Cloning Computer At Manufacturer State
Oct 24, 2006
I am about to purchase a laptop and if there is anything I've learned over the years, it's that these companies like to cram laptops with useless software, most of which expires after a certain amount of time thus making it even more useless. What I would like to do after purchasing the laptop is completely format the hard drive and then install my own copy of Windows along with software that I do use. If anything ever goes wrong however, the originally installed version of Windows along with the manufacturer's software / utilities will most likely be needed for warranty. So my question is about how to make a perfect copy of the hard drive before formatting it. I have Partition Magic which has an option called "Copy Partition" which I imagine is what I am looking for, but I would like to make sure I don't do anything wrong.
Would I install Partition Magic, make a hidden partition that is large enough for the currently installed version of Windows and the extra "bundled" software, and then copy Windows and the software to it? After which I would then format the rest of the hard drive and then install my own version of Windows there. If anything ever goes wrong, I would format the partition I was working with and copy the hidden partition back to it. Is this the correct thing to do, and if so is there anything else I should be aware of before doing this. For example, will the original version of windows still function correctly if I ever did have to restore it? I always hear about people doing this and I assume this is what they do.
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May 29, 2006
I had a virus a few weeks ago that cheese helped me with. However, now whenever I start up, I get a problem. windows classifies it as a serious problem. Here are the error messages.Also, when the computer stands by, when you wake it up, it reboots instead of just returning to its state before it went to sleep. Any ideas why? here are the errors
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Dec 27, 2008
i did a system recovery to get rid of serious problems and my files and pictures are gone. i have done this before and it has always saved my stuff. is there anyway i can get this stuff back? please tell me yes, all my pics of my kids birthdays and christmas's were in there.
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Sep 21, 2007
I recently had to install XP on a michine that came with an in built ethernet card. I need to find out what ethernet card it is, so that I can install the relevant drivers to get it to work. I've tried to do some detective work to find out what ethernet card I to find the corresponding drivers. All I can come up with is from the Packard Bell website (the company from which the machine came). The only details I could find for the ethernet connection are something that says: LAN 10/100 (marvell 88E8039)
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Apr 8, 2007
I noticed that under the "services" tab in msconfig, I have a strange entry that has a tick mark showing it to be active. Here it is: xxId_String1.6844F930 _1628_B5CC_5bb94B879762 Manufacturer: Unknown
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Jan 31, 2010
I cloned a desktop with dual boot for windows xp and windows vista in the respected order. after cloning, I went to an identical desktop and make the image restore so that it will be similar to the other one. I did this to save time installing and updating again which take so much time. after the restoring of the image is done, the system rebooted and represented the dual boot options (1. earlier version of windows, 2. Windows Vista) but when you click any of them it wont work and it will reboot in endless loop
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Jul 23, 2009
I copied/cloned my failing C: to a drive on USB. C: drive has now failed and I need the copy to become bootable. Why can't this question be a simple answer.
What happened to fdisk utilities?
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Jul 19, 2009
My main HD is about to give up. It's making strange noises whenever I start up or have a file on that drive open.Could I buy a new HD and install it as a slave drive. Then clone my main drive to the slave drive and then get rid of the old main drive and put the clone in as my new main drive? Without a lot of f***ing about?The reason I ask about doing it this way is that I don't have a set of XP disks, I just have the recovery disk that came with computers 8-10 years ago. It's pre sp1 and I've used it three or four times already and I'm sure it will be more hassle than I need to re install from it.I'm running XP sp2. When I had this comp put together they had to do a raid controller, I don't really know what that is. Something to do with the fact that the main drive is IDE only and my current second drive is IDE or Sata but is in place as an IDE drive.
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Aug 23, 2005
I have just used ACRONIS True Image to clone WIN XP Pro from an IBM Think pad to a Dell Optiplex desktop.After restoring the image to the Dell - I used the original Dell XP Pro disk to do a Repair install (not recovery console). XP then booted up into the Dell.All works fine and I have not had to re-install any of my applications.However, I am missing my display driver, Power management drivers, etc. So I can't hibernate but the display as it stands works fine.Is there some way of getting these drivers to be recognized or auto detected? I thought Windows would just auto detect them but perhaps because everything is working this step is bypassed.I can always go back and do a restore with my Dell disks but I am trying to avoid re-installing all my apps - the greater task than reinstalling XP.
