

GParted is a good replacement for PM (and in fact can do more if required - since once booted you can often do data recovery using it, and access network resources etc)

Having said that, over time there is a move to be less reliant on old style static partitions anyway. Modern versions of windows now include storages spaces which allow partitions to be created that can be mapped over multiple drives, and extended and shrunk at will.

e.g.

For a change of boot drive it will not require re-licensing, but may need reactivation. (the requirement will vary based on the number of system configuration changes made and on the time period they are made in, and also the version of windows (i.e. OEM/Retail)

Its actually available for free from their site.

It can but, it is somewhat limited in moving partitions about.

Yes, although there are some restrictions. I went for the paid version.

And activation is not a trivial thing where the label has been worn such part is now illegible.

Just extract the key before you start cloning.

Why won't the cloned disk have the same key?

With a new disk, you *may* (depending on the version and flavour of Windows) be asked to reactivate Windows. This is trivial, but you need to enter a valid key. This would usually be the key that's effectively already in there (but now temporarily deactivated), but it might be a different one (e.g. if you cloned a licensed system you were intending to keep using).

Windows won't tell you the old key, but there are third party tools that will extract it. I've never used one because I write the key down in multiple places.

I've done two desktop machines and one laptop now all fine, and can't even remember the cloning software used it might have some free with the disks!..

It will but what if it fails while you are cloning? If you need the key it makes sense to get it now rather than later.

I found this to extract the key. Copy and paste the following into Notepad:

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key) Const KeyOffset = 52 i = 28 Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789" Do Cur = 0 x = 14 Do Cur = Cur * 256 Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255 Cur = Cur Mod 24 x = x -1 Loop While x >= 0 i = i -1 KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i -1) Then i = i -1 KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput End If Loop While i >= 0 ConvertToKey = KeyOutput End Function

Save it to somewhere you remember and have easy access to, as a .vbs file, i.e. a script file. You do need to change the option of file type from 'text' to 'all files' before you save it. I named it ProductKey.vbs Then go into Explorer, find and double click on said .vbs file to run it, and the product key comes up in a little window. Simple and straightforward (has to be if I can do it!).

You don't need to re-enter the key to re-activate - just click the button and let it get on with it.

If you want to extract a key from an installed system, then download Produkey from Nirsoft and run that.

Indeed, if the reason you are cloning because you fear the drive is failing, then get as much useful stuff off it as you can first before trying the clone - since that may push it over the edge by forcing it to read more of the disk that you would otherwise.

A few times I have had to abandon a clone when it became obvious that the source drive was too far shagged to let one complete either at all or in a sensible time frame. Having the user's profile backed up along with the serial numbers for Windows / Office and any other important software makes the whole process less stressful!

There are tools that will read everything they can on the first pass, skipping any disk errors, then go back and try harder on the bits that failed first time. ddrescue is the one that I've used to good effect.

When you're attempting to clone a drive you fear is on its last legs and is not long for this life, your best option is to boot from a rescue disk/ pen drive (UBCD is a good bet for this) to run dd_rescue from. If needs be, use whatever good drive you have to hand that's larger in capacity than what you need so you can clone the whole disk using the least complex of command switches[1] (even if you're only cloning a 250GB drive to a 1 to 4 TB HDD - you can less frenetically transfer the partitions to a more suitably sized disk afterwards).

dd_rescue will prioritise the cloning actions, grabbing the readily retrievable portions whilst they're still retrievable, saving the difficult to impossible regions to last (which regions may not contain anything of importance anyway - they may simply hold 'deleted data'). Ordinary cloning tools will try plodding through bad sectors, often to the point the drive controller locks up before it can get to the less damaged areas, whereas dd_rescue can skip around the bad sectors and even reset a crashed HDD controller to carry on indefinitely.

If there's *any* chance of retrieving data off a failing disk short of sending it to a data recovery specialist firm, dd_rescue is your last DIY resort for a solution.