Exactly!richard1980 wrote:Personally I can't say how reliable backing up and restoring mprs.hds will be. It works short term, but I've never done any long-term testing....and I don't know anyone that has. I also don't know if there is any correlation between the contents of mprs.hds and the contents of the Cache folder, or between the contents of the Playready folder and any other data on the OS partition. Microsoft won't release any technical data, so there's really no telling what kind of interactions exist. There's only one sure fire way to ensure you have a reliable backup of the DRM keys and that is to create periodic images of the OS partition. If you choose to use some other method, you do so at your own risk.
As for the junction/symlink idea, I think that's a terrible idea. There are simply too many unknowns and there's too much risk of failure. WMC may not like the junction. Playready may not like the junction. A Windows/Playready update may break the junction. The target drive may crap out. There might be some other data that correlates with the Playready folder, so the Playready junction may only be part of the equation. The list goes on and on. Again, your best bet is to create periodic images of the entire OS partition. You should be doing that anyway.
So until all possible tests have been completed and absolutely nothing adverse related occurs there no reason for anyone to try it.
I'll do it with complete Backups and in a Scientific way. Create an environment and test. Then recreate that same environment and test over and over until all checks out or all fails. And only then maybe ask someone to step-up and try too. But only if they also have complete backups. I'd also qualify them in regards to having tons of experience with anything related hardware and software.
Junctions and symbolic Links have worked just fine for me the past three going on four years (this May). But I haven't tackled using them yet for the said purpose of moving the PlayReady folder.