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Apr 8, 2008
I have just cloned my C: drive which is only 2.93 GB big, to install my Windows OS on my D: drive which is a lot bigger.Is there anyway I can now remove the OS or the files from the C: drive, and if so, if not, how do i now make my computer boot up from copy of OS now installed on D:
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Sep 3, 2006
I recently cloned my 40 gig western digital hard drive over to a 160 gig Hitachi.I am running windows xp pro sp2.First I used Norton Ghost,when finished copying I switched hard drives,relocated the jumpers so the new one was set to master. I restarted my personal computer.It showed the hard drive and the 2 cd roms but my personal computer wouldn't boot.I then formatted the Hitachi and tried again with power quest Drive image,I got the same results.It shows my new hard drive configured Then I get the splash screen then just a blinking dot in the top left corner of my screen so I tried again with hard disk clone, still wouldn't boot to the hard disk. I then created a floppy boot disk which made it load up perfectly.I tried the f disk thing. I tried the R repair with the windows xp disk.to no avail.My hard drive will boot great if I use a boot disk but it won't boot to the hard drive on it's own.If I put the original hard drive in it boots up fine.I have a compaq presario 5000.I have tried everything I could think of and everything I could find searching the web.
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Jun 24, 2006
I have just reinstalled WinXP to try to get rid of this problem but it still persists. Basically, my computer is booting itself up from a powered off state but only when the phone line is connected to it (I have dial up internet access). If the phone line is not connected to it, the PC stays off. (Note the PC isn't dialling out - at least i don't think it is). I guess the easy answer is just to remember to unplug the phone line
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Jul 21, 2005
I'm creating a .bat to run a backup job and it keeps failing. The event log says that no media was specified. The job works fine if I load it to the GUI. The 4mm DAT drive is specified in the GUI but that doesn't seem to carry over to the command line. In the end all I want is a full C: backup and the system state, overwriting whatever tape is in the drive. This is the command from the .bat
ntbackup backup "@c:ackupserver.bks" /m normal /v:yes
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Mar 21, 2006
I have a bootable cd that contains a backup of my system state. It boots to a dos command prompt. I cannot find info on how to restore this should I need to in the future. Also, I wished to create a ERD but I have no floppy drive. Info I have found tells me to use regedt.32 (or regedit) but info on how to create, store, restore this is confusing (involves either a long bat file or refers to how to restore from within? a domain). All I wish to do is to have the cd equivilent of the ERD floppy that I can insert when asked to do so from the W2K cd. If this is not possible, I would like to know how to accomplish this using another method.
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Oct 21, 2008
My PC has upon startup has reverted to state before a hard drive format that was done July 2007. I checked a restore point and only today's Oct 21 was there and the next previous month was not Sept 2008 but July 2007.
I tried booting in safe mode for the most recent configuration that worked but no change. All folders and files since july 2007 has disappeared.
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Sep 20, 2005
I am a computer enthusiast and I assemble my own PCs. I wanted to know how to brand the PC with custom System Manufacturer and System Model settings. I am aware of the OEMINFO.ini file but that only changes information in the Computer properties page when you right-click 'My Computer' and choose properties.But when you use dxdiag,the System Manufacturer and System Model read "To be filled by O.E.M".Could anyone please tell me how to go about changing these settings ? Changing the OEMINFO.ini file does not affect these values.OEM manufacturers like Dell, Sony have changed the settings on their products, so I'm sure it's possible.
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Jun 22, 2006
I recently tried reformatting my hard disk and reinstalling windows to do a "clean-up" and start anew. Upon reinstalling Windows, I tried to download and install SP2.
