XP reactivation SP1 changes

[Diane]

If I am interpreting the KB article correctly w.r.t. reactivation, would
this now work?

Purpose: use a known "good" XP hd for a short period on a clone machine for
diagnostics.

Have XP installed/activated on "my" machine
Insert drive into another, hardware/driver-identical "test" machine.
Expect to get some sort of reactivation message that I can ignore/bypass (3
day max?)
Run diagnostics on "test" which may required rebooting
Return drive to "my" machine without any reactivations used

Sure would help me when clients/family have problems with their boxes. :-)

TIA,
Diane

[Ron Martell]

"Diane" > wrote:

>If I am interpreting the KB article correctly w.r.t. reactivation, would
>this now work?
>
>Purpose: use a known "good" XP hd for a short period on a clone machine for
>diagnostics.
>
>Have XP installed/activated on "my" machine
>Insert drive into another, hardware/driver-identical "test" machine.
>Expect to get some sort of reactivation message that I can ignore/bypass (3
>day max?)
>Run diagnostics on "test" which may required rebooting
>Return drive to "my" machine without any reactivations used
>
>Sure would help me when clients/family have problems with their boxes. :-)
>

Unless the hardware in the client box was absolutely identical to your
"known good" XP (same make and model of motherboard, same video card,
same network card, etc etc) you will almost certainly have to do a
"Repair Install" in order to get Windows XP to boot up on the client
machine.

Not a viable option, in my opinion.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

[Diane]

> Unless the hardware in the client box was absolutely identical to your
> "known good" XP (same make and model of motherboard, same video card,
> same network card, etc etc) you will almost certainly have to do a
> "Repair Install" in order to get Windows XP to boot up on the client
> machine.

I built these machines (4-98/2k boxes for me & 4-98 boxes for a client)
motherboard up & the only hardware that I can think of that varies is CD vs
DVD (which I believe is ignored for Activation purposes) and video. Most of
the video cards are the same, but there are a couple that are different.
Right now I'm on W2k & I can just pull my mobile-rack mounted drive & stick
it in any other box. The only messages I get are about a different monitor
or video being found and those are pretty simple changes. All of the mbs
are Asus A7Vs, but there are a couple of Revs used & obviously the cpu ids,
etc would be different - which I would expect to trigger reactivation. Is
the "Repair Install" part of the hardware detection or activation or both?
If it's hardware detection for driver purposes, I might be ok.

I want to see how XP's activation would affect my response to "is it
hardware or software?" problems. I wouldn't want my XP
installation/activation botched just I 'm trying to check something for a
couple of hours <g>

A related question: If my son brings his drive home from college for a
period longer than a couple of days (like Christmas) & sticks it in my
machine & it reactivates, when he goes back to school & sticks it back in
his machine, I'm assuming it will have to reactivate again. Will the
reactivation procedure see that it's "back the way it was" or count
"against" him as another reactivation?

Jeez, these scenarios are just getting too convoluted... <g> I'm really
not trying to hack anything or install a single software license on
multiple machines. After going to the trouble of maintaining common
hardware so that a machine failure isn't a show stopper, I'm uneasy about
the roadblocks that XP activation may present. I guess I've been converted
to "true" Plug & Play: hd in mobile racks. It's tough to think about being
tethered to a specific machine again. <g>

Diane

[Ron Martell]

"Diane" > wrote:

<snip>
> Is
>the "Repair Install" part of the hardware detection or activation or both?
>If it's hardware detection for driver purposes, I might be ok.

It is basically a complete reinstall "over top of the existing".


>
>I want to see how XP's activation would affect my response to "is it
>hardware or software?" problems. I wouldn't want my XP
>installation/activation botched just I 'm trying to check something for a
>couple of hours <g>

With SP1 you have 3 days grace and if the hardware is as close as you
say it is then you might be able to make it work.

>
>A related question: If my son brings his drive home from college for a
>period longer than a couple of days (like Christmas) & sticks it in my
>machine & it reactivates, when he goes back to school & sticks it back in
>his machine, I'm assuming it will have to reactivate again. Will the
>reactivation procedure see that it's "back the way it was" or count
>"against" him as another reactivation?

See MVP Alex Nichols article on product activation at
www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm

In that he mentions the files to back up when reformatting the hard
drive. I would expect that if you son saved those same files before
he left the university and then copied them back when he got back
there that it would be okay. But that is not an absolute guarantee.


>
>Jeez, these scenarios are just getting too convoluted... <g> I'm really
>not trying to hack anything or install a single software license on
>multiple machines. After going to the trouble of maintaining common
>hardware so that a machine failure isn't a show stopper, I'm uneasy about
>the roadblocks that XP activation may present. I guess I've been converted
>to "true" Plug & Play: hd in mobile racks. It's tough to think about being
>tethered to a specific machine again. <g>

I gather that Microsoft is not too enthusiastic about accomodating the
use of removable boot drives in their license protection system.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

[Diane]

> I gather that Microsoft is not too enthusiastic about accomodating the
> use of removable boot drives in their license protection system.

From a money-resource point of view, I can't blame them (I'm a developer &
like to get paid), but it does crimp my style <g>

Thanks for your help,
Diane