G'day all,

I'm aware if you unlock LFS then copy it to another computer it wont work coz of the unlocking thing requires a hardware hash (nor do I want to copy it to other computers). However, I'm currently going through some computer issues and was wondering if its possible to unlock LFS on a hard drive, then burn the LFS folder to a CD, then reformat the hard drive, then copy it back to the hard drive (which is still in the same computer)... will it still be unlocked when you go to play it?

I ask because my computer has had its hard drive swapped several times and reformatted several times this month and I dont want to keep unlocking it every time.

So yeah, basically, can you burn the LFS folder to a CD then copy it back to the same computer and will it remain unlocked? Is there other files not in the LFS folder you have to copy too? Or can it just not be done?

Thanks!
Wolf

No I don't think that'll work. I'm pretty sure a new windows install will require another unlock even on the same hardware. I know that a ghosted windows install does not reuiqre another unlock. Basically if you burnt your LFS folder and ghosted the windows install and used that one each time you formated you wouldn't need to unlock. Hope that's clear. I can't find a better way to explain it.

I backed up my LFS folder onto a DVD and formatted not so long ago. After copying the folder back onto the PC, I ran LFS and it was already unlocked.

So yes it does work. Anyone had it not work?

yes, but it mstill might not work, because the video drivers could pose an issue (namely, different ones give different hardware ID's), although chances

EDIT - @ Davo - i copied it to a 2nd hdd, reformatted and it still kept unlocked

Thanks guys! Really quick responses, I was expecting to wait a day, haha.

Thats good enough for me to give it a bash. I've actually got 3 hard drives and keep swapping the main drive and reformatting the others (trying to fix a 2 busted computers my friend and sister gave me without losing their files, only problem is windows doesn't work when it goes into another computer either so end up reformatting often).

Its easy for me to swap drives several times in a day, and want to keep playing LFS while I fix them without using so many unlocks I can't play for a month.

EDIT: As it is I have to copy the settings folder each time anyway, so figured it wouldn't be a huge step to just back up the entire game.

Well there you go, now I've really got no idea how the unlocking works and what it depends on.

Details are sketchy, but LFS does not write any information into the registry (at all, for any reasons), so LFS has no idea if you wipe windows. It does know if you change any major component of your PC, I've never tested to see which bits of hardware it checks and what it doesn't, but hard drives are safe. I regularly add, change, remove, repartition drives and LFS has not locked once.

LFS writes it's registration data to a file within its dir structure (was how people managed to "register" the old leaked version IIRC).

As Bob says, it does hardware checks etc, but providing your box hasn't changed too much in that area, putting a complete LFS dir structure back on should cause no problems.

Disclaimer: I haven't tested this personally, just something I'm sure I remember from poking around in files some time back.



Regards,

Ian