Once SP2 is installed, the first time this happened I received an error message that said "SP2 Instlalation failed - Systme is in a fragile state please go to Control Panel and uninstall" After that I tried reinstalling the service pack. After this, I received the blue screen of death after bootup, with a big message that I couldn't read (It was distorted by the monitor and only on screen for a little bit).
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Aug 8, 2009
I would like to restore my old computer to its original state, but can't figure out how. Gateway won't help me because it is out of warranty. I have both the original DVDs I made when I bought it as well as the Recovery drive it came with. I can't figure out how to use either one. I thought the DVDs would boot from the first one and go from there, but they don't. Can anyone walk me through this using either medium?If it makes a difference, it is Windows XP home media center and a Gateway GT5220.
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Aug 6, 2005
the S3 sleep state to work on the Tyan Thunder K8N motherboard running WindowsXP Pro x64? When I check my sytem from within Windows, it only says it supports S1 and S4 sleep states... I have the most recent motherboard bios and all other 64-bit updates installed... but for whatever reason, no utility, test programs or even Windows itself sees that this motherboard supports the S3 sleep state.It's a logo'd desktop motherboard, so it is supposed to support S3, but I can't for the life of me get WinXP Pro x64 to recognize that it does.
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Dec 15, 2005
I'm having problem connecting to my wireless network.I can connect via an ethernet connection but when I go to the ipconfig command from the CMD prompt I receive the following message:Ethernet adapter wireless network connection2:Media State Media State Disconnected.If I check the wireless card's status under the Control Panel System the device is "enabled and functioning properly"I've checked the setting against the other PC's I have on my network and the settings are corrct.When I try to repair the newtork I receive a messagethat the repair can't be completed.I keep getting a pop up from windows that the wireless network is unavailable.,Obviously, I need some help finding a fix.
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Apr 5, 2007
I have successfully cloned my primary c partition of a dual boot system with XP Pro on the 1st primary partition c: and XP Pro on the 2nd primary partition as d: I can boot into my XP on the c: drive with no problem, but when I attempt to boot into my XP on the D drive it hangs on the blue screen right before booting into the user profiles. And believe it or not it continuously loops making the windows startup sound and the shutdown sound. It does the same in safe mode. I will try to explain the process on what I did so it can help you experts figure out this dilemma
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Jan 31, 2005
After an entire weekend working on this project, I am beat. I have a client who has a Windows NT Server and is replacing a 4 GB SCSI hard drive with a 20 GB IDE. System sees the new drive. I have used Ghost to create the clone of the original drive from the 4 GB SCSI to the 20 GB IDE. That worked fine. However, after removing the SCSI drive to boot from the 20 GB IDE, I repeatedly obtain the STOP: 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. I have been in contact with Symantec and they have not been of much help. I have seen the article from Microsoft regarding the error as well but have not had much luck.
My question is by chance, has anyone else experienced a similiar situation and what has been your resolution? I would be extremely grateful to anyone who may have an answer to this problem.
Thank you for any help you may provide. I have not seen a similiar thread here on this forum of a clone from a SCSI to an IDE.
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May 23, 2006
I have inherited an XP machine (HE SP2) that even with the owner acct, always reverts to its previous state. Install an HP printer, upon reboot the printer is history. Same with any software or user customizations.
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Nov 14, 2008
I have recently restored my PC to it's original state as bought from the shop using the Recovery Disk supplied leaving just the Operating System.A friend wants to do the same but has no Recovery Disk. His PC was built by an independent.
Is there a way of creating a recovery disk to do this or is there site to download the relevant info/software.
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Dec 27, 2008
I am preparing my computer for doing a full pc recovery process. I have had viruses and spyware in the past and still continuing windows errors. I want to wipe my hard drive and recover my pc back to factory HP state. I do not have any recovery discs for it. The recovery disc creator does not work and my laptop has been discontinued and they don't offer any support for it. So I will be using the recovery console partition HP has put on the computer. All of my important data is backed up to an external hard drive. Is this risky at all? Could the process error at all? I don't know if the partition could have been tampered with from all the malware and cleanups I have done to the computer. I am a little worried if something happens,
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Oct 3, 2005
I am sole installer and user of my XP Home SP2 machine. I have Administrator rights; (I checked to make sure in Safe Mode as the actual default Admin).In trying to backup my System State, it "fails" 75% into it saying I don't have permission on certain sensitive files and that restore will fail.
