Solved Clone Disk -- Does it REALLY Clone disks - I have doubts

Hi there
I always thought that CLONE Disk really did Clone disks - however this doesn't seem to be exactly the case.

I decided to upgrade a SAMSUNG 830 120 GB SSD to a Samsung 840 250 GB SSD in a laptop recently. The cloning process went fine -- I left the partitions EXACTLY as they were on the original drive (so I had around 120 GB of unallocated space on the target drive).

When I re-booted everything worked fine except SKY GO (that's an application where I can run SKY TV - satellite TV subscription channel - on the PC with Internet streams -- great for LIVE Sport etc when on the move).

Refused to work saying Computer Device is not registered.

Re-inserted the old SSD -- guess what SKY GO worked fine -- so SOMETHING has changed --not sure what but surely the copy should have resulted in the OS'es being identical - I hadn't changed any partition sizes etc.

Not sure why changing a disk would invalidate a very useful application -- of course SKY TV couldn't explain anything -- Who or what are ever employed in those dreadful off shored call centers -- just get some woman mouthing away in poor barely understandable English the same line over and over again --very sorry -- very sorry -- don't know -- try technical support. I reply - YOU ARE (F-----g) Technical support -- didn't actually insert the F word though --. Answer comes back again Very sorry - very sorry -. Who or What are these automatons who work in those places. !!!!!!

I finally resolved the problem myself -- although was an extreme solution -- completely re-installed W8 again on the new disk -- the sky go application wanted a Silverlight download, registered the computer and it worked fine.

My gut feel is that Silverlight had encoded something somewhere on the original Disk and when the new disk was inserted the Silverlight program knew something about the OS being moved and therefore assumed that I was using a new computer.

So Cloning a Disk might not always give you the results you expect.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi again

Finally sorted the wretched problem out properly --- it WAS Silverlight (Grhhhhhhhh)

I restored my old system again to the new SSD
Then UNINSTALLED Silverlight --as before

But there's a folder in Program data ==> Microsoft ==>playready which apparently is ZERO bytes. (Or perhaps just contains hidden inaccessible security info).

Removing this folder as well and then re-installing Silverlight -- the SKY GO application started find after a few messages of "Updating security for display of protected content" and things like that.

So my remark on the CLONE DISK still stands however it does seem that Silverlight remembers things from specific PHYSICAL DISKS when you move an OS from one disk to another.

I wasn't going to give up here -- a Clean Windows install also fixed the problem - but I didn't want to go through all the hassle of installing and upgrading all my applications again so I was determined to get to the cause of the problem.

Anyway the new SSD is great -- and I can also keep two VM's on it which I also run quite a lot - response on these is now magnificent.

Waiting until I can afford the latest 980 GB SSD's -- then apart from for archive and large data files like Music / films etc - it's BYE BYE Spinners.

Cheers
jimbo

If that happened to me, I wouldn't raise the question just for one application which you can always uninstall and install instead of re-installing the OS. The more important thing about cloning is the OS part of the system. It is more annoying when you cloned a hd and it won't boot up. Hahaha... Glad you have it sorted out.

When you clone a drive there should be additional options such as Clone Data Only and Clone Disk Image, and Raw Data..

Software companies use terms very loosely and think that clone means copy, they are NOT the same thing hence the different spelling!

People are that way too they say one thing when the mean something else, and they cant understand how you misinterpreted.. LOL

Brooklyn

fourthofjuly said:

If that happened to me, I wouldn't raise the question just for one application which you can always uninstall and install instead of re-installing the OS. The more important thing about cloning is the OS part of the system. It is more annoying when you cloned a hd and it won't boot up. Hahaha... Glad you have it sorted out.

Click to expand...

Hi there
I use that application a lot when travelling (SKY GO) so I was absolutely determined to get this working.
When I did the windows re-install (11 mins on a new SSD) I didn't have any other apps to install -- I just wanted to test this ONE application -- as an Engineer I go back to first principles and try and break problems down into solvable pieces.

Once I'd solved the problem -- was Microsoft's Silverlite -- then I restored my original system and fixed the problem.

It does seem though some of these companies that offer Disk Cloning software don't actually understand the meaning of Cloning in any sensible way at all -- cloning means MAKE AN IDENTICAL INDISTINGUISHABLE COPY - so as far as the computer is concerned it shouldn't even KNOW that the OS has been moved - although of course the hardware won't be identical.

Maybe I'm being pedantic again but Cloning means just that - make a CLONE which should be an EXACT copy of the original. -- Now what you do with the extra disk space when cloning a Disk to a larger one should not be an issue -- especially as it will be an uninitialized RAW partition - however in practice it obviously doesn't work like this.

Cheers
jimbo

And for all intents and purposes a Cloned Disk ought to be an exact copy of the original - But for one minor thing. The Drive itself and the serial number of the drive. Windows 7 had a tendency to de-activate when changing even the most minor of hardware, I could get around this by using new hard drives that were very similar to the one I was replacing. The most drastic thing I did for Windows 7 was to clone an 80 gig drive onto a 320 gig. It worked and stayed activated. This sounds like a whole new aspect of Drive Cloning I need to be away of - Thanx for the heads up. Cloning Disks - It's probably the thing I do most when repairing systems. I usually just use Hiren's Boot Disk and the Acronis which is built in, but lately I have been ising Partition Wizard.