Robert in CA wrote:
So #4hd (presently in the 8500) is the same as #3 (boxed) because
they both finished with Invalid Windows OS messages because I lost
my Activation. Nevertheless it cloned successfully. Does that matter
if it's not authentic especially since Microsoft stopped supporting
Win7? Will it affect anything?

I also remembered to resize the partition this time around to take up the
unused space. However I need to go back to #3hd and do the same.
Can I do that if I put it in the external case or does it have to be inside the
8500?

I also have to do the same thing to #1 and #2 for the 780.

Robert

You should be able to extend a partition while in the external case.
They're treated as "fixed media", you can have four partitions
on an MSDOS partitioned disk and so on. It should work.

*******

I wish I had a good theory for why it's Not Genuine.

Copying all the files should be "good enough". Doing the
clone while using the Macrium CD, would prevent any AV
program from upsetting the clone operation.

And that leaves the far-fetched RAID metadata theory.
Where, perhaps, if the disks had the same RAID metadata
(hidden, up near the end of the disk), this transfer
would have worked.

If I thought the Microsoft Support would tell you the
root cause, I wouldn't be so concerned about solving it.

This would be a test sequence for Not Genuine.

8500 1TB == First 2TB == Second 2TB
Genuine Clone Clone
Not genuine Genuine
Microsoft fixes it

What that would tell us, is the problem is transient,
but as long as we start with the middle item, we
can make clones.

Now, if we had this result instead...

8500 1TB == First 2TB == Second 2TB
Genuine Clone Clone
Not genuine Not Genuine
Microsoft fixes it

then the root cause would not be resolved, and
we could never clone and expect a good result.

Paul