How sensitive is Vista to Hardware changes ? Read On.

[Darkelldar]

Today I picked up 2 new 160 gb SATA II HD's to replace my SATA I 120's
running in RAID 0.

Installed the drives and hooked them up. Set up new RAID array and formated
the new drive. Used Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 to copy my Vista partition to
the new drives all went without a problem.

Rebooted with the new drives (much faster) all worked ok then it comes up
that I need to reactivate. That my key is allready in use and I need to
purchase a new one.

Did the phone activation without a problem. I never had a problem with XP
and new HD's needing to reactivate. I am looking a a new CPU next month that
could be more fun.

Seems like overkill on the hardware can't see why the motherboard is not
enough to keep activation on a computer. This will be a real pain as I do
change hardware often.

 

[Dale White]

I believe the anwer is, if somone or a group of someones decided to use all
the same Mobo, then they could copy windows to 50 different machines.
But it was stated that using the HD's serial number prevents that from
working. Though I wonder if it's really the volume ID, I keep meaning to
test that.

 

[Darkelldar]

So the HD is the now the main device for identifying the PC for activation ?

 

[Dale M. White -LV32]

Yes, several people have posted that changing the HDD that Vista is\was
installed upon, causes a re-activation.

 

[Darkelldar]

I am upgrading the CPU and ram next month, we will see what if any
activation issues come up with that.

 

[Dale White]

I'm willing to bet 1 billion dollars, CPU and RAM changes won't. I've
already done a few ram changes with my system doing different testing with 3
different sets of memory sticks. Another guy upgraded from a 3500+ to a
4200x2 and didn't mention any activation issues.

 

[mikeyhsd]

since you moved the vista to new hardware is probably what triggered the activation.



(e-mail address removed)



Today I picked up 2 new 160 gb SATA II HD's to replace my SATA I 120's
running in RAID 0.

Installed the drives and hooked them up. Set up new RAID array and formated
the new drive. Used Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 to copy my Vista partition to
the new drives all went without a problem.

Rebooted with the new drives (much faster) all worked ok then it comes up
that I need to reactivate. That my key is allready in use and I need to
purchase a new one.

Did the phone activation without a problem. I never had a problem with XP
and new HD's needing to reactivate. I am looking a a new CPU next month that
could be more fun.

Seems like overkill on the hardware can't see why the motherboard is not
enough to keep activation on a computer. This will be a real pain as I do
change hardware often.