Vista "This copy of Windows is not genuine" error

[Migration User]

Using GSS 2.5.1 to upgrade our Vista Business and Professional computers to new one's. Where I left off yesterday was we had successfully moved the Vista image from older HP dc5850's to newer HP 6005 workstations, but now Windows leaves a message in the lower right corner of the screen stating "This copy of Windows is not genuine". This is probably due to the new hardware environment for Vista (larger drives also).

We use Windows enterprise license keys, and this is an intranet that is not connected to the WWW if that is relevant. I left a message at the MS Technet site about this but as of yet have gotten no responses back. I suspect Vista thinks we are copying it illegally and is activating a anti-copy feature.

However, we would like to upgrade our older machines this way to spare the time and grief of rebuilding the OS from the ground up including specialized software and system settings...it would just be easier if possible. If anyone has any tips in this type of scenario, your help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Edward Tippelt]

Is this a Sysprepped image?

[Migration User]

Not sure, as I've not done this process until recently. I used GSS 2.5.1 to create a Deploy Anywhere boot disk, booted the target machine, then used a ghostcast server session on another workstation to create a .gho of the drive. Then copied back onto the new machine and re-targeted drivers after the ghosting process, then rebooted the computer.

Should I be doing this process differently? Thanks.

[Edward Tippelt]

I've personally not used Deploy Anywhere so I hope another forum member can be more specific on this. Essentially, Sysprep strips out all the personalisation embedded in an operating system, so that when it is deployed, a new computer name has to be set and all the internal security identifiers are recreated so that your machine is unique. 

If this step has not been done, then you are effectively re-imaging a specific machine identity onto a different hardware platform and this indeed will usually cause Windows to think something is amiss.

[Migration User]

Edt,

This process always worked moving XP images and this only occurs with Vista (my first effort with Vista).

Normally I ghost as posted above with Deploy Anywhere, and since the computer is swapped one for one as an upgrade of the hardware platform, no need to re-SID or change name with ghwalk.exe to prevent domain controller conflicts.

However, Vista now refuses to recognize the key that worked with Vista on the older hardware platform.

So if anyone has encountered and found a solution with this (with sysprep if need be), that would be great thanks again.

[Migration User]

XP and Vista/Win7's licensing technology are vastly different, and improved upon to prevent pirated copies of Windows.

That said, typically you NEED to sysprep an image prior to taking the image, so the key is stripped out of the image, not to mention the hardware identifiers.  You can then configure one of the INI files to put your key and domain info back in as the system boots backup.  

 

This is well documented with Microsoft, and is not so much a Symantec issue as it is you getting familiar with how the licensing and activation work in newer editions of Windows.

[Migration User]

Thanks a lot for your help with this. Agree this is all a MS issue. My problem is just being the novice.

Regards