what is the reason an os such as windows xp cannot be copied and pasted from one drive to another?
i'm not asking thru third party applications such as diskclone or norton ghost?
why can it not be copied and pasted
2006-10-26 04:20:54 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
Because the partition that Windows is installed on cannot be changed
2006-10-26 04:22:21 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
There are three main reasons:
- Files that are currently opened for writing can not be copied because the copy would not be reliable as the file may be changing at this moment.
- The boot portion of the drive is not a regular file, so you need additional steps to make the copy bootable.
- Usually the copy will not be used in an identical setup. If your intent is to copy the contents to an identical disk which will later replace the main one then forget this point.
2006-10-26 11:34:00 · answer #2 · answered by juliepelletier 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theoretically it could be but the amount of time it would take and the chance of error when so doing would be extremely high.
You can "Cut" Windows but that isn't all you need to do. You also have a myriad of registry entries to deal with and one little glitch will tank the whole effort.
Re-install is the easiest by far.
2006-10-26 11:32:16 · answer #3 · answered by Jack 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whats up I would have answered before but I doubted you would have cared. Anyways the file structure of they filesystem is one reason another would be fileformats etc.
More technical would be it is a a string of code in the program that will take the data it was told to copy and put it into a varible or some type of storage.(A place in memory) then it would empty its contents of the varible into the place that the user has provided in the program.
It is posible to make a program that will copy the contents of a drive to another but the copy and paste you want to do isn't designed to do it. You would have to code it for that type of configuration.
2006-10-26 11:25:59 · answer #4 · answered by jack 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Well underderstand it but it is hard to explain. Because and exe files need to create folders and files to make it work. All .exe files needs to be properly installed to work such as any program software. I also feel it is protection against illegal copying of software.
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2006-10-26 11:27:24 · answer #5 · answered by Elaine B 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
microsoft would lose a lot of money if everyone copied and pasted the OS so they put copy right stuff on it so you can't. even if you did find a way to other than third party's it would be corrupted so STOP trying because your wasting time.
2006-10-26 11:26:00 · answer #6 · answered by elf_drummer_boy 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
If it can, everyone will do that.
2006-10-26 11:30:04 · answer #7 · answered by JayHawk 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
MONEY.
2006-10-26 11:23:42 · answer #8 · answered by beeotch 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