Windows XP Activation

[Jim]

>-----Original Message-----
>Hello,
>
>I'm trying to upgrade the hard drive on my Windows XP
home
>computer from 20GB to 80GB. I've installed the drive and
>copied the old drive (via Drive Image 7), but when I try
to
>boot off the new drive I get a "A problem is preventing
>Windows from accurately checking the license for this
>computer. Error code: 0x80090006" error. I guess I need
>to re-activate Windows but I don't know how to do that.
I
>can't find any phone numbers on Microsoft's site to
>re-activate. Can anyone offer any advice?
>
>Thanks,
>Tony
>.
>
Hello
sorry about that fingers faster then the brain

boot from your CD and do a repair and then you should be
able to activate after the repair
all files should be intact after the repair.
Hope this helps
Jim

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 20:12:57 -0800, "Jim"

>>I'm trying to upgrade the hard drive on my Windows XP
>>home computer from 20GB to 80GB. I've installed the
>>drive and copied the old drive (via Drive Image 7), but
>>when I try to boot off the new drive I get a "A problem
>>is preventing Windows from accurately checking the
>>license for this computer.

XP is as weak as a butterfly in a sandstorm when it comes to surviving
a transfer between one HD and another, So make sure you get a biiiig
HD, because it may be for the life of that installation!

File-level copies fail, even if you copy absolutely everything and
don't get LFN/8.3 names in a twist (all those MICROS~? dirs in
"Program Files" get arbitrary 8.3 names based on the order they are
copied, breaking registry references to these, etc.).

So you are forced to do a partition image copy, for which no tools are
provided by the OS. Even then, as you find, XP will fall on its butt,
more often than not.

Changing the HD can also lose 3 WPA lives:
- the HD itself, which is to be expected
- loss of optical drive, if you'd plugged in new HD instead
- change in volume serial number, if formatted of converted C:

That's one life short of breaking the bank. If you'd added RAM, or
changed SVGA, etc. in the last 3 months, you will get DoS'd by WPA if
4 lives gone. If you "strobe" a setting so that never a three-month
period goes by without a "change" (e.g. if you toggle processor serial
number visibility via CMOS) then that may be enough.

However, I've seen the mess you describe, and it's not a natural case
of "too many changes" setting WPA on your case. It's something
deeper, and I suspect WPA just happens to be the first code to notice
that things just aren't as they should be. The pattern:

1) XP boots to blue logon screen
2) But never gets as far as showing accounts to choose
3) Dialog comes up "unable to verify.." as you describe
4) Whatever action you take, system dawdles with no HD action...
5) ...and then loops back to (3) all over again
6) There's no clean way out; you are forced to bad-exit

I've posted this before, and have never had any technical details
offered as to why this is, and what the mechanisms are. Just...

>boot from your CD and do a repair and then you should be
>able to activate after the repair

....which is unacceptably messy, IMO.

>all files should be intact after the repair.

Rubbish; you will lose all your subsystem updates and bugfixes, and
when you go online to download these all over again, Lovesan etc. will
shoot you to pieces through the "fit to ship" defective RPC code.

Compared to the norms set by MSDOS, Win3.yuk and Win9x, this is one
area where XP drools and blows chunks out both ends.



>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Dreams are stack dumps of the soul
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

[Alex Nichol]

cquirke (MVP Win9x) wrote:

>
>So you are forced to do a partition image copy, for which no tools are
>provided by the OS. Even then, as you find, XP will fall on its butt,
>more often than not.
>
>Changing the HD can also lose 3 WPA lives:
> - the HD itself, which is to be expected
> - loss of optical drive, if you'd plugged in new HD instead
> - change in volume serial number, if formatted of converted C:

This is where I find BootIT NG (BING) a very useful tool.
http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

It does an *exact* copy of the partition, so preserving the Volume
Serial number, and because you are booted direct to its floppy (it works
directly in the BIOS) there are no problems about temporary
disconnections - provided of course that you re-assemble things before
booting the copy.

ONe point people tend to forget when doing an image copy is that if you
want the result to boot you have to provide for MBR code on the new
disk. That can be done with a DOS (say Win98 Startup) floppy and FDISK
/MBR - or Bing will do it. It will also check, and if necessary adjust,
the partition table slot used for the copy - so it matches the one on
the original dis; which matters to XP booting



--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 20:12:57 -0800, "Jim"

>>I'm trying to upgrade the hard drive on my Windows XP
>>home computer from 20GB to 80GB. I've installed the
>>drive and copied the old drive (via Drive Image 7), but
>>when I try to boot off the new drive I get a "A problem
>>is preventing Windows from accurately checking the
>>license for this computer.

XP is as weak as a butterfly in a sandstorm when it comes to surviving
a transfer between one HD and another, So make sure you get a biiiig
HD, because it may be for the life of that installation!

File-level copies fail, even if you copy absolutely everything and
don't get LFN/8.3 names in a twist (all those MICROS~? dirs in
"Program Files" get arbitrary 8.3 names based on the order they are
copied, breaking registry references to these, etc.).

