Can I backup my WMC from win 7

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waneo

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Can I backup my WMC from win 7

#1

Post by waneo » Mon May 11, 2020 5:43 am

Hi, can anyone help me with backing up wmc on win 7..
I have decided to upgrade my win 7 to win 10.
Am I able to transfer all my settings and schedules and past scheduled records to the new win 10 wmc?
I've had this system recording for ages, already lost this stuff on my other pc..

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Scallica

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#2

Post by Scallica » Mon May 11, 2020 9:24 am

waneo wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 5:43 am I have decided to upgrade my win 7 to win 10.
Am I able to transfer all my settings and schedules and past scheduled records to the new win 10 WMC?
Don't. Upgrading to Windows 10 will uninstall WMC. There is no "official" version of WMC for Windows 10. You can run WMC on Windows 10 but you have to install an unofficial hacked/modified version of WMC 8.1, and not all functions may work (extenders, CableCards, etc). There are plenty of threads on this forum. Do some reading.
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waneo

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#3

Post by waneo » Mon May 11, 2020 9:40 am

So there is no way of backing up files in the wmc directory to put back in once the new system is installed

technodevotee

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#4

Post by technodevotee » Mon May 11, 2020 11:44 am

You can obviously save your recorded TV somewhere and put that back but if you have protected recordings you are out of luck because you won't be able to play those.

WMC stores all its data in \programdata\ehome so as long as you save that folder somewhere safe you might be able to restore some of your recording schedule using the import functions in EPG123.

If you insist on installing WMC on Windows 10, you'll need to get used to removing and reinstalling it every time Microsoft push out an upgrade. There's a backup and restore function with the installer, which can take away some of the pain. Assuming Microsoft haven't broken something else in the upgrade of course.

As @Scallica says, it is pretty high maintenance and doesn't support every possible configuration. Most of this is documented here or on My Digital Life but it can take some assimilating.

There are gotchas with all versions (even with the latest version) because the simple fact is that Microsoft don't want you using it any more. They don't expect it to be installed so they don't test changes made to Windows 10 to see if they are going to break WMC like they did when it was supported.

Because of the differences between the Windows 7 and Windows 8 versions as well as the fact that Windows will assign new identifiers to any tuners you have, you can't just copy over the database and you will lose your tuning information, recording history - basically everything except recordings and recording schedule (hopefully).

Finally, I would advise against doing an in place upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 because It rarely works properly afterward so it is much better to install a new HDD and install Windows 10 from scratch.

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#5

Post by waneo » Mon May 11, 2020 12:20 pm

Thanks for that Technodevotee, I appreciate you replying in great depth.. well the PC is only used for recording and watching TV and movies from file.. Guess I'll use it until stops working..

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#6

Post by Alan G » Sat May 16, 2020 10:24 pm

waneo wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 12:20 pm Thanks for that Technodevotee, I appreciate you replying in great depth.. well the PC is only used for recording and watching TV and movies from file.. Guess I'll use it until stops working..
Best thing to do is install a second system drive in the PC and clone the Win7 OS to it. this will give you some added protection if you every have a problem. This is what I've done with my Win7 PC. I also have a second motherboard as a spare in case of a part failure. Newer motherboards and CPUs will not install Win7 easily.

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#7

Post by waneo » Sun May 17, 2020 12:40 am

Thanks Alan G for your reply, I will keep that in mind.

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joecrow

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#8

Post by joecrow » Sun May 17, 2020 7:51 am

Alan G wrote: Sat May 16, 2020 10:24 pm
waneo wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 12:20 pm Thanks for that Technodevotee, I appreciate you replying in great depth.. well the PC is only used for recording and watching TV and movies from file.. Guess I'll use it until stops working..
Best thing to do is install a second system drive in the PC and clone the Win7 OS to it. this will give you some added protection if you every have a problem. This is what I've done with my Win7 PC. I also have a second motherboard as a spare in case of a part failure. Newer motherboards and CPUs will not install Win7 easily.
Correct me if I am wrong but I think you will find that replacing a motherboard, even with the same make and model will break DRM, i.e. you won't be able to play any protected recordings.