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Sep 5, 2007
hi i'm very untechy, i am getting an rpc server error and cannot figure out how to fix it. it keeps rebooting my system. so it's in a continual state of shutdown and reboot. RPC Server Unavailable, hres: 0x800706BA Register Class Objects Fail when i try to do anything it shuts down before i can complete it.. and i try to type command, but i have to go through ctrl/alt/delete to get to the run function because the taskbar isn't there?
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Jan 8, 2009
I am cloning my existing hard drive in my laptop (sata) to an external hard drive (pata) in preparation for installing a new larger hard drive (sata)in the laptop. Can I, or how do I transfer the cloned data from the external (pata) to the new internal hard drive (sata)? Thanks in advance and I apoligize if this is a rudimentary question as this is my first time attempting something like this.
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May 25, 2004
I installed a Serial ATA hard drive. Booted from floppy,partitioned and formatted 120mb HD,with 2 partitions.
Connected my old IDE drive and booted from Norton Ghostdisc, cloned my old drive to the new one. Removed all drives and USB card readers except the new SATA drive. Windows will not fully boot, it halts at the blue Windows intro screen. Restarted Windows, and scandisk ran, but indicated drive letter "H" not "C", so I guess the windows installation is still looking in the original place for it's files, ie. the "C" drive, that's why it won't boot. You cannot change the "System" drive letter from "Computer Management" within XP, and I cannot get into Windows anyway. Is there a "work around" for this, other than a clean install? Even then, is it still going to be drive "H"? And that means another Windows activation. How many goes do you get for activation? I tried a windows repair installation, and reactivation (wasted). Windows then worked, sort of. Lots of things were missing and programs unuseable,as they were looking for their files on "C": so I went back to square 1, put my old drive back in for the moment
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Apr 3, 2007
I have successfully cloned my primary c partition of a dual boot system with XP Pro on the 1st primary partition c: and XP Pro on the 2nd primary partition as d: I can boot into my XP on the c: drive with no problem, but when I attempt to boot into my XP on the D drive it hangs on the blue screen right before booting into the user profiles. And believe it or not it continuously loops making the windows startup sound and the shutdown sound. It does the same in safe mode. I will try to explain the process on what I did so it can help you experts figure out this dilemma that I'm having. My old drive an IDE 100GB IBM primary drive was partitioned into 3 parts:
c: 30GB FAT32 primary
d: 30GB FAT32 "
e: 30gb FAT32 "
All ran great in XP's on c: ,D: and :e except that i was running out of room in all the partitions and the drive is getting very old , I think (5yrs). I used XXClone Pro v.0.58.0 to clone my old c: and d: partitions to a WD IDE 160GB. I tried many other cloning proggys like Acronis True Image, Drive Clone, Paragon Drive Copy, Drive Image 2002, HDClone 3.1 Pro but they all either changed my new drive NTFS file system to FAT32 or made exact same size copies. I formatted and partitioned my new drive as follows:..............
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Dec 2, 2004
I went out of town for 2 weeks, came home and my pc is acting really strange. I've been getting tons of pop-ups, to the point my computer freezes and i must restart. Not only that but it randomly reboots itself even when not being used. Also, when i go to delete files now, the file does NOT go into the recycle bin. I looked at the settings and there is no check mark next to the "do not move files into recycle bin". My BF said he had been downloading things so I figured maybe its a virus or something. I ran Nortons... nothing. Ran AVG... nothing. A friend told me it sounded like spyware so he told me to run Adaware & Spybot. Did that, found a ton of stuff. But when i retarted the pc, it wanted to start in "safe mode". I noticed that most of these pop ups are (search miracle ??) Found info that its a trojan, but i dont know. . I dont know what to do, totally computer illiterate.
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