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ciphergothHelp! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lovelybug's hard drive is dying; the logs are full of errors and her applications are falling apart.
I've bought a larger replacement. My first thought was to make a bit-for-bit copy of the old drive onto the new, but that fell over trying to copy sectors that seem to have become entirely unreadable.
The machine runs Windows XP Pro. I could install Windows on the new hard drive and copy over the files; this would have the advantage that the applications could all be reinstalled and might start working again. But where do I get a copy of Windows to install (the machines did not come with Windows install disks) and how do I re-use our existing Windows license?
NBlovelybug wants to continue using Windows XP, though of course I'm more than happy to use Linux based tools for the low-level stuff.
lovelybug's hard drive is dying; the logs are full of errors and her applications are falling apart.I've bought a larger replacement. My first thought was to make a bit-for-bit copy of the old drive onto the new, but that fell over trying to copy sectors that seem to have become entirely unreadable.
The machine runs Windows XP Pro. I could install Windows on the new hard drive and copy over the files; this would have the advantage that the applications could all be reinstalled and might start working again. But where do I get a copy of Windows to install (the machines did not come with Windows install disks) and how do I re-use our existing Windows license?
NB
lovelybug wants to continue using Windows XP, though of course I'm more than happy to use Linux based tools for the low-level stuff.
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Additionally...
Date: 2008-12-30 02:29 pm (UTC)(Or tbh, if you have the key, you can just download a torrent of the OEM disk).
Re: Additionally...
Date: 2008-12-30 05:57 pm (UTC)How do I find out exactly what to download? How closely does it have to match the old version for the key to work?
Re: Additionally...
Date: 2008-12-30 07:12 pm (UTC)Although using different disc versions is supposed to trip WGA warnings - I just normally use an upto date Sp2 (now sp3) disk on all repair installs and haven't seen it cause them (over many attempts).
If you filecopy and/or rescue dd the disk you may not have to reinstall/repair install first anyway - depending on how badly damaged the fs is.
Re: Additionally...
Date: 2008-12-31 06:12 am (UTC)You may not even need it if the data will copy... but I suppose its "fingers crossed" on that one...