Product Validation After Reformat/Reinstall

[Allogene]

I recently had a virus attack that messed up a bunch of my files and deleted
a few keys in the registry necessary for the full functioning of Windows. I
want to reformat and reinstall XP but will have to validate again. Won't the
validation procedure at MS see that I already validated the same copy of XP
before and nullify my validation? It is a new retail version of XP Pro.
What can I do? I'm sure that this was answered many times but I've searched
through the threads a bit and couldn't find an answer.
Thanks

 

[Alias]

I recently had a virus attack that messed up a bunch of my files and deleted
a few keys in the registry necessary for the full functioning of Windows. I
want to reformat and reinstall XP but will have to validate again. Won't the
validation procedure at MS see that I already validated the same copy of XP
before and nullify my validation? It is a new retail version of XP Pro.
What can I do? I'm sure that this was answered many times but I've searched
through the threads a bit and couldn't find an answer.
Thanks

Just reinstall and it will activate on line and validate if you feel you
need IE7, WMP11, Windows Defender, etc. If you're reinstalling on the
same computer you shouldn't have to phone activate but if you do, they
will activate you with no problems.

Alias

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

*** See below.

I recently had a virus attack that messed up a bunch of my files and
deleted
a few keys in the registry necessary for the full functioning of Windows.
I
want to reformat and reinstall XP but will have to validate again.

*** Yes.

Won't the validation procedure at MS see that I already validated
the same copy of XP before

*** Yes, it will.

and nullify my validation?

*** No. It "knows" that this is a valid installation on the same
*** machine on which it was previously registered. It will simply
*** confirm the re-registration.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I recently had a virus attack that messed up a bunch of my files and deleted
a few keys in the registry necessary for the full functioning of Windows. I
want to reformat and reinstall XP

That's a draconian solution to a virus problem that is very seldom
necessary. Anti-virus software usually works very well

But it's your choice, of course.

but will have to validate again.

No, what you will have to do is *activate* again.

Won't the
validation procedure at MS see that I already validated the same copy of XP
before and nullify my validation?

No. You can reinstall and reactivate as often as you need or want to.
Worst case, if you do it again with a 90-day period, you will have to
do it by a quick and easy voice phone call rather than over the
internet.

 

[Alias]

That's a draconian solution to a virus problem that is very seldom
necessary. Anti-virus software usually works very well

But it's your choice, of course.




No, what you will have to do is *activate* again.




No. You can reinstall and reactivate as often as you need or want to.
Worst case, if you do it again with a 90-day period, you will have to
do it by a quick and easy voice phone call rather than over the
internet.

My experience is that if it's the same computer, you can activate on
line even if only one day has passed since you last activated it.

Alias

 

[RobertVA]

That's a draconian solution to a virus problem that is very seldom
necessary. Anti-virus software usually works very well

I keep reading replies like this, but us mere mortals don't have the
ability to read some obscure hexadecimal numbers in an error message and
instantly realize which of the hundreds of files necessary for Windows
to start is corrupt or missing and needs replacing. Even then there are
some files that are built or modified during installation or the boot
process that simply aren't available on the installation media or hidden
installation partition on the hard drive.

Sometimes the anti-virus isn't clever enough to always be able to clean
a file, especially if the infection replaced or deleted part or all of
the infected file(s).

It doesn't help that Microsoft and the computer manufacturers didn't add
a few pages telling people how to run the recovery utilities that come
with Windows to that thin "Getting Started..." guide.

 

[Plato]

That's a draconian solution to a virus problem that is very seldom
necessary. Anti-virus software usually works very well

An anti-virus program WONT restore keys in the registry that were
deleted by a virus.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

An anti-virus program WONT restore keys in the registry that were
deleted by a virus.

True. However, I'm not convinced that the OP's diagnosis that that's
what happened is necessarily correct.

 

[Plato]

True. However, I'm not convinced that the OP's diagnosis that that's
what happened is necessarily correct.

Agreed. Good to talk to you once again Ken. Keep happy...

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Agreed. Good to talk to you once again Ken. Keep happy...

