Question about switching a hard drive with vocaloids installed

[ikaroll]

Hello,

I'm looking at buying a new hard drive for my pc mostly cuz its slow, and I'm worried about my Vocaloid installation/activations

If you copy Vocaloids to another hard drive, do you have to deactivate first before copying?

 

[Twillby]

I think so, if your activations are tied to your hard drive. You can also tie them to the network adapter (Mentioned here) but hard drive is the default I believe.

 

[uncreepy]

Please deactivate your Vocaloids to free up their serial numbers before reinstalling them on your new hard drive.

For deactivating V5loids, use the "VOCALOID Authorizer" app.
For Vocaloid 4-2s, use the "VOCALOID Deactivation Tool".

Installing/deinstalling in Windows settings like you normally do for software only uninstalls the voice bank files but it doesn't actually free up the serial numbers. (You are limited to 3 activations.)

 

[ikaroll]

What about cloning a hard drive? Would I have to deactivate for that?
Forgive me, this is my first time having to worry about deativating

 

[InstallGentoo]

What about cloning a hard drive? Would I have to deactivate for that?
Forgive me, this is my first time having to worry about deativating

It's 2023 and I am wondering the same. I'm going to upgrade my hard drive soon. After I finish scanning for malware. Did you have to deactivate?

 

[MagicalMiku]

for piapro nt you can do everything online, here is a small guide

About activation management ( NT ) | Piapro Studio Official Website

piaprostudio.com

 

[mobius017]

@ikaroll, @InstallGentoo: I'm not totally sure what cloning a hard drive would be, but I suspect you would have to deactivate in that case, too.

As I understand, you can think of Vocaloid activations as being tied to your HD hardware directly. It's basically like your HD has a unique identifying number built into it at the factory. Your Vocaloid activation associates your copy of the vocal synth to that number. So if for any reason you try to install your synth on something other than that initial physical HD, the software will require you to activate again on the new HD. This will use up another of your 3 activations. To avoid running out of activations, you want to deactivate first.

Honestly, deactivating and reactivating is far less scary than running out of activations, as long as you have your serial codes handy. (I'd recommend getting them all together in a text/spreadsheet document for easy reference.) At least in Vocaloid 4/5, and I'm pretty sure 3 also, the tool lets you deactivate all of your synths at once. To reactivate, you can also put all of your serial numbers back in at once--there's a big textbox into which you can paste all your serials, with each serial on its own line. You'll spend much more time/effort uninstalling/reinstalling than activating/deactivating.

I've deactivated/reactivated my synths a few times out of fear of hardware issues. It was scary the first time, but ultimately I felt much safer once the deactivation was complete and I knew that Miku and the others were safe as refugees on my couch rather than activated and at the mercy of my failing computer.

 

[IO+]

The safest way is to deactivate before and you might try to run software again and see if it need a key, if yes then deactivate was successful.

 

[Leon]

Yes, deactivate even if you're cloning.

Not that I've cloned mine before when moving computers, but I'm almost certain the activation on the old drive wouldn't just... go away. Same logic as why people lose an activation if their hard drive dies and they couldn't deactivate first. So taking a new drive and activating them again would use an activation again, regardless of if the new drive was replicating the old one

 

[InstallGentoo]

@ikaroll, @InstallGentoo
Honestly, deactivating and reactivating is far less scary than running out of activations, as long as you have your serial codes handy. (I'd recommend getting them all together in a text/spreadsheet document for easy reference.) At least in Vocaloid 4/5, and I'm pretty sure 3 also, the tool lets you deactivate all of your synths at once. To reactivate, you can also put all of your serial numbers back in at once--there's a big textbox into which you can paste all your serials, with each serial on its own line. You'll spend much more time/effort uninstalling/reinstalling than activating/deactivating.

I'm worried not only because potential hard drive failure but also because my antivirus detected keygen trojans and started to act up, had to enter safe mode and scan it and some scans didn't pick it up. Currently having a bug with antivirus where they have duplicates of threats, I need to wait for that to clear up. I just don't want people to grab the activation codes while they are deactivated and me to lose more money.
I have physical boxes of NT and V4x with the codes for them so with those I feel assured that there won't be a issue of me forgetting the activation codes for them. However there's software such as 3tene pro+live2d, winrar, bitwig, sereto dj studio, and others I forgot that may or may not have activation code for or threw it away. it's making me fret for it. I could pay for them again but It'll put me in a precarious position. What happens if someone else activated the code the moment you deactivate it? Is it possible that all three activations got used up if someone knows of the code after you activated it? Do they need to know all your revelent account details online as well? (MS) Tech support said I should wait two weeks for the upgrade until this bug with antivirus detection history gets fixed. If it doesn't and it's more than a bug I might have to reinstall from scratch and not simply clone it. (at the moment none of third party antiviruses or current antiviruses picked up anything, but the default still says threats are still active).
Excuse my rant. I'll deactivate them when the time is right to move but I'm not sure for the safety of it when it gets deactivated. In mean time I need a guide to look up all the software license codes in my computer, don't know where to start.

