One Hard drive for 2 computers

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Guest

Have one hard drive that I want to swap from home
use to office use, back and forth.
When installed in home computer, Windows XP will not
activate.

Have posted this question prior, and MVP suggested
an external hard drive. This is not accurate, as
a hard drive is a hard drive, be it internal or
external.

Question again:
How to activate WinXP on second home computer using
my same hard drive?
Anyone with knowledge in this department?

Thank you in advance for directions.
 
The problem that your having is that XP's activiation check performs a check
of the hardware inside your computer. If too much of it has changed it will
require you to reactive Windows. This is to prevent you from installing
Windows onto one computer, and then copying the hard drive onto another one
and running it there.

The only way you'll be able to activate Windows will be to phone Microsoft
support and get a new activation code. Note, if you continue what your
doing you will be locked out of XP again in the near future even after
activating. Support won't be happy with you if you keep calling.

What the MVP was suggesting is that you get an external hard drive where you
keep the documents you want to move between the two computers. Both
computers should have their own hard drives with their own Windows
installations on them. Then just take this external hard drive back and
forth to work and home and you'll have the documents you need without
running into activation problems.

If the above solution is not suitable you can do one of the following.

Downgrade to Windows 2000 or 98, these don't have activation so you won't
run into this problem.

If you can't or won't downgrade then just use a single computer and
transport it to / from work.

If that's not really reasonable, then change computers and start using a
laptop.
 
agreed that a hdd is a hdd, an os in an os and every computer should have
it's own.. according to liscencing, what you are doing may be illegal in
m$'s eyes. files and folders on an external drive is the most logical way to
do what you are doing.
 
MVP's suggestion of using an external, still requires
clearing off all data stored, for that day, that is, if
I can even find it all.

Your suggestion of calling for new activation sounds
possible and I will try that.

As far as hauling a large computer back and forth,
disconnecting, setting up, etc, etc, etc, seems extreme,
and buying a laptop ... sounds good if my name was
Bill Gates and trowing around thousands of dollars
(pocket change) was not an issue. But, thanks for
the ideas !
 
....OR... put another (permanent) hd in each machine, install os on them and
format the one you use for files you need to transport.

protect your work pc with a minimum of a startup password so no one may
access it outside of your expressed consent.
 
Again, calling for the activation can get you activated again; however, you
WILL run into the problem your currently having. With an external hard
drive, you just hook it up to your PC and do your work on it, then you
don't need to worry about getting rid of stored data.

It is true that there are the temporary files that some programs create
while working, but if this is that big of a issue that every bit is kept
secret, then you can use NTFS on your work computer and set it up to encrypt
the whole hard drive. Doing this and having a strong password will keep
everyone out of your data.

Another thing you could do is keep a clean image of your work computer on a
seperate partition, at the end of the day reimage and all of the temporary
files will be gone. You will have to recreate your image everytime you want
to change your setup do to installing new programs but this will also keep
your work machine clean, and if someone does break in, there won't be
anything to find.

One final solution you could do is keep a hard drive with Windows installed
on it in your home computer, then just hook your work hard drive up to it to
access the files. This should work fine depending on your you setup
permissions if your using NTFS. An external HD carrying your data is still
your best bet though.
 
Thank you kindly for your suggestions. They all sound
good. Now I just have to figure out how and what it
means.

My reason for doing what I'm doing is, my boss will not
allow his sensitive business information to remain, as
it has happend in the past, such information is used
by others. His reqirements is that anything performed
on that computer stays on that HDD, and is never left
for prying eyes. No exceptions.

The only thing I could figure out, was to purchase a
Windows XP, install it on a HDD and take the HDD with me.
Being a senior citizen on a limited budget, does not
allow me to continue purchasing items in order to keep
my job, especially at minimum wage. I have already spent
over a hundred dollars for Windows XP and the Goodwill
computer I have at home will work fine with this HDD I
take with me, but I can't afford, as one suggested, a
laptop, which would seem the easiest. And lugging the
whole computer on the bus, won't work.

My solution was to just pack around a small HDD that will
fit in my pocket. They are easy to plug in, so it seemed
a simple solution.

In review of the Windows site, it appears their idea is,
one WinXP per computer, and on the surface, it sounds
like what I want to accomplish, would require another
WinXP, and another hundred dollar purchase, of which I
just can't afford. Furthermore it does appear that my
intentions conflict with Windows licensing policy and
could be illegal according to their licensing agreement.

I hate to loose my job, I'm lucky to have at my age, and
was hoping to go a simple and inexpensive route. Appears
this may not be possible, and I certainally appreciate
all that have helped in this matter.

Thank you very much for all input.
 
The simplest solution to your problem would be to have a hard drive in your
work computer that stays in your work computer with an install of windows on
it.

Then take your hard drive back and forth to work and save all of the
important files on it. If you do not boot off your hard drive at work you
won't run into Windows activation problems. Only boot your hard drive at
your home, and you'll be able to access the files from there and start
Windows without activation issues..

