how to "re"-activate XP Home

[RJK]

Since moving to a new system box, and reactivating my XP Home ed. in it, a
couple of months have gone by, and my "old" / relegated system box has been
out if use and just sat there doing not much - just waiting to be
zero-filled, ...and now instead of finally getting around to that, I would
like to let a friend have it.

So, he will be relegating his "old" system box, and I want to get his
licensed copy of XP Home ed. (poss. SP2) into my old system box for him, if
you see what I mean, ...which would of course save me a significant amount
of time having to reinstall from scratch, e.g. if I could "repair install".

If I run a XP repair in my old system box using his XP Home ed. cd, will
that do the job, would that get his XP license no, in there without me
having to install from scratch ? ...and how much work is there to do after
that, i.e. do XP updates all get lost right back to what's streamlined in
with his XP cd ...I think it's XP Home SP2 ?

TIA

regards, Richard

 

[Gordon]

Since moving to a new system box, and reactivating my XP Home ed. in it, a
couple of months have gone by, and my "old" / relegated system box has
been out if use and just sat there doing not much - just waiting to be
zero-filled, ...and now instead of finally getting around to that, I would
like to let a friend have it.

So, he will be relegating his "old" system box, and I want to get his
licensed copy of XP Home ed. (poss. SP2) into my old system box for him,
if you see what I mean, ...which would of course save me a significant
amount of time having to reinstall from scratch, e.g. if I could "repair
install".

If I run a XP repair in my old system box using his XP Home ed. cd, will
that do the job, would that get his XP license no, in there without me
having to install from scratch ? ...and how much work is there to do
after that, i.e. do XP updates all get lost right back to what's
streamlined in with his XP cd ...I think it's XP Home SP2 ?

if the XP Home edition came pre-installed on the old machine, then you can't
move it.

 

[RJK]

Thank you, I know that.
I know enough about EULA's thank you very much, no offence intended !
I wasn't looking for information regarding EULA details ! If I'd wanted
that, I would have asked for that.
His is full retail XP Home ed., not OEM, so he's perfectly entitled to slap
it in a new (single) PC, ...thank you very much !

I'm having less and less to do with "other peoples" PC's, across the past
year or so, and, perhaps it's just me, but, one becomes surprisingly rusty,
....surprisingly quickly !

I just wanted a few reminders / pointers on what gets lost on an
"over-install/repair install" ....and couldn't remember what gets lost and
needs redoing, and can't remember ever doing one with a different-license
no. XP cd, and don't know if it would refuse to go in over an XP
installation with a different license no.

regards, Richard

 

[Gordon]

I just wanted a few reminders / pointers on what gets lost on an
"over-install/repair install" ....and couldn't remember what gets lost and
needs redoing, and can't remember ever doing one with a different-license
no. XP cd, and don't know if it would refuse to go in over an XP
installation with a different license no.

Well, if the Documents, favorites and mail are in the default location, then
I would certainly back those up if nothing else.

 

[Ogg]

RJK wrote:
|| I just wanted a few reminders / pointers on what gets lost on an
|| "over-install/repair install" ....and couldn't remember what gets
|| lost and needs redoing, and can't remember ever doing one with a
|| different-license no. XP cd, and don't know if it would refuse to go
|| in over an XP installation with a different license no.

Check out Fred Langa's article on the matter:

http://tinyurl.com/hutg5

Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option


Fred Langa shows you how to completely rebuild, repair, or refresh an
existing XP installation without losing data, and without having to
reinstall user software, reformat, or otherwise destructively alter the
setup.

 

[RJK]

Big thanks Ogg,

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

....The link you pasted, on rebuilding/repairing an existing XP installation
was VERY interesting, I've used this "over-install" route several times in
the past, and one does indeed have to proceed very carefully because the
route to it, after booting from XP cd, is indeed very vague, poorly labelled
and misleading - as described in website artice you pointed out.

again, thanks.

regards, Richard

 

[Ogg]

You're welcome! Glad it helps. As the article states, only the various XP
system files will be replaced, and any personal data files and 3rd-party
applications will remain intact. If you're planning to install your
friend's XP license onto your old pc, you're probably better off doing a
clean install - unless you want to remove your personal data files and
applications as a separate step? Personally, the rebuild/repair over an
existing XP is a much faster way to "reinstall" XP than from scratch. Then
removing specific 3rd-party applications later is just as fast. Don't
forget to delete references to any saved passwords that you may have allowed
XP to automatically remember.. or atleast change them to something bogus.


RJK wrote:
|| ...The link you pasted, on rebuilding/repairing an existing XP
|| installation was VERY interesting, I've used this "over-install"
|| route several times in the past, and one does indeed have to proceed
|| very carefully because the route to it, after booting from XP cd, is
|| indeed very vague, poorly labelled and misleading - as described in
|| website artice you pointed out.