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2 PCs recognized by Mesh as same Device RRS feed

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    Hello folks,

    I have two similar PCs (make, model, user account) and I am unable to get them both added to Live Mesh. I have tried every permutation of removing all devices, restarting, reinstalling that I can think of. After I remove the devices from the web interface, uninstall, reboot, reinstall, and reboot, I can log in on both systems (Win 7 Business RTM, different license numbers) and get them both to the screen where you choose their names (which are different on the system and that's recognized by Live Mesh) and all appears fine. But, whichever one I add first ends up begin recognized as both. The first one to log in is the one you can actually access, but both machines (plus another non-issue PC) show the single device. If I disconnect one, the referenced device seems to switch over to the other PC.

    Basically, both PCs are being given the same device ID, I think, and that isn't cleared on uninstall (or the hash algorithm doesn't use enough unique features to separate these systems). Is there a way to test this hypothesis?  Is there a registry key that isn't cleared or a config file hiding somewhere that I can delete (tried all the obvious ones in program files and appdata)?

    I also have Live Sync installed, and it has no such issues.

    Thanks much,
    Brandon
    Sunday, October 4, 2009 5:24 PM

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    We're definitely aware of the issue.  Mesh is indeed listed as a consumer product and not an enterprise solution based product so some enterprise solutions (cloning being one of them) aren't supported as well as they should be. 

    I know this is something that is trying to be fixed, but unfortunately I don't have any timeframe on when it will be.

    -Ken
    • Marked as answer by kensm [msft] Monday, January 11, 2010 2:36 AM
    Monday, January 11, 2010 2:36 AM

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    Are the two PCs cloned by any chance? Meaning that Windows was installed on the 1st PC and an image created and restored to the second PC?
    -steve
    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Monday, October 5, 2009 12:33 AM
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    Are the two PCs cloned by any chance? Meaning that Windows was installed on the 1st PC and an image created and restored to the second PC?
    -steve
    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Yes, they are. I renamed them and didn't have Live Mesh or Live Sync on before cloning, and installed them afterward. Both also have different valid and activated Win7x64 Business serial numbers. Could this have caused the problem? I know there is some type of unique user ID that is set when an account is created, which can cause some wonkiness. (I had an issue a while ago in XP where accounts with the same name on two different PCs had permissions problems that prevented one from accessing an HDD that was used by the other.)
    Monday, October 12, 2009 6:17 AM
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    Yes, cloning is the source of the problem. I don't know what Live Mesh uses to identify the PC, but suspect that it is created as part of the OS installation as a machine identifier. When you clone the PC, this identifier travels to the clone and renaming or activating with a serial doesn't change that.
    There may be a solution, but I'm not aware of what that might be. I recommend submitting a bug report with logs from both machines and details of what was done to clone the PC.
     

    How to Submit Bugs and Live Mesh Logs

    Note that you probably won't get a response to the bug report, though. It will be transferred to the internal system to be assigned to the appropriate development group.

    -steve

    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Monday, October 12, 2009 11:27 AM
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    I went back and used the sysprep utility on the original PC, as instructed in the MS documentation, which means that now these should effectively be two different machines, with different SIDs. I uninstalled Live Mesh before the cloning (which may have not been a complete uninstall as my more recent thread points out), reinstalled Live Mesh, and still no go. After another quasi/broken uninstall I reinstalled, uninstalled, and then manually disabled the LM remote desktop service and deleted the program folder. Then reinstalled. On both machines. Restarted between each step. No problems with any other programs except LM.

    And that'll do it for me. It was a nice service when it worked, but now it has become a nasty time drain. I probably wasted as much time troubleshooting this as I saved by cloning the damn system. Ah well. Back to Live Sync, Dropbox and VNC.
    Saturday, October 17, 2009 4:49 AM
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    I am having the same issue.  I cloned a Win7x64 machine, uninstalling LM first and then sysprep'ing the source.  Once up on the new machine, using the same account that was present on the source machine, I installed LM.  It asked for a device name and connected to my mesh, etc.  Problem is I can't see that device on any other PC in my mesh, nor on the web site.

    Monday, October 19, 2009 9:11 PM
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    I haven't seen cloning issues occuring before.  I'll see what we can do to track down what's going sideways with this here.
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 6:43 PM
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    Hi,
    I have exactly the same issue:
    sysprepped a PC
    installed the image to two more computers
    Live Mesh (and Home Server!) think it's the same machine

    Would be nice to see a patch.

    Andreas
    Thursday, November 26, 2009 7:54 PM
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    Regarding cloning and SID duplication, it is worth reading Mark Russinovich's article on this.

    http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2009/11/03/3291024.aspx 

    It would be interesting to hear something from someone inside the Mesh team on where Mesh stands in this regard.

    Trevor
    Thursday, November 26, 2009 10:46 PM
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    I would have suggested running new SID  to see if it corrects the issue

    Friday, November 27, 2009 2:26 PM
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    Hi,
    apart from the fact that new sid fails effectively when used together with Win7 (NTFS file permissions get screwed up) it doesn't help with Mesh. I tried newsid w/o, w admin rights and within safe mode, as well as within normal mode. (4 times in total). Then I also tried to sysprep the devices. This resulted in new sids, however the Mesh error won't be solved solved either. I contacted Microsoft customer support, they told me this scenario is not supported, as WIM installations are for enterprise users, whereas Live Mesh is a consumer product. However I created a bug report at connect and hopefully will get an answer soon.
    Saturday, December 19, 2009 4:29 AM
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    We're definitely aware of the issue.  Mesh is indeed listed as a consumer product and not an enterprise solution based product so some enterprise solutions (cloning being one of them) aren't supported as well as they should be. 

    I know this is something that is trying to be fixed, but unfortunately I don't have any timeframe on when it will be.

    -Ken
    • Marked as answer by kensm [msft] Monday, January 11, 2010 2:36 AM
    Monday, January 11, 2010 2:36 AM
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    Hi - Same problem here.

    I don't want a fix - I just want to know from the Mesh team how Mesh identifies the machine - then I can make sure that "thing" is different on each of my cloned machines.  If its not the SID, and its not the machine name, what is used?  Where can we change it?

    Surely someone on the Mesh team will be able to come up with a work around quickly...  no need to release a patch...

    Help please?
    Monday, January 11, 2010 11:53 PM
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    Hello,

    Well reading through this thread I see this issue I have has been around a long time. Several new versions of Mesh and I am wondering if the Mesh team is any further in resolving it????? Oh by the way, consumer pc cloners image as well. Now it affects them. Maybe a little more priority would be nice.

    Again as a gentleman in this post requested just how do you uniquely identify the PC.

    Vern

    Monday, March 7, 2011 6:14 AM
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    Hello,

    Well reading through this thread I see this issue I have has been around a long time. Several new versions of Mesh and I am wondering if the Mesh team is any further in resolving it????? Oh by the way, consumer pc cloners image as well. Now it affects them. Maybe a little more priority would be nice.

    Again as a gentleman in this post requested just how do you uniquely identify the PC.

    Vern


    This thread is over a year old. Live Mesh Beta will cease functioning at the end of March, 2011. 

    For discussion of the new Windows Live Mesh (formerly Sync), (as well as the released Live Sync version) go here:

    http://windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx?productid=24

     

    -steve

     

    ~ Microsoft MVP Windows Live ~ Windows Live OneCare| Live Mesh|MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator ~
    Monday, March 7, 2011 1:41 PM
    Moderator