If your boss will not provide a hard drive and OS installation for you to do
your job at your place of employment, I'd highly recommend searching for
another. There are already warning signs of large underlying issues with
your current employer. Don't feel lucky to have a job. Know that you
deserve a position you enjoy and that treats you with the respect and
courtesy that YOU DESERVE.
 
Since you haven't included info from the original post, I'm not sure if your
issue is portability of documents or security of documents or unauthorized
computer use.

If it's the portability of documents, a portable hard drive for data only
would seem to be the best solution.

If it's a security/computer use issue, you can encrypt the hard drive and
use a good Windows password as well as a bios password. That doesn't stop
someone from stealing the computer and cracking it at their leisure, though.
Or you could mount the drive in a removable bay and take it out at the end
of the day and lock it in a safe or take it with you. Someone could steal
the safe, or mug you, or steal the computer out of your house. There's
always a risk; you need to decide what's acceptable.

You could also set up one computer (the one you think is secure) as the one
that runs the programs and stores the data, and then just use the other
computer to connect remotely to the secure computer. That way there's never
any data on the other computer.

As far as moving the OS back and forth each day, you'd have to activate it
again each time you move it, which is fine if you've got the time and
patience to do that on a daily basis, and as long as MS allows it. But what
happens if the activation servers are down and you can't use the computer?
It may not happen often, but I ran into that a week or so ago when I tried
to activate a computer. A few hours didn't matter to me, but it might to
you.

The other problem is that if the hardware is significantly different, you
may also need to do a repair install with each move, which is also time
consuming, and if you get careless you could lose data. If you don't
absolutely NEED to do the repair install to get the computer working, you
may still have enough differences in hardware to make the system unstable.
At some point that's going to cause a problem.

And if you reactivate that same product daily, at some point MS is going to
get curious.
 
Thank you kindly for your suggestions. They all sound
good. Now I just have to figure out how and what it
means.

My reason for doing what I'm doing is, my boss will not
allow his sensitive business information to remain, as
it has happend in the past, such information is used
by others. His reqirements is that anything performed
on that computer stays on that HDD, and is never left
for prying eyes. No exceptions.
Click to expand...

This is a bit confusing. He says the data can't remain, but you're also
saying it has to stay. Which is it? And if he's that paranoid, why is he
allowing you to take the hard drive off the premises? If I was you, I'd
avoid doing that, since he could easily claim that you stole or lost or
damaged his data.

And you could easily lose or damage files while you're carrying that drive
around and constantly reinstalling it in two differnent computer.
The only thing I could figure out, was to purchase a
Windows XP, install it on a HDD and take the HDD with me.
Click to expand...

So you installed your copy of XP on his computer? What OS was on it before?
Or is this just being planned now?

It would seem that if it's your boss's computer, he should pay for whatever
OS is running on it. And it apparently had an OS before you put XP there. Or
am I missing something?

Being a senior citizen on a limited budget, does not
allow me to continue purchasing items in order to keep
my job, especially at minimum wage. I have already spent
over a hundred dollars for Windows XP and the Goodwill
computer I have at home will work fine with this HDD I
take with me, but I can't afford, as one suggested, a
laptop, which would seem the easiest. And lugging the
whole computer on the bus, won't work.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that you're required to take the drive home and do work at
home? Seems a bit unfair to me, if he's not going to pay for your equipment
and time.

The other problem is that with hauling this hard drive around and installing
it and uninstalling it and shuttling it around on a bus, sooner or later
it's going to get dropped or bumped hard enough, and it will never boot
again. If it's the only place the data resides, someone is going to be very
unhappy. I think you need to think this over very carefully.

At first, I thought they were both your computers and your data, and that's
up to you what to do with it and your risk if you kill the hard drive, but
doing this with someone else's business data is a really bad idea.
My solution was to just pack around a small HDD that will
fit in my pocket. They are easy to plug in, so it seemed
a simple solution.
Click to expand...

?? The little ones are laptop drives, not for desktops. Unless you've got a
pretty big, rugged pocket. And although it's not the hardest thing in the
world, opening the case and mounting the drive and fiddling with cables
isn't the easist thing to do. And then you'd have to do a repair install of
Windows each time, since it's unlikely your goodwill computer is identical
to the business computer. And then reactivate each time. It's not an easy
thing. What if you slip up and kill his computer in the process?

If you were thinking about a little external USB drive, that would be fine
for data, but you won't be able to boot off of it.

At first, it seemed that you'd tried this before, but now it seems you're
just thinking about it. That's good. Think some more before you make a mess
of it.
In review of the Windows site, it appears their idea is,
one WinXP per computer, and on the surface, it sounds
like what I want to accomplish, would require another
WinXP, and another hundred dollar purchase, of which I
just can't afford. Furthermore it does appear that my
intentions conflict with Windows licensing policy and
could be illegal according to their licensing agreement.

I hate to loose my job, I'm lucky to have at my age, and
was hoping to go a simple and inexpensive route. Appears
this may not be possible, and I certainally appreciate
all that have helped in this matter.

Thank you very much for all input.
Click to expand...

I think that the route you're considering could get you in worse shape than
being unemployed.

Good luck.
 
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