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Unlocking a drive

dc240969

New Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2025
Messages
2
I have a drive with software on it. There is update software that updates the drive contents. I wanted to backup the full drive onto a larger drive. I can copy over no issue but when l go to run the updater it wont complete like it would on the source drive. Would this updater be locked to the inital drive somehow? Or is there something else l am not seeing.
 
Sounds like the software you want to updates' license may be locked to the existing drive's ID. Honestly it's really kind of stupid scheme to me since HDs don't last forever. Linking it to the system MAC or a machines' ID makes more sense.
 
As Mr Dog says.

One prime reason I used to come across depends a lot on the age of the software. Also installation of any software detects the serial number of the drive as well as the operating system it gets installed on. An early security tip to stop people from just copying and sharing the folder the program is installed in.

There is an if to all this. I find that if I want to move software about on my server or my PC drives or swap between them, I make an ISO image of the drive and move it wholesale from the source drive to the target drive. Once it is where it needs to be I can mount the image and run the software which thinks it is still on the source drive but is on a Virtual drive.

Obviously there are cases where this doesnt work because of the security in the software, but a little careful tampering with a few keys and you can usually get it to behave itself.
 
I may trying cloning the source drive or having a look at the license file to see if theres anything there. Unfortunatly its a dat file and not readable with what l have.
 
Yes, it’s possible the updater is locked to the original drive—some software ties updates to specific hardware IDs or drive serial numbers for security. Even if you copy the data, the updater might check for those details. Try cloning the drive sector-by-sector instead of just copying files; that may preserve what the updater expects.
 
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