Win Xp Activation Number?.

[justin2317]

A freind has asked me to have a look at a computer which he has been given.He said that after a couple of days he was getting warnings to activate windows xp but ignored it.Now the computer has locked itself until it is activated.He asked me to format and re-install Windows Xp, which he has managed to get the original copy which should of been installed.This ive done.But after a fresh format and install it said staright away that there are 30 days left to activate.Is this normal and what should i tell him to do.Now he has the original Windows Xp disk and info can he just go online and register.
Thanks for any help.

[HAL9000]

If it's a legit copy of Windows with a legit product key, yes, he just goes online to activate. If for some reason he cannot activate online, just call the number provided.... it's a painless procedure.

[Statica]

Mind you, registration is different from activation. In registration, your friend has to release personal details about who he is and register the product. Registration is an OPTIONAL STEP. With activation, which is MANDATORY, no personal information is submitted other than your machine's h/w information. Your friend MUST activate Windows else, it is going to lock out in 30 days. The reason for activation is to prevent software piracy.

[bozo]

A little background:
I was formerly using XP pro on a RAID configuration, which has become somewhat corrupt, & beyond repair. So I bought a new hardrive, & completely installed everything new on it (I also bought a new copy of XP pro for this hardrive). Up & running fine on the new drive. I have 12 days to Activate the new OS on the new drive.

The old RAID setup will still run, albiet somewhat corupt, so for now I would like to keep that set of drives intact to insure there hasn't been any data that I may have missed for the new drive. Eventually I would like to format the old RAID drives to be used as slaves with the new drive.

My Question is: If I activate the new OS on the new drive,WITHOUT the slaves, will I have trouble down the road when I decide to install the additional slave drives?

bozo

[Statica]

No you will not have trouble in re-activating. The emphasis I place here is on TROUBLE with re-activation. WPA was not designed to deny you activation if you own a legitimate copy of the OS. Usually, with hard drive additions you should not be prompted for activation. However, activate it now, if you get prompted for activation when you switch to other HDD then activate it. If you are asked to call a phone number to activate then do so. Either way, it should take no more than 5 minutes of your time.

[bozo]

Thanks Statica,,,Trouble with re-activating was the wrong word to use. I presume (& you verified) that re-activationg would be painless. I was basically wondering if adding a HD would trigger re-activating.

I went ahead & activated it, & I'll find out later.

thanks-larry

[Statica]

It shouldn't trigger a reactivation under normal circumstances. What happens when installing is that an installation ID is created. This installation ID is a mixture of your computer's various hardware devices and the product ID key of the XP you are running. The hardware ID key analyzes the types of your devices like processor (type and serial number), RAM amount, Display adapter, IDE and/or SCSI adapters, Hard drive and Hard drive volume serial, network MAC addresses and optical drives (CD/DVD and various readable devices) and then creates a hardware "fingerprint". These are the relevant hardware components - you could potentially keep changing your mouse, keyboard or floppy drives on a daily basis for all XP cares and you wouldn't be faced with a need to reactivate. The way it works is that for desktops with a network card you are allowed to change 6 components before reactivation is triggered (the number is 4 for desktops without a NIC). On top of it all, if you haven't made any changes for a year, the counter resets. Say you didn't change any hardware, and you wanted to format and install XP, you could reinstall XP an infinite number of times without needing reactivation.

As such, you can see that you should not need reactivation. However, as has been stated before, even if you do it's an impeccably painless procedure requiring a fone call.
WPA is not meant to create hassles for you - the owner of a legal copy of XP - who wants to change hardware, it is meant as a check to ensure that your copy of XP is legal - that's all.

HTH

[RayH]

Really, Microsoft is only trying to stop non authorized use of their software. The only time you are going to find problems is if your Windows is being installed in places where it doesn't belong.

I can be a pain with hobbiests because of numerous changes gives the impression of multiple installations. Just let them know what's going on.