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General discussion

Cloned PC as backup

by decatursp Jan 18, 2010 1:24AM PST

Hi, folks.

Excuse my ignorance, but my IT experience is almost exclusively in the Unix and Mac realm. The answer to my question may be incredibly simple; I just don't know what tools are out there.

I'm helping a retail store which has two XP PCs set up, one as a back-end "server" (just a file share, really) and one as a front-end point-of-sale system. Neither has any external data backup, and they are both about 4-5 years old. To make things more fun, budget is a huge issue.

So, given the age of the PCs, I was thinking a simple solution would be to buy two similar model PCs off eBay and clone each installed PC to the backup PCs. That way, if anything goes bad, they can just swap out the whole computer. Any downtime is a real problem, and with a tight budget this might be the best solution (though I'm open to other suggestions).

I know the eBay replacements won't be any younger than the installed PCs, but the driving concerns are budget and minimal downtime.

If this idea makes any sense, can someone please tell me what tools would get it done? I don't know the particular models of the PCs, but they are Dells, if that matters. And again, they are about 4-5 years old and running XP. Ideally, if one dies, I would like to be able to very quickly swap in a replacement and only risk losing a week of data.

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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Sounds like there might be a very good possibility
by Steven Haninger Jan 18, 2010 4:05AM PST

of running into licensing issues. Cloning to other than absolutely identical hardware can cause XP not to boot up at all. So, when the need comes to swap a machine out, it won't run.

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Details
by decatursp Jan 18, 2010 4:13AM PST

Would I be violating MS's license if both computers are licensed *and* I am only using the second one to replace (and decommission) the first? Seems like that should be OK.

I suspected I might need identical hardware. It may be possible... these Dell's are pretty commonplace.

But if not; is there a better suggestion?

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The issue is with the cloning
by Steven Haninger Jan 18, 2010 7:10AM PST

Unless you come up with models that have identical hardware, cloned machines tend to not boot up at all unless the media is specially licensed. You'd have to test your idea. It's not that MS is going to send the software police. It's the nature of the OS to not be cooperative if transfered in its entirety to another machine.

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Alternative?
by decatursp Jan 18, 2010 9:05AM PST

I see; thanks.

So might there be a way to have two computers (both with their own licensed version of XP), and simply clone most of one system to the other?

Or failing that... I might be able to get away with simply having the running computer backup up its core applications to the standby computer. Is there at least a ready way to accomplish that?

Thanks, again.

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What was never mentioned
by Steven Haninger Jan 18, 2010 7:11PM PST

You said one PC was used at "point of sale". MS makes software specifically for such applications but I'm presuming you're dealing with an "off the shelf" product. The solution would be to check into a multiple license possibility. I don't think you clone parts of a system. You can build a system to just it's basic content and image that for archive but it still needs to activated with "off the shelf" products or, even while stored, the 30 day window is exhausted. Maybe one of the MS reps who frequents here could pick this up and offer suggestions. I'm just recounting from personal experiences what happens trying to save time by using cloned images on other hardware with XP even if one has the # of licenses needed to be legal. This was easier with Win 98 where you just delete the "enum" and move on.

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This really fries some.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 31, 2010 8:06AM PST
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