A-ss-u-ming ALL the "other" hardware was all the same,
I see no reason why it should not work.
Disclaimer: There are always<??> "things" that can and do happen
that pop-up from time to time that are somewhat unexpected...

Skip the "mobile rack stuff", and this is no different than getting a new
drive, and cloning the old to new, and keeping the old one "as is" - as
a spare that is not connected most times...
Looking at it that way, he would just be "testing" the spare from time to time
to see if it still worked... (And they would obviously get "out of sync"...)
Disclaimer: Note that doing it this way (NO mobile rack stuff) WILL cause problems,
since the cables were not designed to be pulled on and off all the time.
(I think WD once said the "ribbon type" ATA-IDE cables are good for about 20
pull-on/off cycles, and then gets too loose to be "stable"...)

As far as the license for the OS, I presume you could call one an
incomplete (or old) back-up (or back-up archive) of the other...
This assumes only one OS instance can (AND will) be run at any given point
in time.  (Running either "clone" as a "data drive ONLY" would not count for this.)

If at any point BOTH OSs can be booted at the SAME time, (as in different physical
or virtual machines), it is NOT legal, unless they were licensed separately with a special
type of licensing not generally found "at home" nor "generally" found in a home type setting.

If you follow the "clone idea", and the "ALL same physical hardware" principles
as stated above, he should be fine. (Follow the one licence, one machine rule...)

Disclaimer: I'm no Lawyer, but believe the above is accurate as stated AND if
used as described and in full...  (No "fudging" or bending of rules allowed <grin>)

                                               Rick Glazier

From: "Orf Bartrop" 
>A fiend of mine wishes to rearrange how his computer works.
> Currently he has "C" and "D" HDDs and a mobile rack containing an 
> "E" drive.
> He wishes to instal another mobile rack and put his "C" drive in 
> this rack. So far so good.
> He now wants to run a have a second "C" drive and swap it for the 
> "C" drive in the mobile rack. Initially the two "C" drives will be 
> identical but gradually will be different as files on one will not 
> be copied to the other. In other words he want to run "C" drive (A) 
> and "C" drive (B) alternatively from the one mobile rack.
> My question is: Can this be done or are there hidden reasons why 
> this will not work?

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