 

[Leon]

I will say that generally when I get download versions of software -- and, I prefer physical versions -- I make sure that I put the activation codes in several places. If it was emailed, I move it from the inbox to another folder, I screenshot it with the software name in the image title, and I usually save it to an external drive too. Keeping multiple copies in multiple places is the safest bet.

How do you mean, what if someone else activated the code the moment you deactivated? Are you in the habit of sharing your serial codes with people? They should be unique, so unless you've let someone borrow your copy of something, that shouldn't happen...

 

[WyndReed]

Is your other software registered with the companies that made it? Usually you can access your serial codes from the company’s website if they are registered. Plus I don’t see why you couldn’t email customer service from the place they were purchased from and have them give you your serial codes again. Most places these days make you get an account to purchase from them, so ostensibly you would still have all of the information needed to talk to customer service in your account.

Are you worried that if your computer was hacked that someone would steal your activation codes?

 

[MagicalMiku]

for the antivirus warning, usually is a false-flag about the keygen and stuff, so you shouldn't worry for that. and also don't worry for other people that might use your codes instead of you, because when somebody hacks a computer, they do it to get sensible info (like your email account, phone details, bank account, etc..), they don't care for the other software.
you also said that you tried other antivirus and they didn't find anything bad, so you can feel safe. the windows defender antivirus is not that good, one that I can really recommend (and in the past was the only one to find and fix rare viruses) is Norton.

and for the digital licenses of the other software, as others said you should have an account for each of their website where you purchased the software. it depends on the program, but some software can show you directly the serial code in use, and some can export the data in a file to be used for a new installation. I really recommend to take a free afternoon or during a weekend and check every paid software you have ^-^
(for winrar, it's famous to works well also without a license..hehe but you could use the good alternative 7zip)

 

[InstallGentoo]

How do you mean, what if someone else activated the code the moment you deactivated? Are you in the habit of sharing your serial codes with people? They should be unique, so unless you've let someone borrow your copy of something, that shouldn't happen

No, but if I have malware they could grab that depending on exactly what type of malware I have.

Most places these days make you get an account to purchase from them, so ostensibly you would still have all of the information needed to talk to customer service in your account.

Yes, if this doesn't work out (the deactivation-reactivation) I think I'll contact piapro about my problem.

Are you worried that if your computer was hacked that someone would steal your activation codes?

Yes, in protection history I see Tiggre!plock at [UTILITY] IllusionSorter v1.0/IllusionSorter 1.0.exe , MALscript!MSR at Traveler Inn Tales v0.8c/js/plugins/VisuMZ_1_SaveCore.js, and Sirefef!cfg at Anything-V3.0.ckpt->archive/data/846, and a couple more less severe ones in a old windows 7 iso and static html page I saved years ago. I think I've removed them but they're duplicating in the protection history. If you look up the name for those malware they sound pretty dangerous and relates to taking passwords. I feel they were a bunch of false positives since they haven't showed up before and I had those files for so long.

they do it to get sensible info (like your email account, phone details, bank account, etc..), they don't care for the other software

Yes, I'm checking periodically for my banking statements as well. The time stamps of some statements are off (example: the time I deposited money and purchased the Hard drive is flipped) but nothing out of the ordinary yet. My online account passwords I use I haven't noticed a change with them either.
I've deleted the malware so I can't upload them to virus total to get a second opinion. I'll have to wait until the protection history clears up and run a full scan again to see if they still exist on my system.
Currently I'm deliberating exactly what files I should save on my ssd because it seems as if Microsoft support will ask me to reinstall the OS from scratch after two or so weeks if this problem persists. Not sure If I could fit them all on my ssd or what I should use to scan the files I'll be moving. Can't do custom scan from Microsoft defender because the threats are spammed and can't see "threats found" on a scan. Microsoft support says it's a bug and will clear up over time.
I fear I might just throw half my life away to get rid of this problem. Event log my scans last week "Antivirus stopped before completion" , and "Antivirus configuration changed" a little before and after scans. They must've updated their antivirus definitions to flag a bunch of files that is fine. Either way I'm going to halt on upgrading the hard drive, and much activity online until I get this problem sorted out. It has been a very stressful week and a half.

