Got three identical HP6000's to N&P

[Martyn]

I have a HP6000 I am rebuilding from the recovery drive. I am doing all the updates etc and removing all the bundled stuff from it. I was speaking to the lady whose laptop it is and she tells me she has two more identical ones her daughters use and she wants me to tune them up. If she wants to I'm thinking about doing a reinstall with a image from the first machine as long as her data is backed up. I cannot see a problem with it as the licence isn't required during install. It will save all the time with updates, anti virus etc. I can't see a problem can you? They are all running Vista premium.

 

[Methical]

Since when did a simple tune-up require a N&P ?

 

[Martyn]

Since when did a simple tune-up require a N&P ?

That's not the question I asked

 

[Methical]

I seem to of breezed over the last line

I presume this lady bought all 3 at the same time, so the model numbers would be exact, so the hardware configurations would be identical. Presuming there are no viruses on either machine, then a tuneup would be quicker than a 'reimage'. If no viruses are present, then I see no flaw with your plan.

What software do you use for imaging ?

 

[Martyn]

Thanks Methical. The reasoning behind my thinking is I offered to do a tune up for a set price per machine. She says she will probably only get one done because of her budget so I'm thinking if I offer to do both together at the same time I can give a reduced rate but if I reimage them both in a fraction of the time from the same image as the first one(using Acronis TH) I can do them quicker and therefore cheaper for her. I will give her a choice to suit her budget. They are identical all bought at the same time three years ago.

 

[Methical]

If she is a new client to you, then I would offer the deal.

Try not to get sucked in by those clients who say stuff like "my budget", "cant afford" etc .. Sometimes you just have to stand your ground .. your prices are your prices

 

[Martyn]

If she is a new client to you, then I would offer the deal.

Try not to get sucked in by those clients who say stuff like "my budget", "cant afford" etc .. Sometimes you just have to stand your ground .. your prices are your prices

Yes I realise that but I'm a new business and I want happy customers not no customers. I need to get my name out there and she is the ideal sort of person to pass my name around. This is out on a farm a few miles from me and the farmers all talk to each other.

So the answer to my question is that there should be no problem, forget the ethics of it? I can't a problem as cloning in this situation is ideal, same exact build. This means then that the licence built in to the restore isn't the same as the sticker on the laptop, or is it?

 

[Corbin]

Are you gonna back up all the documents and copy them over i assume when your done same with the user settings? just curious, i think a actual tuneup by hand would be more logical.

As for being legal im a tad lost, the machines where i spread images onto are all volume license machines so its find then. But from a manufacture if memory serves (i can be wrong) i think its frowned upon, but like I noted, I have never copied a image from machine to machine with a factory key.

I think Methical was aiming at, a n&p can take a minimum of 30 minutes, where a good tuneup can take 10-20 depending whats crawling on the particular machines, correct me if my train of thought isnt on your track.

 

[Martyn]

I'm actually thinking the opposite because my tune up includes a complete scan, defrag etc so a cloned image will be quicker. Plus all windows updates and patches. You can see why I want to clone

 

[Martyn]

Does anyone know rthe answer to my opening question regarding cloning an install from an HP restore image? I suppose the answer is check the details of the licence in the registry on each machine against the COA label?

 

[angry_geek]

You'll need to renew the sid's of the machines and put in the correct product id and activate. But why are you doing a n/p on 3 machines? Don't they have personalized settings and other software on these machines? This just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

[JAY]

Let me just see if i'm getting this right.

-You plan to re-image the pc1 using the built in recovery partition or disk?
-Remove all crapware, do updates and install AV
-Make an image of the drive
-install the image on the other two computers?

You want to know if the second two computers will activate?

I think you'll have a problem as the same details will be on the other computers. But you could change the keys later which would not take long.

 

[JAY]

Ha, My stapler! I'm gonna burn the building down!

 

[NeutronTech]

Ha, My stapler! I'm gonna burn the building down!

Would that be a swingline, perhaps?

 

[Martyn]

Thanks for your input everyone

 

[JAY]

Would that be a swingline, perhaps?

ahaha.

It most certainly would sir!

 

[Xander]

Originally Posted by Methical
Since when did a simple tune-up require a N&P ?

That's not the question I asked

That doesn't mean his question to you was without merit.

 

[Martyn]

That doesn't mean his question to you was without merit.

It is not what this thread is about, the merits of when to do a restore

Ok I'll start again forget about the customer. I have three HP Pavillion 6700s (absolutely identical in build) laptops that need a complete reload. If I create one install from the restore image then add all the service packs, patches, anti virus, programs i want(free ones) then clone the image could I use the cloned image on the other two laptops to speed up the task in hand? Each laptop has a COA label but at no point do you put this on the install. So really my question is is the restore partition a generic one and the COA label just a licence label but serves no other purpose?

The reason I say this is that if I can do it then the subsequent two laptops will take about an hour to do instead of several hours which makes a difference of whether I can do it on site of off site.

 

[coreyspeed]

yes this can be done and is totally legal if done right. what you need to do is read up of sysprep, it is the program that is provided by microsoft for doing excatly this.

we do this all the time and what you need to do is not activate the first computer before running sysprep and then the cloning software.

after running sysprep do not all the computer to boot into windows untill you have cloned the drive, as this is where it is applying new ssid's and unique numbers per machine.

lots of small manufactures do this all the time.