Casper Tech Edition

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Casper 4.0 Tech Edition™

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Casper Tech Edition compatible with Windows NT?

Does Casper Tech Edition 4.0 support Windows Server 2003?

Does Casper Tech Edition support Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Advanced Server?

Does Casper Tech Edition support Windows XP Professional x64 Edition?

Does Casper Tech Edition support Windows XP Media Center Edition?

Is Casper Tech Edition compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME?

Does Casper Tech Edition support multiple boot configurations?

Is Casper Tech Edition compatible with GoBack?

Does Casper Tech Edition support Serial ATA (SATA) devices?

Can Casper Tech Edition clone a striped or mirrored volume configured by a hardware RAID controller?

Does Casper Tech Edition work with SCSI drives?

Does Casper Tech Edition work with external USB and Firewire drives?

Does Casper Tech Edition support disk cloning for the purpose of duplicating a hard disk for use on another machine?

Does Casper Tech Edition support copying of Windows Dynamic Volumes?

Can Casper Tech Edition be used to copy a network drive?

After copying a Windows system drive to a new drive, I cannot boot from the copy. Why not?

Will I need to reactivate Windows XP or Windows Vista when booting the computer from a copy created by Casper Tech Edition?

When booting from the Casper Tech Edition CD, why doesn't Casper see my external USB/Firewire hard disk?

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Is Casper Tech Edition compatible with Windows NT?
No. While Casper Tech Edition can be used to clone all versions of Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98, and 95, it does not support cloning Windows NT 3.x or 4.x platforms.
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Does Casper Tech Edition 4.0 support Windows Server 2003?
Yes. Casper Tech Edition 4.0 will run on and clone a Windows Server 2003 system.
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Does Casper Tech Edition support Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Advanced Server?
Not officially. While Casper Tech Edition can be used to clone a Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Advanced Server system, such use is not officially supported by Future Systems Solutions.
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Does Casper Tech Edition support Windows XP Professional x64 Edition?
Yes. Casper Tech Edition supports all versions of Windows XP Professional, including the x64 (64-bit) Edition.
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Does Casper Tech Edition support Windows XP Media Center Edition?
Yes. Casper Tech Edition supports all versions of Windows XP, including the Media Center Edition.
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Is Casper Tech Edition compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME?
Casper Tech Edition has full support for cloning Windows 95, 98, and ME systems, including dual boot cofigurations consisting of Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Windows 9x/ME. While Casper Tech Edition is designed to run only on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and later platforms, the Casper Tech Edition CD may be used to boot and run Casper Tech Edition on a Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME system.
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Does Casper Tech Edition support multiple boot configurations?
Yes. Casper Tech Edition supports cloning of dual boot Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Windows 9x/ME configurations. Other multiple boot configurations are not officially supported.
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Is Casper Tech Edition compatible with GoBack?
Yes. However, due to the specific nature of GoBack, if you want to copy to a hard disk protected by GoBack, or copy to a drive that contains a GoBack history file, you must disable protection on the hard disk first. You must also disable protection before creating or removing a drive on a hard disk protected by GoBack. If you use GoBack, please consult the Casper Tech Edition help for additional information. Please note that it is not necessary to disable GoBack to copy from a hard disk protected by GoBack.
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Does Casper Tech Edition support Serial ATA (SATA) devices?
Yes. Casper Tech Edition is device independent.
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Can Casper Tech Edition clone a striped or mirrored volume configured by a hardware RAID controller?
Yes. As long as the volume is recognized by Windows as a disk device, Casper Tech Edition will support it.
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Does Casper Tech Edition work with SCSI drives?
Yes. Casper Tech Edition is device independent.
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Does Casper Tech Edition work with external USB and Firewire drives?
Yes. Casper Tech Edition is device independent. As long as the drives are recognized by Windows, Casper Tech Edition will support them.
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Does Casper Tech Edition support disk cloning for the purpose of duplicating a hard disk for use on another machine?
Before cloning a disk for use on another machine, the disk should be prepared for the cloning process by running Microsoft's Sysprep utility. For more information about this utility see Sysprep Technical Reference.
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Does Casper Tech Edition support copying of Windows Dynamic Volumes?
While Casper Tech Edition does support copying of Dynamic Volumes, it does not support cloning of Dynamic Disks. This means Casper will not allow you to copy an entire hard disk to or from a Dynamic Disk even if the Dynamic Disk is fully self-contained (e.g. defines a simple volume that is not striped, mirrored, or spanned across multiple disks). However, Casper does support copying of dynamic volumes to other volumes and Basic Disks where possible. When copying a dynamic volume, Casper will copy only the contents of the volume. It will not copy or recreate the actual data structures to reproduce the dynamic disk(s) by which the volume is defined. Dynamic Volumes include volume sets, stripe sets, stripe sets with parity, and partitions located on disk mirror/duplex sets configured using the Windows Disk Administrator.
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Can Casper Tech Edition be used to copy a network drive?
While Casper Tech Edition has limited support for copying from mapped network drives (remote shares) to a local drive, it does not support copying to mapped network drives from a local drive.
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After copying a Windows system drive to a new drive, I cannot boot from the copy. Why not?
The most common reason for this problem is the absence of a bootable master boot record or active partition on the target disk. When using the Copy a specific drive method to copy one drive to another, Casper Tech Edition does not replace the master boot record or change the active partition status on the target disk. In order to ensure the target disk contains a valid master boot record and the appropriate partition is marked active, it is necessary to use the Copy an entire hard disk method. Alternatively, Casper Explorer may be used to apply a genuine Windows master boot record and change the active partition status on the target disk. For additional information related to resolving boot problems, see the help topic entitled Resolving Boot Problems under the Troubleshooting section in the Casper Tech Edition help file. For help with replacing a master boot record or changing the active partition on a hard disk, see the help topics Repair or replace a master boot record and Mark a partition active under the Disk Management section of Working with Casper Explorer in the Casper Tech Edition help file.
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Will I need to reactivate Windows XP or Windows Vista when booting the computer from a copy created by Casper Tech Edition?
Generally, reactivating Windows is not necessary, but it should not be a problem either way. The Windows activation process is actually tied to several components on the system. Microsoft has a Technical Market Bulletin on Windows Product Activation (WPA) that explains how it works. Basically, WPA generates a hash based on approximately 10 different hardware items. While this includes the serial number of the hard disk, this is only one component of the hash key. The following list was extracted from Table 1 of the Technical Market Bulletin document:

Table 1: Hardware hash component values

Component
Name

1
Display Adapter

2
SCSI Adapter

3
IDE Adapter

4
Network Adapter MAC Address

5
RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc)

6
Processor Type

7
Processor Serial Number

8
Hard Drive Device

9
Hard Drive Volume Serial Number

10
CD–ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM

-
“Dockable

-
Hardware Hash version (version of algorithm used)

The Technical Market Bulletin document describes how hardware modifications affect the activation status of Windows XP as follows:

"...At each login, Windows XP checks to see that it is running on the same or similar hardware that it was activated on. If it detects that the hardware is “substantially different”, reactivation is required..."

"...Microsoft defines “substantially different” hardware differently for PCs that are configured to be dockable. Additionally, the network adapter is given a superior “weighting.” If the PC is not dockable and a network adapter exists and is not changed, 6 or more of the other above values would have to change before reactivation was required. If a network adapter existed but is changed or never existed at all, 4 or more changes (including the changed network adapter if it previously existed) will result in a requirement to reactivate...
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When booting from the Casper Tech Edition CD, why doesn't Casper see my external USB/Firewire hard disk?
In order for Casper to see an external USB or Firewire hard disk when running from the Casper Tech Edition CD, the external hard disk must be attached and powered on before the computer is started from the Casper Tech Edition CD. If the external hard disk is attached to the computer or powered on after the computer is running from the Casper Tech Edition CD, Casper will not find it.
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