Cloning Vista?

Hi everyone,

I recently upgraded my laptop to Vista Home Premium and am rather pleased so far. The issue now is hard drive space and performance, as I was foolish enough to do the Vista upgrade on a 40gig HD.

The Scenario:

I previously made an image of my HD with Acronis True Image. It was a good thing as my current HD seems to be dying (defrag errors, etc). I would like to transfer my image to a new, faster, larger HD, but I'm concerned this will void my activation. Is my thinking correct?

My understanding that a hardware change such as a replacement HD will require me to reactivate Vista. If this is the case, will a memory upgrade for example, also require me to reactivate vista?

If this is an activation issue, will MS support help me out, or is it illegal to clone your HD to a new HD? If illegal, a HD failure means one must by a new license?

Thank you all for your thoughts.

I'm sorry you bought vista, some of my customers have made that mistake and that forced me to install it on a box, which had to be brand new because if you want it to run smoothly you need some serious hardware.
you don't need to buy a new license for vista, you might have to reinstall it possibly, but i see no issue with transferring the image to a new hd, or upgrading the hardware, i dropped 2 more gigs into that box to speed it up some and had no issue with That particular deal. but as for the rest, its more of a pain than a pleasure, so i say, good luck in your endeavor, me i'd wait 4 or 5 years till they are finished with the pay as you beta test for free version.

William Gates III is a convicted abuser of regulated substances......that is the least of his misd's......the rest are certainly felonies :D

Do it, if it doesn't work, threaten to sue them and blow the whistle to the technical press...... be sure to keep hard copies and a daily offline backup, they are devious bastards.

Microsoft's declared policy to us OEM midgets is that the MoBo defines the computer, so you should be OK...... HOWEVER, I do speak as a European, and our consumer laws are different.

I have (personally) always found MS (UK) to be most helpful........ like I rang one of the directors a few years ago ........ got to the PA..... I told her that I was desperate for DOS 3.3 on 360KB 5.25" floppy...... could they help?

Damn thing came next day, complete with manual.......all it cost me was the phone call.

Like all big outfits, it depends on who you get.......

Legally, you have licenced the use of one copy of the software on one computer. If it is a retail version of the software, then you can transfer it to another machine without legal encumbrance.

I hope that helped, although it probably confused you even more? :D

So technically a hard drive or memory upgrade shouldn't cause me any problems, and if they do, MS support should be able to help me out. I think I'm going to try it.

BTW, I'm using the academic upgrade retail for vista, so I assume I should be able to transfer it (even though it's the same machine).

I'll post if I have problems.

Thanks for your help.

I agree vista has it's problems I run 11 machines at my house

3 have vista buss.

I ran ultimate on one and hated it but the buss. release is greeat

as far as re registering you wont have a problem it may say you already did and you will have to call them but it usually is taken care of in less than 10 mins.

good luck

LateNightLurker,

You should have no problems, the registration should happen online if required. Otherwise a simple phone call to an unmanned system. You only need to talk to a person if you have done several re-installs or you change the motherboard.

;)