So you are forced to do a partition image copy, for which no tools are
provided by the OS. Even then, as you find, XP will fall on its butt,
more often than not.

Changing the HD can also lose 3 WPA lives:
- the HD itself, which is to be expected
- loss of optical drive, if you'd plugged in new HD instead
- change in volume serial number, if formatted of converted C:

That's one life short of breaking the bank. If you'd added RAM, or
changed SVGA, etc. in the last 3 months, you will get DoS'd by WPA if
4 lives gone. If you "strobe" a setting so that never a three-month
period goes by without a "change" (e.g. if you toggle processor serial
number visibility via CMOS) then that may be enough.

However, I've seen the mess you describe, and it's not a natural case
of "too many changes" setting WPA on your case. It's something
deeper, and I suspect WPA just happens to be the first code to notice
that things just aren't as they should be. The pattern:

1) XP boots to blue logon screen
2) But never gets as far as showing accounts to choose
3) Dialog comes up "unable to verify.." as you describe
4) Whatever action you take, system dawdles with no HD action...
5) ...and then loops back to (3) all over again
6) There's no clean way out; you are forced to bad-exit

I've posted this before, and have never had any technical details
offered as to why this is, and what the mechanisms are. Just...

>boot from your CD and do a repair and then you should be
>able to activate after the repair

....which is unacceptably messy, IMO.

>all files should be intact after the repair.

Rubbish; you will lose all your subsystem updates and bugfixes, and
when you go online to download these all over again, Lovesan etc. will
shoot you to pieces through the "fit to ship" defective RPC code.

Compared to the norms set by MSDOS, Win3.yuk and Win9x, this is one
area where XP drools and blows chunks out both ends.



>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Dreams are stack dumps of the soul
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

[Alex Nichol]

cquirke (MVP Win9x) wrote:

>
>So you are forced to do a partition image copy, for which no tools are
>provided by the OS. Even then, as you find, XP will fall on its butt,
>more often than not.
>
>Changing the HD can also lose 3 WPA lives:
> - the HD itself, which is to be expected
> - loss of optical drive, if you'd plugged in new HD instead
> - change in volume serial number, if formatted of converted C:

This is where I find BootIT NG (BING) a very useful tool.
http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

It does an *exact* copy of the partition, so preserving the Volume
Serial number, and because you are booted direct to its floppy (it works
directly in the BIOS) there are no problems about temporary
disconnections - provided of course that you re-assemble things before
booting the copy.

ONe point people tend to forget when doing an image copy is that if you
want the result to boot you have to provide for MBR code on the new
disk. That can be done with a DOS (say Win98 Startup) floppy and FDISK
/MBR - or Bing will do it. It will also check, and if necessary adjust,
the partition table slot used for the copy - so it matches the one on
the original dis; which matters to XP booting



--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 20:12:57 -0800, "Jim"

>>I'm trying to upgrade the hard drive on my Windows XP
>>home computer from 20GB to 80GB. I've installed the
>>drive and copied the old drive (via Drive Image 7), but
>>when I try to boot off the new drive I get a "A problem
>>is preventing Windows from accurately checking the
>>license for this computer.

XP is as weak as a butterfly in a sandstorm when it comes to surviving
a transfer between one HD and another, So make sure you get a biiiig
HD, because it may be for the life of that installation!

File-level copies fail, even if you copy absolutely everything and
don't get LFN/8.3 names in a twist (all those MICROS~? dirs in
"Program Files" get arbitrary 8.3 names based on the order they are
copied, breaking registry references to these, etc.).

So you are forced to do a partition image copy, for which no tools are
provided by the OS. Even then, as you find, XP will fall on its butt,
more often than not.

Changing the HD can also lose 3 WPA lives:
- the HD itself, which is to be expected
- loss of optical drive, if you'd plugged in new HD instead
- change in volume serial number, if formatted of converted C:

That's one life short of breaking the bank. If you'd added RAM, or
changed SVGA, etc. in the last 3 months, you will get DoS'd by WPA if
4 lives gone. If you "strobe" a setting so that never a three-month
period goes by without a "change" (e.g. if you toggle processor serial
number visibility via CMOS) then that may be enough.

However, I've seen the mess you describe, and it's not a natural case
of "too many changes" setting WPA on your case. It's something
deeper, and I suspect WPA just happens to be the first code to notice
that things just aren't as they should be. The pattern:

1) XP boots to blue logon screen
2) But never gets as far as showing accounts to choose
3) Dialog comes up "unable to verify.." as you describe
4) Whatever action you take, system dawdles with no HD action...
5) ...and then loops back to (3) all over again
6) There's no clean way out; you are forced to bad-exit

I've posted this before, and have never had any technical details
offered as to why this is, and what the mechanisms are. Just...

>boot from your CD and do a repair and then you should be
>able to activate after the repair

....which is unacceptably messy, IMO.

