Windows "family" upgrade

[ng_reader]

If my heads been in the sand, forgive me, but visiting the MS website
the retail should be 149, but, Amazon has it for twice that, and, well

I know the Office Student version I purchased at Staples allowed
installation on 3 machines. But, where is that Win7 that allows 3
machines to be "upgraded"?

And, while we're on it, if I want to upgrade my hard disk to say
something over at terabyte, does Windows 7 have a utility that will
allow me to clone my disk to a new, *larger* disk?

Used to be a product called "ghost" that was purchased by Symantec, but,
I generally stay away from anything Symantec.

TIA

mr curious

 

[Augustus]

If my heads been in the sand, forgive me, but visiting the MS website the
retail should be 149, but, Amazon has it for twice that, and, well

Market scarcity and desirabilty determine cost. MS discontined this 3 pack
retail upgrade months ago. It was described from the start as a limited time
offer. Lots of people bought them with the view of turning a tidy profit
down the road. The going rate from completed auctions on eBay is in the
$250-300 range. Which is still a whole lot less than buying 3 retail
upgrades.

 

[Char Jackson]

If my heads been in the sand, forgive me, but visiting the MS website
the retail should be 149, but, Amazon has it for twice that, and, well

Why are people still buying the Retail version? Hasn't everyone gotten
the word by now that the Upgrade version works just as well but comes
at a significantly lower cost?

I know the Office Student version I purchased at Staples allowed
installation on 3 machines. But, where is that Win7 that allows 3
machines to be "upgraded"?

And, while we're on it, if I want to upgrade my hard disk to say
something over at terabyte, does Windows 7 have a utility that will
allow me to clone my disk to a new, *larger* disk?

I don't know about internal utilities. I use Acronis True Image and
love it.

Used to be a product called "ghost" that was purchased by Symantec, but,
I generally stay away from anything Symantec.

Good advice to stay away from Symantec, but Ghost would be an
exception, IMO.

 

[ng_reader]

Market scarcity and desirabilty determine cost. MS discontined this 3 pack
retail upgrade months ago. It was described from the start as a limited time
offer. Lots of people bought them with the view of turning a tidy profit
down the road. The going rate from completed auctions on eBay is in the
$250-300 range. Which is still a whole lot less than buying 3 retail
upgrades.

Wow.

I hope word of Hazar's "removewat" either version 2.2 or later doesn't
become too public.

 

[Dominique]

I don't know about internal utilities. I use Acronis True Image and
love it.


Good advice to stay away from Symantec, but Ghost would be an
exception, IMO.

Windows7 has an utility that allows to create disk images, so you create
the image, save it to an external HD, replace the internal HD, boot with
the CD you create at the same time than the image and restore the image on
the new HD.

Hard disk manufacturers have utilities available for free to clone HD. The
Western Digital program is a limited version of Acronis True Image, you
must have a WD hard disk to install it and it only allows to clone HDs or
create images, you cannot do incremental backups with it like you can with
the full version.

I am a Ghost user too and it's a good program (I use it with Windows XP),
it doesn't eat ressources like other Symantec programs might do but it's
more expensive than Acronis True Image and the free Western Digital version
of True Image is fine too if you don't need incremental backups. But as far
as images and backups are concerned, the Win7 utility does the job.

HTH

 

[Robert Brereton]

Windows7 has an utility that allows to create disk images, so you create
the image, save it to an external HD, replace the internal HD, boot with
the CD you create at the same time than the image and restore the image on
the new HD.

Hard disk manufacturers have utilities available for free to clone HD. The
Western Digital program is a limited version of Acronis True Image, you
must have a WD hard disk to install it and it only allows to clone HDs or
create images, you cannot do incremental backups with it like you can with
the full version.

I am a Ghost user too and it's a good program (I use it with Windows XP),
it doesn't eat ressources like other Symantec programs might do but it's
more expensive than Acronis True Image and the free Western Digital
version
of True Image is fine too if you don't need incremental backups. But as
far
as images and backups are concerned, the Win7 utility does the job.

HTH

Using Ghost 15 here and it works fine on windows 7. Ghost 14 works as well
but is a bit 'fiddly' to install as initially it gives error messages during
the install, but if you click through them, the program installs and then
you can do a Live Update to get it running correctly.

Bob

 

[SC Tom]

*** reply in-line

Windows7 has an utility that allows to create disk images, so you create
the image, save it to an external HD, replace the internal HD, boot with
the CD you create at the same time than the image and restore the image on
the new HD.

Hard disk manufacturers have utilities available for free to clone HD. The
Western Digital program is a limited version of Acronis True Image, you
must have a WD hard disk to install it and it only allows to clone HDs or
create images, you cannot do incremental backups with it like you can with
the full version.