Same here, and you too.

Ken

 

[Allogene]

That's a draconian solution to a virus problem that is very seldom
necessary. Anti-virus software usually works very well

But it's your choice, of course.

Hi Ken,

It attacked my McAfee AV first(I think). Either that or McAfee completely
screwed things up all by itself(which it comes close to often). McAfee
hijacks your system worse than Windows! ;-) lol I was running a scan and a
virus was detected. As soon as it was detected, I got a stop error and then
a memory dump began. When I rebooted, things worked OK for awhile until
another stop error and memory dump. I rebooted again and deleted the
'memory.dmp' file in C:/Winnt and changed my pagefile to another partition.
Rebooted again, tried to access the system restore function but it was
unavailable; so was system info... no windows whatsoever. Tried to uninstall
McAffe and couldn't do it; had to do it manually after stopping its running
services. IE6 wouldn't perform some Javascript operations. Installed IE7
thinking that might at least fix that problem; didn't work. A few other
programs that had worked fine before now had kinks in them. OH! Everytime I
rebooted, scandisk found numerous corrupted files and bad sectors. I think
my best option here is to reformat and reinstall.

No. You can reinstall and reactivate as often as you need or want to.
Worst case, if you do it again with a 90-day period, you will have to
do it by a quick and easy voice phone call rather than over the
internet.

Well, this is(right now) a hypothetical question but soon to be a real one.
My HD is about four years old and it makes some noise when I start it up.
Heck, my whole sytem is about four years old so it's about time to build
another one. If the Windows activation code reads my whole hardware setup
for verification, can I legally install and get activated on my new system?
If so, how?

Thanks again,
Don

 

[Daave]

Hi Ken,

It attacked my McAfee AV first(I think). Either that or McAfee
completely screwed things up all by itself(which it comes close to
often). McAfee
hijacks your system worse than Windows! ;-) lol I was running a
scan and a virus was detected. As soon as it was detected, I got a
stop error and then
a memory dump began. When I rebooted, things worked OK for awhile
until another stop error and memory dump. I rebooted again and
deleted the 'memory.dmp' file in C:/Winnt and changed my pagefile to
another partition. Rebooted again, tried to access the system restore
function but it was unavailable; so was system info... no windows
whatsoever. Tried to uninstall McAffe and couldn't do it; had to do
it manually after stopping its running services. IE6 wouldn't
perform some Javascript operations. Installed IE7 thinking that
might at least fix that problem; didn't work. A few other programs
that had worked fine before now had kinks in them. OH! Everytime I
rebooted, scandisk found numerous corrupted files and bad sectors. I
think
my best option here is to reformat and reinstall.



Well, this is(right now) a hypothetical question but soon to be a
real one. My HD is about four years old and it makes some noise when
I start it up.
Heck, my whole sytem is about four years old so it's about time to
build another one. If the Windows activation code reads my whole
hardware setup
for verification, can I legally install and get activated on my new
system?
If so, how?

Since you had earlier mentioned you have a full retail installation
disk, as long as you remove XP from the current system, you may install
it on the new one you wish to build. Worst case scenario: Internet
activation *may* not work and you will have to follow the instructions
to activate over the telephone. An OEM version's license doesn't permit
you to do this, but a retail license does (that's why it costs more).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Well, this is(right now) a hypothetical question but soon to be a real one.
My HD is about four years old and it makes some noise when I start it up.
Heck, my whole sytem is about four years old so it's about time to build
another one. If the Windows activation code reads my whole hardware setup
for verification, can I legally install and get activated on my new system?

I believe in your first message you said this was a retail copy of
Windows XP. If so, there is no problem at all. You can move it from
computer to computer as much as you want, as long as you don't have it
on two computers at once.

If so, how?

You don't need to do anything special. Just activate it normally. As I
said, worst case, if it's been fewer than 90 days since the last
activation, you will have to do it by a quick and easy voice phone
call (you'll be prompted to do this and given an 800 number) rather
than over the internet.

 

[Allogene]

Thanks Ken and Daave!

Don H