Microsoft hates frequent formatters

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shadowbreaker513

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I had to reformat today because of BSODs and other problems, and when I went to reactivate Windows, I was told that I had reached the maximum number of times I could activate using my current key. So basically, just because I've reformatted a dozen times since August, I have to buy another copy of Windows. Must......kill.....M$......
 
No you don't. Just call the 800 activation number and explain what you're doing. They're more than willing to help you out.

Just don't try to play them....they're not dumb. ;)
 
Yeah, they don't even let me activate over the phone anymore. I switched over to my corporate CD, but still have my license and other stuff on the shelf for when/if they start letting us trade it in for XP64. Yes, mine is Pro.
 
lol this probably the only time im glad i have a dell, no ativation required :p
 
munkle said:
lol this probably the only time im glad i have a dell, no ativation required :p
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my friend has a dell we have to activate after every format, worst part is cant install the nic drivers until after its activated. So i have to jump through 100 hoops on the microsft activation line. last time i did it, i dont think i ever even talked to a rep?? its all entering in numbers.
 
mavalpha said:
Yeah, they don't even let me activate over the phone anymore. I switched over to my corporate CD, but still have my license and other stuff on the shelf for when/if they start letting us trade it in for XP64. Yes, mine is Pro.
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What did ya do to get into that situation (not trying to give ya a hard time, just trying to avoid getting myself in the same situation)?
 
munkle said:
lol this probably the only time im glad i have a dell, no ativation required :p
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???You don't have to put in the 25 (or whatever) digit activation key to reformat??? Are you sure?
 
lesman said:
???You don't have to put in the 25 (or whatever) digit activation key to reformat??? Are you sure?
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on my dad's dell laptop, i didnt need a cd-key after i formatted.
 
MrSlacker said:
on my dad's dell laptop, i didnt need a cd-key after i formatted.
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Interesting. Hmm.....things that make ya go "hmm"....ha ha, LOL.I wish I didnt need a key to activate everytime I reinstalled.
 
HTPC Rookie said:
No you don't. Just call the 800 activation number and explain what you're doing. They're more than willing to help you out.

Just don't try to play them....they're not dumb. ;)
Click to expand...


Hahaha, thats so funny. I have yet to speak to a M$ rep who had a clue. My favorite was this conversations with a rep:

rep "is this the first time activating this product?"
me "No, its the second. I just reformatted my hard drive."
rep "May I ask why you are reactivating"
me "Umm, because I reformatted my hard drive"
rep "sir, that does not require re-activation"

At this point i hung up and called again. The second guy wasnt too bad. He gave me my confirmation code pretty quick.

Edit: Wait, was that guy being sarcastic... I can never tell on forums...
 
Xiun said:
Hahaha, thats so funny. I have yet to speak to a M$ rep who had a clue. My favorite was this conversations with a rep:

rep "is this the first time activating this product?"
me "No, its the second. I just reformatted my hard drive."
rep "May I ask why you are reactivating"
me "Umm, because I reformatted my hard drive"
rep "sir, that does not require re-activation"

At this point i hung up and called again. The second guy wasnt too bad. He gave me my confirmation code pretty quick.

Edit: Wait, was that guy being sarcastic... I can never tell on forums...
Click to expand...

LOL yes and no on the sarcastic. No on the sarcasm because I've never had an issue with them (yet). Yes on the sarcasm on the last line I typed... :D
 
lesman said:
Interesting. Hmm.....things that make ya go "hmm"....ha ha, LOL.I wish I didnt need a key to activate everytime I reinstalled.
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Its called BIOS locking. Dell writes a string to the DMI pool in the BIOS. The version of Windows XP that Dell sells with their systems then looks for the key during the install process. When the key is recognized to match the hardware, no activation is required.
We do it here on all the Windows systems we sell.
 
Or you can just copy the files onto your hard drive, toy around with the INI files and disable certain things, for instance I have it set so I don't have to activate, low disk space message is turned off by default and I also disabled the tour windows XP thing. Once you've done that you can download the boot image from MS and just reburn it onto a CD, works perfectly. (Funny how the only useful thing I learned in school I learned as a volunteer network tech during my free periods)
 
I reformamted like 10 times in 2 weeks and they told me I couldn't reformattt that mnay times in that time. Now I'm stuck without a valid key. I had to borrow a pirated one. That makes alot of sense huh? :p
 
God bless my Volume Licensing Edition :cool: of xp pro.

and yeah my laptop's restore disc doesn't require a cd key ever...
 
Went through a brief period of changing my hardware around unbelievably often without planning to, so that my hardware signature was changing about three times a week- god bless college students being so willing to trade!

I still do it when I can, for example I'm in the process of trading a motherboard for RAM. Only now it's online.
 
slowbiznatch said:
Its called BIOS locking. Dell writes a string to the DMI pool in the BIOS. The version of Windows XP that Dell sells with their systems then looks for the key during the install process. When the key is recognized to match the hardware, no activation is required.
We do it here on all the Windows systems we sell.
Click to expand...

