How to reinstall XP, but save activation status

[Ook]

I installed XP from scratch last night. I activated it, and that worked
fine. I messed up something, and I need to reinstall it from scratch again
today. Is it possible to save the activation status so I don't have to
activate it again? Can I save the .WBA (or whatever they are) files,
reinstall, and copy them back, since I'm reinstalling onto the same
hardware?

 

[kurttrail]

I installed XP from scratch last night. I activated it, and that
worked fine. I messed up something, and I need to reinstall it from
scratch again today. Is it possible to save the activation status so
I don't have to activate it again? Can I save the .WBA (or whatever
they are) files, reinstall, and copy them back, since I'm
reinstalling onto the same hardware?

It would be simpler just to activate the new install.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Ook]

It would be simpler just to activate the new install.

--

Probably, but I activated it last night, and I'm not sure what the
activation limit is before it thinks I'm trying to pirate it....I want to do
a wipe and reinstall, so it would have to actiavet itself again - twice in 2
days. Well, if worse comes to worse, I can call MS and try to convince them
I'm not pirating it LOL

 

[kurttrail]

Probably, but I activated it last night, and I'm not sure what the
activation limit is before it thinks I'm trying to pirate it....I
want to do a wipe and reinstall, so it would have to actiavet itself
again - twice in 2 days. Well, if worse comes to worse, I can call MS
and try to convince them I'm not pirating it LOL

It not tied to the number of installs, but how many hardware changes
happened between installs. As long as you haven't changed any hardware
between yesterday & today, activation should go as smoothly over the
internet as yesterday.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Frank]

Give this a try.
Tip: Working Around OS Reactivation in XP

(contributed by David Chernicoff, (e-mail address removed))

A friend of mine who had done a by-the-the-book system
repair on his Windows XP computer called me in a panic.
He was freaked because his system was prompting him to
reactivate the OS. I reassured him that this behavior is
by design because the repair process replaces the system
license file. I told him to go ahead and initiate the
Internet reactivation. He did so, with no further
problems.

If you're worried about OS reactivation or need to run a
repair when you don't have Internet access, you can make
a copy of the system license file (wpa.dbl) which is in
the \winnt\system32 folder, before you run the repair.
After the repair finishes, copy wpa.dbl back to the
system32 directory and you won't need to reactivate. Be
aware that this process works only with retail copies of
XP.

 

[Ook]

It not tied to the number of installs, but how many hardware changes
happened between installs. As long as you haven't changed any hardware
between yesterday & today, activation should go as smoothly over the
internet as yesterday.

--

Does MS keep on their end some sort of unique ID that lets them tell if the
hardware has changed or not that is tied to my CD key? This kinda makes
sense....in a scary sort of way.

 

[Ook]

wpa.dbl - yup, that's the one I want. I'll save it, reinstall, and see how
it goes. Thanks

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

It takes much less time and effort to activate via the Internet or
the telephone than it does to follow your "tip," which will work in
only a very few cases, anyway.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Nothing "scary" about it, at all. Here are the facts pertaining
to activation:

Piracy Basics - Microsoft Product Activation
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/basics/activation/

Windows Product Activation (WPA)
http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[kurttrail]

Does MS keep on their end some sort of unique ID that lets them tell
if the hardware has changed or not that is tied to my CD key? This
kinda makes sense....in a scary sort of way.

Yes, for 120 days, and then they purge that info from their PA servers,
and then XP can be installed and activated on any hardware. MS claims
that the info they collect cannot be decrypted to figure out what actual
hardware XP is installed on, but only tells them when the enough of the
hardware has changed.

For more info on PA:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/basics/activation/mpafaq.asp

http://microscum.com/mmpafaq/

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Alex Nichol]

I installed XP from scratch last night. I activated it, and that worked
fine. I messed up something, and I need to reinstall it from scratch again
today. Is it possible to save the activation status so I don't have to
activate it again?

No - if you format and reinstall (as opposed to doing a 'repair
installation') you generate a new 'instance' of the system, and those
wpa.dbl files no longer work. You will have to activate again - but as
you have just the same hardware, it will go through on the net in
seconds just as before, That is much quicker than trying to find a way
around the matter anyway

When you install, and it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and
delete the current partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted at
the next stage

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one - which is, I
suspect, where you went wrong

 

[Ook]

No - if you format and reinstall (as opposed to doing a 'repair
installation') you generate a new 'instance' of the system, and those
wpa.dbl files no longer work. You will have to activate again - but as
you have just the same hardware, it will go through on the net in
seconds just as before, That is much quicker than trying to find a way
around the matter anyway

When you install, and it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and
delete the current partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted at
the next stage

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one - which is, I
suspect, where you went wrong

Done - installed - activated - life is good again

I NEVER install over an existing installation. Never. I figured what went
wrong. During the install, there is a point where it walks you through the
final setup steps. My computer locked up at that point, and rebooted.
Because of that, it never asked me for my name. Easy fix - delete it all,
start over. Works fine, and it even activated

 

[Ook]

FWIW - I NEVER delete/format. It's totally unnecessary. In my case, I simply
boot to Win98 (which I keep on a different partition) and delete the
windows, program files, and Documents and Settings directory. That way I
don't loose all of the other files on the partition. I understand that if no
important files are kept on the partition that a reformat works fine, but I
keep other stuff on the partition that I don't want to have to restore from
backup. What is sad is all of the people out there that think that
reformatting is the only way to do a clean install.

 

[Ook]

Oops...my bad...too early in the morning...

I always delete. I never format. doh...

FWIW - I NEVER delete/format. It's totally unnecessary. In my case, I simply
boot to Win98 (which I keep on a different partition) and delete the
windows, program files, and Documents and Settings directory. That way I
don't loose all of the other files on the partition. I understand that if no
important files are kept on the partition that a reformat works fine, but I
keep other stuff on the partition that I don't want to have to restore from
backup. What is sad is all of the people out there that think that
reformatting is the only way to do a clean install.