>all files should be intact after the repair.

Rubbish; you will lose all your subsystem updates and bugfixes, and
when you go online to download these all over again, Lovesan etc. will
shoot you to pieces through the "fit to ship" defective RPC code.

Compared to the norms set by MSDOS, Win3.yuk and Win9x, this is one
area where XP drools and blows chunks out both ends.



>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Dreams are stack dumps of the soul
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

[Alex Nichol]

cquirke (MVP Win9x) wrote:

>
>So you are forced to do a partition image copy, for which no tools are
>provided by the OS. Even then, as you find, XP will fall on its butt,
>more often than not.
>
>Changing the HD can also lose 3 WPA lives:
> - the HD itself, which is to be expected
> - loss of optical drive, if you'd plugged in new HD instead
> - change in volume serial number, if formatted of converted C:

This is where I find BootIT NG (BING) a very useful tool.
http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

It does an *exact* copy of the partition, so preserving the Volume
Serial number, and because you are booted direct to its floppy (it works
directly in the BIOS) there are no problems about temporary
disconnections - provided of course that you re-assemble things before
booting the copy.

ONe point people tend to forget when doing an image copy is that if you
want the result to boot you have to provide for MBR code on the new
disk. That can be done with a DOS (say Win98 Startup) floppy and FDISK
/MBR - or Bing will do it. It will also check, and if necessary adjust,
the partition table slot used for the copy - so it matches the one on
the original dis; which matters to XP booting



--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 20:12:57 -0800, "Jim"

>>I'm trying to upgrade the hard drive on my Windows XP
>>home computer from 20GB to 80GB. I've installed the
>>drive and copied the old drive (via Drive Image 7), but
>>when I try to boot off the new drive I get a "A problem
>>is preventing Windows from accurately checking the
>>license for this computer.

XP is as weak as a butterfly in a sandstorm when it comes to surviving
a transfer between one HD and another, So make sure you get a biiiig
HD, because it may be for the life of that installation!

File-level copies fail, even if you copy absolutely everything and
don't get LFN/8.3 names in a twist (all those MICROS~? dirs in
"Program Files" get arbitrary 8.3 names based on the order they are
copied, breaking registry references to these, etc.).

So you are forced to do a partition image copy, for which no tools are
provided by the OS. Even then, as you find, XP will fall on its butt,
more often than not.

Changing the HD can also lose 3 WPA lives:
- the HD itself, which is to be expected
- loss of optical drive, if you'd plugged in new HD instead
- change in volume serial number, if formatted of converted C:

That's one life short of breaking the bank. If you'd added RAM, or
changed SVGA, etc. in the last 3 months, you will get DoS'd by WPA if
4 lives gone. If you "strobe" a setting so that never a three-month
period goes by without a "change" (e.g. if you toggle processor serial
number visibility via CMOS) then that may be enough.

However, I've seen the mess you describe, and it's not a natural case
of "too many changes" setting WPA on your case. It's something
deeper, and I suspect WPA just happens to be the first code to notice
that things just aren't as they should be. The pattern:

1) XP boots to blue logon screen
2) But never gets as far as showing accounts to choose
3) Dialog comes up "unable to verify.." as you describe
4) Whatever action you take, system dawdles with no HD action...
5) ...and then loops back to (3) all over again
6) There's no clean way out; you are forced to bad-exit

I've posted this before, and have never had any technical details
offered as to why this is, and what the mechanisms are. Just...

>boot from your CD and do a repair and then you should be
>able to activate after the repair

....which is unacceptably messy, IMO.

>all files should be intact after the repair.

Rubbish; you will lose all your subsystem updates and bugfixes, and
when you go online to download these all over again, Lovesan etc. will
shoot you to pieces through the "fit to ship" defective RPC code.

Compared to the norms set by MSDOS, Win3.yuk and Win9x, this is one
area where XP drools and blows chunks out both ends.



>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Dreams are stack dumps of the soul
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

[Alex Nichol]

cquirke (MVP Win9x) wrote:

>
>So you are forced to do a partition image copy, for which no tools are
>provided by the OS. Even then, as you find, XP will fall on its butt,
>more often than not.
>
>Changing the HD can also lose 3 WPA lives:
> - the HD itself, which is to be expected
> - loss of optical drive, if you'd plugged in new HD instead
> - change in volume serial number, if formatted of converted C:

This is where I find BootIT NG (BING) a very useful tool.
http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

It does an *exact* copy of the partition, so preserving the Volume
Serial number, and because you are booted direct to its floppy (it works
directly in the BIOS) there are no problems about temporary
disconnections - provided of course that you re-assemble things before
booting the copy.

ONe point people tend to forget when doing an image copy is that if you
want the result to boot you have to provide for MBR code on the new
disk. That can be done with a DOS (say Win98 Startup) floppy and FDISK
/MBR - or Bing will do it. It will also check, and if necessary adjust,
the partition table slot used for the copy - so it matches the one on
the original dis; which matters to XP booting



--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)