Activation issues

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian
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Brian

I changed out a hard drive in a Toshiba laptop with a working hard drive from
a dead laptop and when I started it up, it said I have not activated Windows
yet. It was activated previously in the previous laptop. Now I cannot use
it unless I format and buy new Windows. Is there any cure for this? I do
not have documentation from the old laptop, sold it on Ebay but kept hard
drive.
 
Brian said:
I changed out a hard drive in a Toshiba laptop with a working hard drive
from
a dead laptop and when I started it up, it said I have not activated
Windows
yet. It was activated previously in the previous laptop. Now I cannot
use
it unless I format and buy new Windows. Is there any cure for this? I do
not have documentation from the old laptop, sold it on Ebay but kept hard
drive.
Click to expand...


Have you tried activation by phone? Explain what you did and - more than
likely - they will provide you with the 'code' to re-activate Windows.
 
XP was designed to "sense" the PC's hardware. This was done to prevent
someone form cloning one installation of XP to several different computers.
Further, if the PC came with XP installed, it was probably "BIOS locked",
meaning that it will not work on a different motherboard, or even on a
different version of the same motherboard.

Options include:

1. Toss hard drive; perhaps you should have left it in the old PC, after
erasing personal information?
2. Temporarily mount hard drive in another PC and save important personal
files, if any, then format and reuse for backup storage.
3. Mount hard drive in new PC then perform a repair installion of XP. A
repair is less violent than a format and a clean installation, and if
successful will not erase personal files or installed programs (except for
XP, which gets "refreshed"). But, to do a repair you will need a
full-retail version of XP, not an OEM version (about $199 for XP home).
4. Mount hard drive in new PC then perform a clean install of XP (i.e.,
format and install).
 
Bob Harris said:
XP was designed to "sense" the PC's hardware. This was done to prevent
someone form cloning one installation of XP to several different
computers. Further, if the PC came with XP installed, it was probably
"BIOS locked", meaning that it will not work on a different motherboard,
or even on a different version of the same motherboard.

Options include:

1. Toss hard drive; perhaps you should have left it in the old PC, after
erasing personal information?
2. Temporarily mount hard drive in another PC and save important personal
files, if any, then format and reuse for backup storage.
3. Mount hard drive in new PC then perform a repair installion of XP. A
repair is less violent than a format and a clean installation, and if
successful will not erase personal files or installed programs (except for
XP, which gets "refreshed"). But, to do a repair you will need a
full-retail version of XP, not an OEM version (about $199 for XP home).
4. Mount hard drive in new PC then perform a clean install of XP (i.e.,
format and install).
Click to expand...

Errr... I beg to differ. If one has a catastrophic failure (as in the OP's
case), you can talk to a MS rep and re-activate the new installation.

Don't argue... I've done it!
 
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