*** Seagate/Maxtor also offers a free version as WD with the same
limitations. It's available here
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

It's called DiscWizard, but it's the basic True Image with no incremental
backup feature.
Personally, I find the full image creation to be plenty fast enough. By
creating and booting from the CD, I can make a full image of my HDD in about
an hour with it having 60GB used. I can start it in the morning when I get
up, and by the time I have breakfast, read the paper, and take a shower,
it's done.

Also, you don't necessarily need a WD or Seagate/Maxtor drive installed
internally. If you back up to an external drive, you can have a WD if using
the WD version, or a Seagate/Maxtor when using theirs. I use a WD My Book to
write my images to, and my internal drive in my notebook is a Hitachi. Works
just fine. There's a short pause while it looks for a "qualifying hard
drive" and then it starts the interface.

I have restored my notebook HDD, and one of my desktop's drive with the WD
version, and find it extrtemely painless and easy to use. I'm yet to use
anything that is as easy and reliable as True Image.

 

[Augustus]

Why are people still buying the Retail version? Hasn't everyone gotten

the word by now that the Upgrade version works just as well but comes
at a significantly lower cost?

He is referring to the retail upgrade version. That's the only family pack
there ever was. The $250+ asking price on Amazon he's referring to is for 3
licenses of the retail upgrade for Win 7 Home Premium. I was available on
sale 4 months back for $119.99. Gone now.

 

[Augustus]

Oops..

"It was available on sale for $119.99 4 months back...."

 

[ng_reader]

Oops..

"It was available on sale for $119.99 4 months back...."

Right. I understood that.

But MS might squeeze some more money out of the honey pot if they kept that?

Instead hackers will provide alternatives for the price of nothing.

I don't recall a decent hack like removewat since the days before there
was no such thing as on line activation....

Just sayin'

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Oops..

"It was available on sale for $119.99 4 months back...."

I liked it better before you fixed the typo - or at least I would have if
you were Augusta

 

[Augustus]

I don't recall a decent hack like removewat since the days before there
was no such thing as on line activation....

Just sayin'

A vast number of the bootleg copies of XP circulating were activation free
and circulated with illegally distributed Enterprise licensing keys. It's
the same issue with Office 2007 pirating. Windows 7 Enterprise is
different....there's two deployment methods (for smaller scale and larger
scale basically)but both require activation. Online with a purchased number
of Multiple Activation Keys from your MS Volume Licensing account, or
installing Windows 7 Enterprise on a larger scale network and using a KMS
server on a specific channel. Office 2010 Enterprise uses the same system,
or will when it's gold. Bootleg versions will no doubt be around, but not
flawlessly working ones direct from MS Volume Licensing. FWIW Vista
Enterprise was like this too, but I don't know of too many places that
actually deployed it.

 

[ng_reader]

A vast number of the bootleg copies of XP circulating were activation
free and circulated with illegally distributed Enterprise licensing
keys. It's the same issue with Office 2007 pirating. Windows 7
Enterprise is different....there's two deployment methods (for smaller
scale and larger scale basically)but both require activation. Online
with a purchased number of Multiple Activation Keys from your MS Volume
Licensing account, or installing Windows 7 Enterprise on a larger scale
network and using a KMS server on a specific channel. Office 2010
Enterprise uses the same system, or will when it's gold. Bootleg
versions will no doubt be around, but not flawlessly working ones direct
from MS Volume Licensing. FWIW Vista Enterprise was like this too, but I
don't know of too many places that actually deployed it.

From what I read the "Windows Activation" that is removed using
"removewat" consists of a single *.dll file that has been reverse
engineered.

That's it, only one file. Fix that and you're home. Currently, the
office 2010 beta I am running appears to have a similar process.
However, that may change in June when Office 2010 is "officially" released.

Here's what I like about Office:

A word processor. But, I'd prefer a word processor and not the bloated
ap that Word has become...

And Outlook. Because it can sync contact with my cell phone. Or so I'm
told. See, even that I haven't tried.

Still, no one has prolly had more software "stolen" than MS, so, I can
*see* their position.

 

[John B. Slocomb]

From what I read the "Windows Activation" that is removed using
"removewat" consists of a single *.dll file that has been reverse
engineered.

That's it, only one file. Fix that and you're home. Currently, the
office 2010 beta I am running appears to have a similar process.
However, that may change in June when Office 2010 is "officially" released.

Here's what I like about Office:

A word processor. But, I'd prefer a word processor and not the bloated
ap that Word has become...

And Outlook. Because it can sync contact with my cell phone. Or so I'm
told. See, even that I haven't tried.

Still, no one has prolly had more software "stolen" than MS, so, I can
*see* their position.

Hardly rare. I saw pirate copies of Win 7 beta before the final
version was released for market and within days of MS releasing W-7
there were pirate copies of it in the shops.

John B. Slocomb
(johnbslocombatgmaildotcom)