avast! looses info when copied to new HDD

[Lars-Erik]

I have bougth a new harddrive. I formatted this with system, and copied all files from my old harddisk (while booted from the old). The new disk boots OK and everything seems to work EXCEPT ZoneAlarm and Avast!  They both seem to have lost all config info (even if all files and registry were copied). They rediscover new programs, networks, ask for user-id and registration codes).

Why?  I have copied ALL files from the old Win98se HDD to the new HHD drive. This worked 100% the last time I switched HDD. Is there anything I can do to copy the settings to the new drive?

[S.Z.Craftec]

You could always use Norton Ghost and make a image of whole hard drive, then transfer it to new one... or even better, just use clone option... it will clone your source HD (old one) to the destination HD (new one) without any problems. It works even with different HD capacity... let's say if you wanna copy 40Gb HD to new one 80 Gb HD.

I'm sure you already know all this, but I posted it just in case...  'cause I always copy contents of my HD that way (if I need to copy them on another HD)...

Cheers Lars-Erik !

[Lars-Erik]

I were thining about using the copy option in Ranish as well, but were not sure if that would work with different sizes.

BTW:  Got it up running now, but had to enter registration info over for avast! and save a config backup (old disk) with ZA and the restoring that (new disk). I don't know why those programs info are not copied. Seems like all other programs work like they whould (and I have done this before w/o trouble the last time I changed my harddisk :-)

Do they use the serial-number as part of the registration or something?

[S.Z.Craftec]

Do they use the serial-number as part of the registration or something?

Well, I don't know anything about that, we should wait for the answer from someone from Alwil...

However, I'm glad you solved your problem now...

Cheers !

[Lisandro]

copied all files from my old harddisk (while booted from the old).

When? How?
Phisical copy (ctrl-c / ctrl-v)?
Well, I don't think this will fully work even with FAT32 and Windows 98...

[Lars-Erik]

Oh yes it works (don it before several times). Copied from Explorer (drag and drop). Works like a charm :-)

Only problem now is that my CD is now E: (and not D: anymore).
I WinXP you can assign this. But I can't seem to do that in Win98se
(I can choose a letter for the CD, but not D: as that is in use by 2nd part)

BTW: I didn't think Win98se supported more PRI partitions, but it sees
both PRI partitions, both the BOOT one and the other one (where XP will be)

[Starfighter]

I've noticed the exact same thing when using a cloned HD with Win 98 .   Both ZA and Avast forget their config settings when you resort to using a cloned hard drive.   I'm not sure why it does this, but it's not too bothersome for me as I only clone a HD for backup purposes and luckily I haven't had to use my backup drives too often.

fyi: I have 2 Win 98 systems (one with SE, the other First Edition with all MS updates).  They both suffer the same problem as you describe.  I'm thinking it may have to do with software security reasons (i.e. ZA and Avast detects that something has changed with the hardware, so it goes into silly-mode  ).  

As for file copying,  I use:

http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

using the comand:  XXCOPY C:\ D:\  /CLONE  

As for your CD becoming labeled as E: ... well, that's normal for Win 98 if you have 2 hard drives (C & D)... they get priority over the CD (E)...  not much you can do about it.  

[Eddy]

You can assign drive letters in Windows98(se) as well as you can do it in XP. It is slighty more difficult, but it can be done. But NEVER mess around with the drive you have Windows installed. Many applications "record" the drive letter. Changing drive letters after applications are installed can lead to a lot of manual changing you will have to do in the registry and config files.

[RejZoR]

The whole thing is about registry. You backed up just files,but registry was deleted. And programs that require system level operation usually require correct registry entries.

[S.Z.Craftec]

RejZor is probably right... that's why best thing you can do is to use something like Norton Ghost and perform CLONE DISK TO DISK operation. As I said before, it always works without problems.

Cheers !

[igor]

Actually, registry should be transferred too, if all files were copied... it's nothing else but special file(s).

[Vlk]

The only think that I'd say would stop working would be the avast license. That is, you'd have to re-enter the registration key.

This is because the licensing information is stored in a special way to prevent tampering.

[RejZoR]

Well registry doesn't helps much if its entries are refering t another HDD...

[S.Z.Craftec]

I would say, drive names also could have a roll in everything... I mean, partition names or just letters assigned to particular partition maybe...

[Lisandro]

The only think that I'd say would stop working would be the avast license. That is, you'd have to re-enter the registration key.

This is because the licensing information is stored in a special way to prevent tampering.

Glad to know... This hapenned when I cloned my HDD but I didn't know why...