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    Hot Swap HDD

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by kingbob, Jan 18, 2011.

  1. kingbob

    kingbob Notebook Evangelist

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    Is it illegal to hot swap a hdd? For example, 2 hdd's for the same laptop, one 5400 rpm, the other 7200 rpm, both with Windows installed from the same recovery cd that was created from the original drive.
     
    kingbob, Jan 18, 2011
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  2. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    Illegal? No, I don't think you'll land in jail for hot-swapping HDDs.

    SATA is actually specified to be hot-swappable, but due to caching and indexing and all the other things that HDDs like to do when you think they're not doing anything at all, hot-swapping HDDs can cause loss of data or data corruption.
     
    Lithus, Jan 18, 2011
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  3. kingbob

    kingbob Notebook Evangelist

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    What if you install on a new drive and use that and keep the old drive for an emergency backup? It wouldn't be a violation of the Windows license and there would be no problem with doing Windows Updates on both drives? Thanks.
     
    kingbob, Jan 18, 2011
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  4. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    Oh, you're asking a completely different question than what you think you're asking.

    Hot-swapping a drive is to switch out drives while the computer is still running.

    What you're concerned about is Windows licensing. Your Windows license may only be used on one computer at any given time. As long as you're not simultaneously running the two copies of Windows at the same time, you're not violating the license.
     
    Lithus, Jan 18, 2011
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  5. kingbob

    kingbob Notebook Evangelist

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    Thank you. I used the wrong terminology. It would be two drives for the same laptop and not used anywhere else. So there would be no problem switching from one to the other in order to update Windows from time to time? I just wish I could do a clean Vista install on my wife's pc, but we only have recovery discs and from what I have read you can't download Vista and use your current license like you can with Windows 7.
     
    kingbob, Jan 18, 2011
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  6. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    just image and re-image the backup drive.
     
    newsposter, Jan 19, 2011
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