XP Pro thinks I am a pirate after installation of new hard drive

[cjpd]

Hi
I had a very serious issue with my C: drive running XP Pro -
fortunately chkdsk fixed the problem and I have managed to get the
thing up and running again. However, it is an old drive, so I decided
to replace it with a new one. I used Norton Ghost to copy the old
drive to the new drive - but the system consistently got stuck at a
welcome to windows screen after booting. So I did a repair
installation. The computer now boots, but XP insists I am running a
pirated copy of windows. As the computer is exactly the same aside
from the hard drive, I can only assume that this is caused by the
repair installation.
Can anyone tell me how to convince XP that I am a legitimate user who
is merely trying to replace a faulty hard drive?
Many thanks
Chris

 

[peter]

Run the Activation Process.....it will eventually give you a MS phone
number...phone and explain .
peter

 

[Guest]

there is a download that will verify whether you are running winows
authenticated programs, if you go to the windows website and look for the
windows validation download it should either accept or reject your copy of
windows and if it rejects then there is very little you can do about it

 

[db]

if you have installed the wga
you might be receiving a false positive.

if you have or do not have wga, you
can still use the freeware called
"remove wga tool" just to be sure...

the above will eliminate one possibility.


- db
Hi
I had a very serious issue with my C: drive running XP Pro -
fortunately chkdsk fixed the problem and I have managed to get the
thing up and running again. However, it is an old drive, so I decided
to replace it with a new one. I used Norton Ghost to copy the old
drive to the new drive - but the system consistently got stuck at a
welcome to windows screen after booting. So I did a repair
installation. The computer now boots, but XP insists I am running a
pirated copy of windows. As the computer is exactly the same aside
from the hard drive, I can only assume that this is caused by the
repair installation.
Can anyone tell me how to convince XP that I am a legitimate user who
is merely trying to replace a faulty hard drive?
Many thanks
Chris

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Run the Activation Process.....it will eventually give you a MS phone
number...phone and explain .
peter

Unfortunately, sometimes the activation process *will not* behave in this
way. In some circumstances, it will *never* give you the opportunity to
either select an alternate activation method (phone vs network) or to enter
an activation code.

In another example of this scenario, where the motherboard's been replaced
and a new cloned drive is in use and a repair install done to adjust to the
new hardware, you can't log in because the system is de-activated, but you
must log in to install the new chipset drivers which enable the network
adapter. And the activation process will not provide any options other
than activation by network, which is not possible because the drivers can't
be installed.

In this circumstance, the technical term for your status is "screwed".
There's no option but to do a clean install.

Fortunately, all data is present on the old hardware, but everything has to
be re-installed.

It's possible - I didn't test this as I didn't have time to waste - that one
could work around this by installing a secondary network adapter that
doesn't require a driver disk before doing any of the other hardware
changes, and installing it with all the other new hardware. This secondary
card's support would be installed in the new system by the repair install,
allowing network activation to take place.

Maybe.

HTH
-pk

 

[Ron Martell]

Hi
I had a very serious issue with my C: drive running XP Pro -
fortunately chkdsk fixed the problem and I have managed to get the
thing up and running again. However, it is an old drive, so I decided
to replace it with a new one. I used Norton Ghost to copy the old
drive to the new drive - but the system consistently got stuck at a
welcome to windows screen after booting. So I did a repair
installation. The computer now boots, but XP insists I am running a
pirated copy of windows. As the computer is exactly the same aside
from the hard drive, I can only assume that this is caused by the
repair installation.
Can anyone tell me how to convince XP that I am a legitimate user who
is merely trying to replace a faulty hard drive?
Many thanks
Chris

Are you certain you used the same product key for the repair install
as was used for the original install?

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[nesredep egrob]

Hi
I had a very serious issue with my C: drive running XP Pro -
fortunately chkdsk fixed the problem and I have managed to get the
thing up and running again. However, it is an old drive, so I decided
to replace it with a new one. I used Norton Ghost to copy the old
drive to the new drive - but the system consistently got stuck at a
welcome to windows screen after booting. So I did a repair
installation. The computer now boots, but XP insists I am running a
pirated copy of windows. As the computer is exactly the same aside
from the hard drive, I can only assume that this is caused by the
repair installation.
Can anyone tell me how to convince XP that I am a legitimate user who
is merely trying to replace a faulty hard drive?
Many thanks
Chris

Next time use Acronis - it is free for version 8.0. I have replaced a defunct 80
GB drive with a 320 - no trouble at all - . When you get back into order and
before doing too much work - make an image of C: drive for the future - if it
happens once it can happen again.

Borge in sunny Perth, Australia