 

[MagicalMiku]

that old windows 7 iso is official from Microsoft or kind of modified? always download windows iso only from microsoft website, because any other websites can really put bad files inside it (or if it's a modified iso with a keygen activator, then that's it)
same thing for the games: a mod or a plugin for a game can be a false positive. for pirated/modified games, yes there can be malwares, but most of times is a false flag.

regarding the passwords, I recommend to use another pc and change your main passwords (email, bank account, paypal, etc..) and enable sms code or a strong login. for example, my bank requires secret password from a certified phone to do most of the things.

and for the antivirus, really you shouldn't trust windows defender. is better than any free antivirus, but is way under any paid ones, like i said Norton antivirus. you should install the 30days trial of Norton and do a full scan (can take hours, so I recommend to do it during the night). If Norton doesn't find anything, you're good, and if it finds something, it can fix.

I know it can be stressful, but see this as a good opportunity to organize better all your software licenses (print them on a paper, save them somewhere else) and install a fresh copy of windows and you'll have a better computer ^-^

 

[InstallGentoo]

that old windows 7 iso is official from Microsoft or kind of modified? always download windows iso only from microsoft website, because any other websites can really put bad files inside it (or if it's a modified iso with a keygen activator, then that's it)
same thing for the games: a mod or a plugin for a game can be a false positive. for pirated/modified games, yes there can be malwares, but most of times is a false flag.

regarding the passwords, I recommend to use another pc and change your main passwords (email, bank account, paypal, etc..) and enable sms code or a strong login. for example, my bank requires secret password from a certified phone to do most of the things.

and for the antivirus, really you shouldn't trust windows defender. is better than any free antivirus, but is way under any paid ones, like i said Norton antivirus. you should install the 30days trial of Norton and do a full scan (can take hours, so I recommend to do it during the night). If Norton doesn't find anything, you're good, and if it finds something, it can fix.

I know it can be stressful, but see this as a good opportunity to organize better all your software licenses (print them on a paper, save them somewhere else) and install a fresh copy of windows and you'll have a better computer ^-^

I did a sign for 14 day trial of Malwarebytes, I used tweaking.com as per recommendation from local tech support I met in person, I did a full scan with Malwarebytes and it turned up one heuristic unrelated to any of the previous scans found, was able to quarratine (it was from another game). Otherwise it showed up clean with Malwarebytes. I think you are right that many are false positives (maybe even all), it's very unnerving seeing 30-50 entries of the same thing on the default antivirus and not seeing any new ones. The windows 7 one I had from before I had the windows 10 pro license when I was much more poor than I am now, it probably was modified iso with keygen activator. Don't know why it never flagged it until now, it was 4-5 years ago. (I never activated windows 7, I was using arch and wanted to use Illusion games, so I downloaded those two on arch way back then, I think I ran a VM with windows 7 and found that method was untenable with my old hardware). For it to show up now on scans felt like it's out of left field.

 

[MagicalMiku]

yes probably all or almost all of them are false positive, and for sure that windows 7 iso already activated with a keygen is not good hehe
malwarebytes is good for general malwares, but to be 100% safe, I recommend to install the 30days trial of Norton and do a full scan (not the quick scan, the full scan of everything). It is able to remove any kind of virus, malware and clean also the boot sector of the hard drive (because some viruses don't go away with a format)

 

[InstallGentoo]

yes probably all or almost all of them are false positive, and for sure that windows 7 iso already activated with a keygen is not good hehe
malwarebytes is good for general malwares, but to be 100% safe, I recommend to install the 30days trial of Norton and do a full scan (not the quick scan, the full scan of everything). It is able to remove any kind of virus, malware and clean also the boot sector of the hard drive (because some viruses don't go away with a format)

Would using Norton Bootable Recovery Tool be similar? I am afraid whatever I download could be reconfigured to not detect the malware. I'm going to try and set the boot medium up on separate computer. This would do the same thing as the 30day trial norton right? I could try both to be safe, but I think the bootable medium is a better method on potentially compromised system such as this. I hope there isn't tomfoolery from something like Intel ME, if there is I'm not sure even this will help. If I do find Tiggre!plock and Sirefef!cfg and it says "partially removed" what do I do, the tool would do a full scan right?

 

[MagicalMiku]

you can actually try both: first try normal Norton, install it and do a full scan. If anything goes wrong and see that something can't be fixed, then the bootable recovery tool might help.
I recommend going first with normal Norton, since it is daily updated and its full scan is more effective. The recovery tool is really needed if you have trouble installing and running Norton (or if you can't even run Windows), just be sure to use another pc to download the tool and make the bootable usb/dvd ^-^

from your description and because you were able to install other software, I think your computer is not infected and has only false positives, but the full scan of Norton (with both) will just make sure everything is ok ^^
there is also Norton community forum:

https://community.norton.com/en/forums