If your Windows has been activated using a product key from a sticker it will probably ask for the key again after a reboot and will need reactivating if you change the volume serial number on the system drive.
The volume serial number changes every time you format the partition and Windows also uses this value during activation so you can’t simply move your install from one partition to another. Type dir and it will show a different serial number even if the volume is on the same physical hard drive. The second line shows your volume serial number for the system C partition.
Other than that, some licensing system also uses the hard disk serial number to generate a unique hardware ID which is then used to generate an external license file to activate the software.Ī simple way to find your current hard disk volume serial number is to open a command prompt (Win key+R and type cmd) and then type dir. So now they’ve started to ban the CD-Key. It used to ban the hard disk serial number but no longer does that since there are ways to spoof and temporarily change the so-called hardcoded serial number. Read more about everything, restore, Time Machine.Some multiplayer games that implement the PunkBuster anti cheat system get cheaters off the server using hardware bans.
Restart your Mac, as needed, and then login to your restored user account. It could take several hours if you have hundreds of gigabytes of data. In the Select A Destination window choose your Mac’s hard drive.Select your Time Machine drive as the source and click Continue.Click Continue until you’re prompted to Select a Backup Source.Choose the Restore From Time Machine option.You’ll see a window named OS X Utilities.Your Mac will now startup from it’s Recovery Partition that was created on your Mac’s new hard drive. Again, turn on your Mac and hold down Command-R.Now that OS X has been installed on your new hard drive, it’s time to restore everything from Time Machine. Install the version of OS X that your Mac was using when you made your Time Machine backup.Go to your Applications folder and open the App Store. Login using your AppleID and then click on Purchases.After the OS X install finishes, create a user account that uses a different name then the name of your user account in your Time Machine backup.( Important Note: In order to restore everything from your Time Machine backup your Mac needs to using the same version of OS X that was installed on your Mac when you made the Time Machine backup.) The amount of time that is required varies based on the speed of your Internet connection. This will install the version of OS X that originally came with your Mac. When your Mac eventually starts up, you’ll see a window named OS X Utilities.(Note: Your Wi-Fi network needs to use WPA or WPA2 encryption. WEP encrypted networks are not supported.)
These instructions assume that your Mac is using OS X 10.7.0 or higher and that you’re restoring to the same Mac that was used when you made the Time Machine backup.
(If you’re looking for instructions on how to restore an entire Time Machine backup on to a new Mac read this.) The restore process requires you to first install OS X onto the new hard drive and then restore everything from your most recent Time Machine backup. I’ve written previously about the importance of backups and how to set up and monitor Time Machine. It can be used to backup the contents of your Mac’s internal hard drive to an external hard drive or to an Airport Time Capsule. It comes bundled with every Mac that shipped with OS X 10.5 or higher.
Here are instructions on how to restore all applications and personal files from a Time Machine backup onto a new hard drive. Time Machine is a backup application made by Apple. When this happens, a Time Machine backup can save your data. At some point, everyone will experience a hard drive failure.