Upgrade pirate XP pro with OEMCD XP pro

[Guest]

Hi,

I recently learned that the XP Pro I bought on ebay a couple of years back
(for a new PC I built from components) has turned out to be one of those
corporate ones that generates the bad product ID so it won't upgrade to SP2.
Obviously I've been using it for a long time so I've installed loads of
stuff, have loads of data that I don't want to lose.

I found in some articles on Microsoft's knowledge base that it's possible to
change your activation key by invalidating the old key and re-running the
activation process.

So I went to ebay again, found a more reputable seller with lots of positive
feedback based on his XP sales, and I bought a new XP Professional
(non-upgrade, non-academic) FULL version.

When I try to reactivate as described at microsoft knowledge base I get the
message that the key is not valid.

When I try to install from the CD I get the message that an upgrade is not
allowed, only a new installation. Presumably this means it's an OEM CD I
have. If I try to follow the new installation route just so that I can get a
few steps into it and confirm my COA/key are valid it's quite happy with it.
I believe this is a legal XP CD with a valid key.

I thought I'd be able to use my original bad CD to do the install, and enter
the key from the new good CD, but the key doesn't seem to match the CD type
(OEM key vs non-OEM CD).

What are my options here?

I can't reactivate with this key for some unknown reason.

I can't do an upgrade install.

Am I left with the only option of doing a new installation and spending a
couple of days re-installing everything I had on it and backing up and
restoring data?

~dd

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

If you bought an OEM CD then you can only install it cleanly (not an
upgrade) and the key for that OEM CD will not work with your pirated product
or a retail Windows XP product.
You can tell if it is an OEM CD as retail product come in big blue or green
boxes.
OEM CDs I believe actually have OEM written on the CD surface and usually
come wrapped to a prince of cardboard and with various stickers saying
things like only for sale or distribution with a new PC etc.


--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Guest]

Thanks Mike, that's pretty clear.

Do you think I could use one of these key-changer tools successfully
somehow? I tried the jellybean keyfinder.exe but it said 'invalid key'. I've
found a new one here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4138.html

but haven't tried it yet. It seems like I'm really stuck with only one
option, but if you think this could work I'll give it a go.

Thanks...

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

Thanks Mike, that's pretty clear.

Do you think I could use one of these key-changer tools successfully
somehow? I tried the jellybean keyfinder.exe but it said 'invalid key'.
I've
found a new one here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4138.html

but haven't tried it yet. It seems like I'm really stuck with only one
option, but if you think this could work I'll give it a go.

No your pirated copy contains specific files that only accept pirated
product activation keys - you need to replace the entire installation with
your clean OEM CD install.


--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Guest]

Thanks Mike.

No your pirated copy contains specific files that only accept pirated
product activation keys - you need to replace the entire installation with
your clean OEM CD install.


--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[jimbo]

Hi,

I recently learned that the XP Pro I bought on ebay a couple of years back
(for a new PC I built from components) has turned out to be one of those
corporate ones that generates the bad product ID so it won't upgrade to SP2.
Obviously I've been using it for a long time so I've installed loads of
stuff, have loads of data that I don't want to lose.

I found in some articles on Microsoft's knowledge base that it's possible to
change your activation key by invalidating the old key and re-running the
activation process.

So I went to ebay again, found a more reputable seller with lots of positive
feedback based on his XP sales, and I bought a new XP Professional
(non-upgrade, non-academic) FULL version.

When I try to reactivate as described at microsoft knowledge base I get the
message that the key is not valid.

When I try to install from the CD I get the message that an upgrade is not
allowed, only a new installation. Presumably this means it's an OEM CD I
have. If I try to follow the new installation route just so that I can get a
few steps into it and confirm my COA/key are valid it's quite happy with it.
I believe this is a legal XP CD with a valid key.

I thought I'd be able to use my original bad CD to do the install, and enter
the key from the new good CD, but the key doesn't seem to match the CD type
(OEM key vs non-OEM CD).

What are my options here?

I can't reactivate with this key for some unknown reason.

I can't do an upgrade install.

Am I left with the only option of doing a new installation and spending a
couple of days re-installing everything I had on it and backing up and
restoring data?

~dd

Did you try a repair installation? This type of installation saves all
of your data, settings, etc. And I know you can use OEM to do this type
of installation. I am very suprised that you can't activate your new
copy of WinXP. If you try via the internet I suppose that MS could check
the product ID stored in your registry and fail the activation. But,
don't you enter the ID during the activation procedure? Anyway, if it is
a valid Product ID, you should be able to call MS and tell them you have
a new OEM that you want to activate. You don't have to be connected to
the internet and there is no way for MS or anyone else to know what you
have installed on your computer.

Good luck, jimbo

 

[Guest]

That sounds promising. Thoughts on that Mike ?

~dd

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

If you have a pirated copy of Windows XP the supported method of getting
yourself legal is a reinstall.
That said you have nothing to loose by attempting a repair install anyway -
once you have backed up all your date etc just in case.

--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jimbo/Mike,

I gave the repair installation a try but I wasn't being offered the repair
option on the drive with the offending installation. I guess it was due to
the OEM CD not being compatible with a repair on the retail installation.

I know what I'll be doing this weekend then ;-)

~dd

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

Thanks Jimbo/Mike,

I gave the repair installation a try but I wasn't being offered the repair
option on the drive with the offending installation. I guess it was due to
the OEM CD not being compatible with a repair on the retail installation.

I know what I'll be doing this weekend then ;-)

I thought that would be the case as OEM CDs are usually for installation on
a clean system only (They may be able to repair themselves but not other
installs).
I know how you feel about this weekend as I am spending it rebuild 2 of my
servers at home.

--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Guest]

Surprising news. I managed to do a repair installation on the pirated retail
with my new legal OEM CD.

When I'd earlier tried doing an upgrade installation, the option was not
available, that's obvious. When I tried booting from the install OEM CD, I
wasn't offered a repair installation either. It seemed like I was out of
options and had to do a full install.

So I accepted I'd need to do a full/new installation. With XP running, I
inserted the OEM CD, got the warning that upgrade was not available, I then
selected "new installation" and specified I'd want to choose the install
partition after boot. After it booted up, surprise surprise, it offered me
the repair installation. From that point on it was standard repair
installation.

~dd

 

[jimbo]

Surprising news. I managed to do a repair installation on the pirated retail
with my new legal OEM CD.

When I'd earlier tried doing an upgrade installation, the option was not
available, that's obvious. When I tried booting from the install OEM CD, I
wasn't offered a repair installation either. It seemed like I was out of
options and had to do a full install.

So I accepted I'd need to do a full/new installation. With XP running, I
inserted the OEM CD, got the warning that upgrade was not available, I then
selected "new installation" and specified I'd want to choose the install
partition after boot. After it booted up, surprise surprise, it offered me
the repair installation. From that point on it was standard repair
installation.

~dd

:

I gave that advice to someone on another thread. I thought it would
work, but I wasn't 100% sure. The repair installation option isn't
given until you select "Installation" from the first menu. Sort of
confusing. The first menu has a repair option, but it just takes you
to a command line prompt where you can do things like fixmbr, fixboot,
etc. Have you activated your installation? Did everything go OK?

jimbo

 

[Guest]

Yes, all went well, I was all done in less than an hour and I'm showing the
new key and autoupdating properly. You just need the faith to be able to
click on that new installation option and trust that after the reboot you'll
get a repair option

Thanks guys, A whole day or two of re-installing software and restoring data
backups saved

~dd