How's that work? The unattended guys would get a kick out of it. Then again WINNT.SIF does it easier already so it's just simple curiosity.
 
I have formatted too many times to count with my current version of windows XP. I too get that same thing, I just call them up and tell them... "Hey, I just bought a new hard drive and created a raid array so i had to reformat, i need to activate my licence" - and they have no problem with that. Or I tell them I fux0red up my copy messing with the regestry hahaha, activate me and they do...

They know when youu are a poweruser fucking with your computer or if you are a warez mastar... they are smart.. they work at microsoft! you have to be smart to even be a janitor there right? :)
 
lol i told them one i have illegally downloaded there software and pirated this CD-key because im a poor bastard, activate me please and they did. i swear this was messed up, gotta love corrupt employees
 
I find that if I call during the US working hours the automated machine sends me to a live operator. If I call late at night or in the early morning I think I'm forwarded to India or something. Anyways one time I got a cool guy. I told him the "I had activated to many times" message, so he just reset the number in the computer back to 1. He also said if I it happens again not to immediately try to activate, wait till the very end of the 30 days. Sometimes it just sees to many activations, and if you wait 3 weeks between activations you can activate online, as long as the hardware is the same. Maybe the phonesystem got messed up , and i got someone that catually cared, and was competent. There was no way I was gonna fork over a hundred bucks for a new code. At least I'm getting ok with linux now. Man now that I think about it, after I replaced my cpu with a faster one it made me call Microsoft.
 
Ballz2TheWallz said:
lol i told them one i have illegally downloaded there software and pirated this CD-key because im a poor bastard, activate me please and they did. i swear this was messed up, gotta love corrupt employees
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bullshit
 
After reformatting a few times I had to activate by phone about a year ago, haven't had to call since, now it activates just fine every time
 
sixandout said:
I find that if I call during the US working hours the automated machine sends me to a live operator. If I call late at night or in the early morning I think I'm forwarded to India or something. Anyways one time I got a cool guy. I told him the "I had activated to many times" message, so he just reset the number in the computer back to 1. He also said if I it happens again not to immediately try to activate, wait till the very end of the 30 days. Sometimes it just sees to many activations, and if you wait 3 weeks between activations you can activate online, as long as the hardware is the same. Maybe the phonesystem got messed up , and i got someone that catually cared, and was competent. There was no way I was gonna fork over a hundred bucks for a new code. At least I'm getting ok with linux now. Man now that I think about it, after I replaced my cpu with a faster one it made me call Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Oh shit, how did you get that number? The number with the good employees is supposed to be for internal use only.

-Microsoft Employee :p
 
r00k said:
God bless my Volume Licensing Edition :cool: of xp pro.

and yeah my laptop's restore disc doesn't require a cd key ever...
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I'm glad for your restore disk. I upgrade my compaq a hiwle back and put a nice Asus mobo in it. kept the same HD, cd drives,everything. Then it asked me toverfiy. I called the number and entered my lincense in since I really had a real license number that cam with my disk. They said it was a pirated number. I was liek WTF? And then I had t use the pirated number. I miss that restore disk. It came with cool stuff liek windvd and winamp.... *tear*....not really but I didn't want to resort to stealing. I was ina bind. No money and had hw to do. Maybe I'll try calling them again one day. *crosses fingers*
 
If you know that you are going to be reformatting frequently... Don't Activate! :)

I use the MSDN copy here at work so I have 60 days between formats (if I need it). Since I am constantly reformatting to get a pristine copy of WXP, I have never needed to activate the MSDN copy...
 
Everytime I see these thread I wonder WTF you people are doing that requires such frequent formatting...

 
I had the same problem with Microsoft. Last time I reformatted, I called them and said "listen, I always format my hard drive whenever I upgrade my computer or whatever... this isn't fair that I have to ask every time". The guy on the phone gave me 50 online activations before I had to call again. Sounded good to me.
 
Isn't there a file on the harddrive that stores the activated status?


I could have sworn a few years ago, hearing about a file that if you back it up before reformating, then put it back in place afterwards, you don't have to reactivate again.
 
Phoenix86 said:
Everytime I see these thread I wonder WTF you people are doing that requires such frequent formatting...

Click to expand...
To much PORN!!! Sick horney bastards! :D
 
Komataguri said:
Isn't there a file on the harddrive that stores the activated status?


I could have sworn a few years ago, hearing about a file that if you back it up before reformating, then put it back in place afterwards, you don't have to reactivate again.
Click to expand...

Somone already posted that trick.

retupmoca said:
You can also back up the activation files when you reinstall, provided there haven't been any hardware changes.
Link to instructions
Click to expand...

Haven't tried it but I don't see why it wouldn't work as long as the hardware stays the same.
 
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