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Win XP OEM and replacing hard drives

M

mhaskell

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 11, 2000
Messages
1,756
I Have an OEM copy of Win XP pro from newegg currently installed on my computer. I am removing the current single HD and going to a Raptor/RAID setup with a fresh install of course. Do I have to contact MS for another CD key, or will it be reuseable?
 
It will be reusable. Were you not going with a RAID array, you could just clone the current installation over to the new drive, and make it bootable. However, most cloning operations to a RAID fail in one way or another. For the life of me, I can't figure out why no one has really addressed this yet.

You may have to call M$ when you go to activate, but I think it should activate without any phone calls necessary.
 
I doubt you'll even need to call MS, your not changing any significant hardware such as a cpu or video card, I haven't had to call MS for that (maybe I'm lucky?).
 
sabregen said:
For the life of me, I can't figure out why no one has really addressed this yet.
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Most likely because the percentage of people actually using RAID for a non-server wouldn't justify the effort, coding etc. There isn't much of a market for it, outside of the very very small enthusiast section. Ghost has done RAID to RAID for me...or restored a RAID array, but I haven't tried in a while, as I wasn't seeing any real benefit for me in a RIAD0 array.

As for the activation, that's simple. It's the same computer, so if you need to call it in, you just tell them you're drive died and you need to reinstall.
 
DeaconFrost said:
As for the activation, that's simple. It's the same computer, so if you need to call it in, you just tell them you're drive died and you need to reinstall.
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Why even say the drive died? Just say you are upgrading hard drives, what do they care as long as you are not installing it on a different pc.
 
munkle said:
Why even say the drive died? Just say you are upgrading hard drives, what do they care as long as you are not installing it on a different pc.
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Just going by the fact you said you've never had to call, I think that's your answer. Quite often, you need to give them reasons why you are reactivating....and often times, a dead hard drive is the most accepted, easiest way....so why not just say that off the bat and get on with the process?
 
If you have to call them, it's OK. Just be polite and tell the truth. I've had to do it several times. Hold times are short. They speak good english. And they have never questioned my reasons.

As a matter of fact, I have one motherboard that has lived several lives. I have called to activate an install 3 times with the mobo being the only common hardware piece.
 
DeaconFrost said:
Just going by the fact you said you've never had to call, I think that's your answer. Quite often, you need to give them reasons why you are reactivating....and often times, a dead hard drive is the most accepted, easiest way....so why not just say that off the bat and get on with the process?
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I never said I haven't had to call them, I said I haven't had to call them for changing a cpu or a viideo card, I had to call them because I got a new mobo back from an rma. All you needed to say to them before they moved to an automated process is that you are reinstalling windows, and that is that.
upriverpaddler said:
If you have to call them, it's OK. Just be polite and tell the truth. I've had to do it several times. Hold times are short. They speak good english. And they have never questioned my reasons.

As a matter of fact, I have one motherboard that has lived several lives. I have called to activate an install 3 times with the mobo being the only common hardware piece.
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They use an automated system now, before they didn't (had to call them for a Dell system because Dell doesn't use the key on the side of the machine when they first install the os, they use an image on a batch of machines all with the same key). The system asks you yes or no questions and will give you a key when you are done.
 
munkle said:
I said I haven't had to call them for changing a cpu or a viideo card, I had to call them because I got a new mobo back from an rma.
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In theory it would only trip the activation on replacing the motherboard, but that's, unfortunately, not how it always works. I've already tripped the activation by pulling 2 memory sticks out of a PC, dropping it from 3 GB to 2 GB. The really strange thing is, when I popped those two sticks back in, and booted up the PC, it was back to being activated. There's no rhyme or reason to it, so you never really know what to expect. That's why I've always had family/friends tell MS that the HDD died, so there are no issues, and they are activated within minutes.
 
..and you will then have the repeat the whole damned thing all over again. I have to call them now every time I re-install, because WinXP actually tells me that I have re-installed too many times.

upriverpaddler said:
Yes they have voice recognition to take your key, but if there is any problem, you will be passed to a live operator.
Click to expand...
 
sabregen said:
..and you will then have the repeat the whole damned thing all over again. I have to call them now every time I re-install, because WinXP actually tells me that I have re-installed too many times.
Click to expand...

How many times have you installed xp? I have done at least 10 installs (reformats) with the same xp key on one pc and never had it tell me I have had to many installs.
 
If you have a Maxtor drive in your system, MAXBLAST4 will work, and it is excellent at cloning to raid arrays. I used it to move my setup from IDE to 2xRaptor raid0 a while back.
 
munkle said:
How many times have you installed xp? I have done at least 10 installs (reformats) with the same xp key on one pc and never had it tell me I have had to many installs.
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I think the point you're missing is that it's not the same for every person, or everytime someone calls in. That's why, earlier in the thread, I said about saying the drive died. Instead of playing around, and looping through even more sections...it's the best way to shorten the entire process. But, this is not a uniform process. Some people don't have to call in, and others do. A friend of mine needed his retail copy reactivated after doing his first reinstall, and got the message saying it was activated too many times.
 
One possibility is that someone somewhere used a random key generator and actually got YOUR key. And then posted it on a torrent site. Anything could happen.

So, my above advice will work 100% of the time. If you have to call them, be nice, tell the truth and you'll get activated with no problem.
 
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