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#9

Post by Scallica » Sun May 17, 2020 10:18 am

joecrow wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 7:51 am
Alan G wrote: Sat May 16, 2020 10:24 pm
waneo wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 12:20 pm Thanks for that Technodevotee, I appreciate you replying in great depth.. well the PC is only used for recording and watching TV and movies from file.. Guess I'll use it until stops working..
Best thing to do is install a second system drive in the PC and clone the Win7 OS to it. this will give you some added protection if you every have a problem. This is what I've done with my Win7 PC. I also have a second motherboard as a spare in case of a part failure. Newer motherboards and CPUs will not install Win7 easily.
Correct me if I am wrong but I think you will find that replacing a motherboard, even with the same make and model will break DRM, i.e. you won't be able to play any protected recordings.
I accidentally shorted out my motherboard trying to install a PCIe slot extension cable. I replaced my motherboard with the exact same make/model and DRM didn't break, whew.
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#10

Post by waneo » Sun May 17, 2020 1:34 pm

So whats DRM stand for?

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#11

Post by StinkyImp » Sun May 17, 2020 3:21 pm

waneo wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 1:34 pm So whats DRM stand for?
Digital Rights Management [Link to Wiki article]

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#12

Post by waneo » Sun May 17, 2020 9:21 pm

Thanks StinkyImp

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#13

Post by joecrow » Wed May 20, 2020 8:06 am

Scallica wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 10:18 am
I accidentally shorted out my motherboard trying to install a PCIe slot extension cable. I replaced my motherboard with the exact same make/model and DRM didn't break, whew.
Interesting, did you use the original CPU and or did you have to change the MAC address etc and re-activate Windows? I had always believed a new mobo would require a new Windows activation which in turn would break DRM. It could be very good to know how you did it.

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#14

Post by Scallica » Wed May 20, 2020 11:55 am

I just swapped the motherboard; no other components. I didn't change the MAC address to match the original motherboard. I don't recall if I had to re-activate Windows.
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#15

Post by McGary » Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:35 am

Scallica wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 11:55 am I just swapped the motherboard; no other components. I didn't change the MAC address to match the original motherboard. I don't recall if I had to re-activate Windows.

Just saw this -- that's VERY interesting that it worked. I was also under the impression that a new motherboard -- even the same make/model -- would be treated as a "different computer" for PlayReady purposes, and copy protected content would no longer play.

So you swapped the motherboard; but used the original CPU, memory, hard drives, etc. -- is that correct?

FWIW, MOST failed motherboards can be repaired with a full set of new capacitors, which can be done for ~ $125 by a professional service; or ~ $30 if you do it yourself (good soldering skills and equipment needed for this).

And except for the motherboard, I don't think any other replacements cause any issue with DRM [I know that's true for memory, hard drives, and power supplies -- not sure if replacing the CPU would be an issue]

A high quality system running Windows 7 with good power protection (a high-end UPS with sine wave output and AVR) should run for many years with no problems. The most likely thing to fail is a hard drive; so if you keep (a) a recent full system image of the entire system drive (so you can restore it to a new drive in the event of failure); (b) a current copy of the DRM file (set up an automated nightly backup for this); and (c) copies of any recorded content you don't want to lose [This can be on another hard drive; another PC on your network; etc. => you can play this content from any location as long as you're doing it on the PC it was recorded on.]

It would, I must admit, be VERY nice if there was a way to actually move protected content to another system so we could have a more robust backup that didn't depend on one system running "forever". But I'm not aware of any way to do this; or even better to remove the DRM copy control flag. Interestingly, there are numerous utilities which will remove DRM from protected music; but I'm not aware of any that will remove it from our WMC recordings.

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#16

Post by Scallica » Thu Jul 30, 2020 12:23 pm

McGary wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:35 am So you swapped the motherboard; but used the original CPU, memory, hard drives, etc. -- is that correct?
Correct. I swapped the motherboard with the exact same make/model and changed no other components.
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