Windows 7 HDD Cloning

jbeasley0252

New Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2013
Hello guys/gals. This is my first post to this forum, but I am sure not my last. I am usually apt at finding solutions online myself but this one is evading me.

My friend has a automotive shop and a scanner that he uses to pull diagnostic codes out of the ECMs. It is a very expensive scanner, but doesn't come with a lot of support. He has issues with it connecting and freezing, which he learned is a common problem for them.

The scanner runs a version of Windows XP and connects to the cars via a normal serial port. We are wondering if we can somehow pull the software off of the scanner and copy it to a laptop or tablet that also runs Windows. I was thinking we could partition a drive on a laptop and just clone over the scanners hard drive, but I have never done cloning before. The little that I have read about it thus far says that the cloning software needs to be on the origin computer.

I would like to know if you guys have any solutions for me before I even try to proceed. Thanks in advance.
 
I just thought of something after reading some more threads on scanner itself. Someone raised the issue that it may not boot up and run properly since the hardware is different than what the origin system had. I wonder if running a virtual machince could remedy this. Thoughts?
 
I have run into these proprietary software with either dongles or being somehow tied to the hardware. In order to run this software in a virtual machine it would have to be set to be as a perfect copy of the original. IDK if you could set up a virtual machine as a specific box; for example an AMD Athlon X2 4400+ with 2GB DDR2, a Radeon x1600 video card and a Seagate 160 GB SATA 150 drive. I suspect it would have to be this level of detail in your virtual machine or it would fail and/or throw up some form of error or other.

IME with these tied down proprietary programs you might need to contact the maker to see if or what the process of uninstalling and re-installing is and any other issues that may come up. The last time I did one of these it was a serial port diagnostic program and the maker allowed us to uninstall and re-install for a small fee. (We got a new code). They may have a new program and/or system that they might push at you. This might be simpler if more costly.
 
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