Product Key beyond limits ??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lester Stiefel
  • Start date Start date
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Lester Stiefel

Recently I have had to change my version of system (on the
same box) 20 to 25 times. On the last try the install went
fine, but activation wizard said "your product key is beyond
its limits". I called the activation line and explained to
the rep that it was due to various viruses the system had,
before I installed AV/security software.

Now because of system age, I find i will have to remove one
of the physical HD's (a maxtor, which appeared to be young
but wasn't). The remaining HD is a WDC 80gb. OS to be
installed on C:\ and size is 8.1GB (I have 5.3 GB in
programs - including the OS) data on other partitions,
including ghost backups.

I am sure i will receive the same message on install. I am
now where I will need to call every time the os needs
reinstall - What can I do but suffer through this.
 
In
Lester Stiefel said:
Recently I have had to change my version of system (on the
same box) 20 to 25 times. On the last try the install went
fine, but activation wizard said "your product key is beyond
its limits". I called the activation line and explained to
the rep that it was due to various viruses the system had,
before I installed AV/security software.

Now because of system age, I find i will have to remove one
of the physical HD's (a maxtor, which appeared to be young
but wasn't). The remaining HD is a WDC 80gb. OS to be
installed on C:\ and size is 8.1GB (I have 5.3 GB in
programs - including the OS) data on other partitions,
including ghost backups.

I am sure i will receive the same message on install. I am
now where I will need to call every time the os needs
reinstall - What can I do but suffer through this.
Click to expand...

I don't think you can do anything but suffer through it, alas.
 
Lester said:
I am sure i will receive the same message on install. I am now where
I will need to call every time the os needs reinstall - What can I do
but suffer through this.
Click to expand...

Wasn' it once said that suffering is good for the soul?
 
Hi,

Removing a hard drive will not be cause for reinstallation (and hence
reactivation) unless it was the drive housing the system files. If it is,
and you need to reinstall, then yes you will need to phone it in again.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
I have never come across anywhere where Microsoft has said quite
categorically that there is a limit how many times you can reinstall the
OS on the same very machine. 20-25 is over the top but I will be
surprised if there is a limit. I reinstall every 6 months just to be
sure that my HD, and CDs are still working and that my serial numbers
haven't been hijacked by anyone out there who hasn't got anything better
to do.

In my opinion 80gb is more than enough to have Windows XP professional,
Windows Office XP Professional with frontpage, Windows Office 2003
professional, Frontpage 2003, and Visio 2003. I keep last two versions
of office in system just in case my clients have any problems.
Incidentally I have only 20gb HD of which I have used about 11 gb.

Maxtor has a tool on their website whic can transfer the OS from old to
new drive. This means you have to make one drive (old drive) as slave.

Clean install will clear most of the clutter to free lots of HD space.

Hth
 
I'm here to tell you that suffering is indeed NOT good for the soul.
Whoever authored that idiotic quote was likely a rich pampered
English nobleman living in a 400-room castle and having way too
much time on his hands.
 
Dear anonymous:

Even though I changed the boot sequence to my CD-Rom, Windows just breezes
on by and I can't even do a reformat and reinstall which I would like to do.
How do I overcome this obstacle?

Gene Davis
 
You need to press any key .... to boot from CD ROM. You have to watch
the screen for messages very carefully as you get less than 10 seconds
to make up yor mind or it starts boot up from the HD.

why not put a blank non OS floppy in the floppy drive which will stop
for you to remove it and press a key. This is to slow the boot up
process nothing magical about it. Most probably you may not have a
floppy drive in which case you have to watch and read the messages until
it starts the boot from CD.

Hope this helps.


or so.
 
Hi,

Remove all other devices from the boot sequence in the system BIOS. It will
have no choice but to boot the CD drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hi,

While it is not documented well, if a user reactivates 25 times in a short
time period they will get a message stating that they have exceeded the
number of activations allowed. This message is a bit misleading as it reads
as though they can no longer activate with this product key. In fact, it
means that they can no longer activate automatically, but rather must phone
in the activation. This is a security measure that is part of WPA to prevent
multiple installations on matching hardware (basically mass reproduction)
which would generate matching hardware hashes.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
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