Advice sought: replacing a dying hard drive under Windows

[ciphergoth]

Help! 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.

Comments

[shevek.livejournal.com]

You want ddrescue, not dd. Strictly. I mean it.

The re-use of the existing windows license is legally dubious, and practically difficult; both are deliberate.

Is there a NYE party of which you know?

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

The re-use of the existing windows license is legally dubious

Not really. It's the same machine, just with a replacement for a broken part. Whatever MS would like you to believe, this is legally and morally an entirely reasonable thing to do.

[shevek.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, morally isn't important, legally is the only thing that matters, and I understand it to be legally dubious.

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

That's why I mentioned both. I understand it to be legally fine.

pmfji

[kingginger.livejournal.com]

It is legally sound.

If it is an OEM license - its effectively licensed to the tin box - provided the motherboard doesn't change the license is still legal.

You may have to phone Microsoft for activation rather than automatically, but it's ok to do so.