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Hi,

Any issue in taking my ssd drive to some other location and using it on someone else's computer?

Thanks,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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License permits three concurrent installs (PCs).


Retired to Make Music - No Plan B
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How do I remove installs. For example I installed BIAB on my main machine and then changed the operating system.

Thanks,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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I haven't done it yet, but I think you would have had to do the uninstall before changing your OS (unless you mean updating Windows 7 with 10 on the same system; I would expect that to still work).

PG Music has said that if you get into trouble, you can call them and make your case.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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We understand that customers often have multiple computers so your activation code is good for installation on three personal computers.

If you purchase a package that is delivered on hard drive, you can take the hard drive to multiple computers because you can run the program directly from the portable, external drive.

You can deactivate a license on a computer by choosing "utilities" in the help menu. In the utilities menu there is an option labelled "Special option for activation/deactivation".
This option can be used to remove and move your activation to another computer.

Last edited by Anthony-PG Music; 09/19/16 07:12 AM.
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Thanks Anthony,

I assumed there was a way to deal with the issue. I wanted to use the system on the computer of my new guitar teacher. The SSD is very convenient to carry around. I just have had no reason to use the drive anywhere else in the past except at home.

I find the software very useful to quickly set up a bass and drum line to play over or add a keyboard part to provide some context for a lesson.

Thanks again for the info.

Cheers,

Billy

Also, thanks Matt!!

Last edited by Planobilly; 09/19/16 07:54 AM.

“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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By the way, to elaborate on Anthony's answer, I believe you can do activation / deactivation repeatedly. So in addition to running it from your external drive, you could install and leave BIAB on your teacher's computer. Then you deactivate yours and activate his when needed, and reverse that when you leave the lesson.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Hi Matt,

Yes. it looks like this is easy enough to deal with. There has only been two activations to date, one on the main system and one on my laptop. The main machine was upgraded to windows 10 and the program continued to work after the upgrade.

There were a few small "glitches" with windows 10 but nothing that was really problematic. The only software that I owned that gave me any real issues was a CAD program "Turbo CAD" I still have one machine running windows 7 so I just use the CAD program on that computer.

Anyway, thanks for the info.

Cheers,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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Billy,

As I read through the thread, a couple of thoughts came to mind.

Keep in mind that the activation/deactivation options are designed to work best with live internet connections.

If you are going to be carrying your USB drive around, it would pay to make a back-up to safeguard the program.

Regards,
Noel


MY SONGS...
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Yes Matt Finley is correct you can activate and deactivate repeatedly. However installing and activating on another persons computer goes against the agreement of the 3 computers for you own personal use on your own computer. If you just bring along your hard drive and plug it in to use the software directly from the drive and then take the hard drive away with you uninstalled when finished, then there is no issue with your license agreement. I hope this response is a little more informing on the agreement.

Cheers Gentlemen!

Last edited by Anthony-PG Music; 09/19/16 10:27 AM.
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I would have thought that a deactivated copy would not violate the license agreement, as only the one original user could activate and use it at a time (and of course not give out the code). Thanks for clearing this up for us.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Hi guys,

Actually, I never even thought about leaving any data on someone else's computer.

There are only currently three cases where I would want to use BIAB outside my own house. In any of those cases I could bring my laptop to begin with if need be.

I have the entire drive backed up on another USB drive. Well...finding that drive could be an issue...lol

I help a local band sometimes to write new music but that mostly happens at my studio. I sometimes sequence the chord progression in BB just as a rough draft but that normally gets uploaded to soundcloud if anyone is in need of it. I use the program just to get across general ideas.

On Wednesday night there is a groupe of acoustic guitar players that I get together with that I have thought about using BB in that offsite environment. Not all those folks play well enough to follow a track so I have not tried that yet.

I wanted to learn some new stuff so I have a teacher who has agreed to teach me and BB would be a useful tool in that setting.He has a laptop connected to the internet and high quality external speakers.

I own copyrighted material myself so I am very sensitive to the misuse of intellectual property.I would not violate knowingly the license agreement with PG music.

My experience with PG music has been very positive and I have been very happy with the product. I bought the program expecting a whole lot less than it turned out to be. Good stuff, good people to do business with, and I recommend the product to anyone.

Cheers,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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Great comments, Billy. I apologize for even suggesting a possibility you wouldn't have done anyway. As a composer I am a vigorous defender of copyright and proprietary software (even leading to occasional friction here). I never thought BIAB would be used by anyone other than you.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Hi Matt,

No need to apologise. I was not even sure that using the SSD on someone else's computer was within the license agreement to begin with.

I did assume PG Music would have some provision for dealing with installation issues. Drives fail, motherboards fail, so the coding can easily be lost. Actually, being able to install on three machines that one owns is a pretty liberal policy. To tell the truth, I am not even sure that making a backup copy of the hard drive is technically legal.

Truly understanding any license agreement is difficult at best. It is always better to ask before doing something you are not sure about.

We are lucky to be able to ask questions and have the company and other knowledgeable people respond quickly.

The internet is a wonderful place but it is inherently insecure and causes no end of problems with the ability to protect intellectual property rights.

In any event, thanks to everyone for the helping me with this little issue.

Cheers,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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I thought laptops were portable.

Install it on YOUR laptop and take your laptop and interface to your friend's house....

waaa laaa...

it's already installed and ready to roll with no need to mess with installing, deactivating licenses and other such PITA things.....


You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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