Activation floppy to ???

I am trying to figure out a way to move or transfer my activation disk for RSLOGIX to either a CD, flashcard, or other durable media. Currently I share a single license with another for both Logix 5 and 500, and the constant trading of floppy and or moving to floppy is a pain. On road trips I will activate whatever version is needed to my HDD and post a note on the floppy that it is installed on my system. Upon return I will close out the job and move back to floppy. Needless to say floppies are not real durable. Any Ideas, UDF for a CD, or flash, smart media of some sort.

Since it actually looks for the serial # of the diskette, not sure any other media is going to work.

Interesting Idea There, Spark...

Yes, floppys suck, but I think Bakerman's right about the floppy serial...

As a test, I tried moving my activation from my hard disk to my Sony digital camera (memory stick), but it brings up this error:

[attachment]

I don't have any other 'removable media' to try it out on, but others might find something...

If you find something, let us know!... :nodi:

beerchug

-Eric

USB Flash drive

I tried to move it to my USB flash drive and it told me "You cannot move to a non-Master removable disk under Windows NT"

Another Test...

My last test was accessing the Sony memory stick IN the camera via a USB connection. For kicks, I also tried using the Sony memory stick via the floppy disk adapter. The driver makes Windows think the adapter is just a LARGE floppy, so i though it might work...

Same error as before...

Anybody wanna try a zip disk? I can't, because I threw out all my zip drives and disks after they caught the 'click of death'...

beerchug

-Eric

Here is a small collection of EVMOVE know-how that I have collected over the years

From Win NT and up, all the memory sticks, flash cards, USB harddrives etc. are recognized by windows as "removable" media.

EVMOVE wont let you put the license on removable media.

Under Win 98 removable media appaers to be the same as ordinary media (it looks like a normal HD). So you SHOULD be able to move the license to a removeble media under Win 98.

From Win NT and up, EVMOVE cant/wont put the license on an ordinary floppy. Only the master floppy.

Under Win 98, EVMOVE can/will put the license on an ordinary floppy. But you will normally have to format (qformat is OK) in order to set the "volume serial number". Preformatted floppys normally dont have the volume serial number.

If you are only user of the software why not move the license to HD permanently?
You can keep multiple product licenses on HD without any problems.
If HD crashes for some reason - call RS and they will give you reset code, if your copy is legal.
Also I was told by RS, that making a backup copy from YOUR COPY of the Master Disk is absolutely legal.
See another thread about this.
The biggest problet I see - new laptops camong without internal FD and it is a pain to use removable one.
Floppy activation should DIE!
I was told that new RS activaions will come as USB drive, but did not see it yet.

I have recently had some problems moving activations from floppy drive to computer.
We recently started buying Dell laptops. Instead of coming with a CD rom and Floppy drive they come with a CDROM R/W drive and no floppy.
I tried moving the activation from my computer to a flash drive but it didn't work. I think if Rockwell is looking for a new media for activations, this should be it.
The method I came up with was to move the activation from floppy to a computer connected on the network. Then, on the computer you would like to move the activation to, you map the network drive to that machine. Note: drive C: on that machine must be shared and you must make sure RSLinx is shutdown on both machines. Then from the machine you would like to move the activation to you run Move Activation. You can get to it from "Start" menu, Programs, Rockwell Software, Utilities, Move Activation. As the "From Drive" select the mapped network drive. When you are done you project, just move the activation back to the mapped drive.

I haven't figured out what to do yet when I have no floppy drive to move the activation to the network drive. I am hoping that Rockwell will come out with a solution before then.

Kim

USB floppy drive? anynone tried it?

Whilst setting up a new laptop the other day (that will not have any Rockwell applications), I wondered the same thing. Just now, as an experiment, I tried moving it to a flash drive with no success. Certainly this is going to have to be something Rockwell Automation is going to have to address.

As it is, activation issues are minor hassles for users. This is most likely going to get worse. Can you imagine having an important job to do, and your HD has failed, if reinstalling all your software isn't enough, now you will have to reactivate everything. Imagine having this happen on a job site where Internet access isn't readily available. This has the potential to snowball to the much like about 13 years ago where I had so many dongles hanging off my lpt1 I thought my PC would fall off the desk.

GE and I think that a few others allow a 3-day "emergency activation". That is the software will work for a few days before having to call.

"Emergency" activation

In an emergency situation you can jam the original activation disk in the drive and logix will recognize it. Check out this thread.

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5418&highlight=emergency+activation

As far as a HD failure goes, I have back ups of all the master disks in a safe place.

Ken mentioned that Rockwell is changing (eventually) to a text file key method. See THIS POST.

beerchug

-Eric

P.S. to Jesper. You are correct that Win98 sees removable media as 'just another drive', but EVMOVE still won't let you move the activation key. I'm USING Win98... :nodi:

Eric,
well it was worth a try.
I know that Siemens floppy based licenses can be moved to removable media, but only under Win 98.

About that encoded text file thing. It sounds like Microsofts way of doing it. By locking the software to a particular computer. I can see both advantages and disadvantages for me as a user.

Anyhow, I hope that Rockwell thinks very hard of not causing unwanted downtime because of the new licensing method.
Especially for HMI software, and software that is in the control loop, it should be possible to continue for an operator with no particular computer knowledge, and without loosing production time to get a reset code.
I think that Rockwells method has been bad in this respect.
Use the master disk ? What if the floppy is damaged or the drive is damaged ? And how about RSView + RSLinx OEM, they come on TWO floppies. How can you stick two master disks in the floppy drive at the same time ?

I understand not only Rockwell's desire to not have their product copied, but any software manufacturer. The problem it seems is that these copy protection schemes most often only stop the casual software thief, where someone hell bent on using it is going to eventually find a crack or another way around it. Meanwhile, everyone deals with the hassles that these attempts to secure a product bring. Worse, we all PAY for creating them. Like we don't pay Rockwell $oftware enough as it is.