Re-activation With New Hardware

[Guest]

My question is about Windows XP product re-activation that involves the
addition of new hardware and hardware re-configuration to the existing ones.

Background:
My system crashes often that I have to re-install Window XP Pro OEM at least
seven times in less than two years, three times in the last six months. I
have decided to buy a new system, but yet I do not wish to let go this old
because it is a high end system even by today standard. In addition I have
some OEM software, including MS Office Pro 2003, that I have to give up if I
were to junk the system.

Objectives:
I suspect the problem associated with the system crashes is either the RAID0
hard drives or the motherboard controller. I’m hoping that it is the
controller. What I like to do is to re-configure the RAID0 drives into two
separate drives. Instead of a RAID0 C it will be simply drives C and D.
Secondly, I already have a NIC connected to a LAN and wish to add a wireless
card. I want to move the system to a different part of the house.
Unfortunately I cannot bring over a CAT-5 cable to the new location.
Knowingly that replacing a NIC card with a wireless one can create a 3-points
deficit; I decided to simply add a wireless one to the existing one.

Issue:
If I re-install Windows XP with a new hard drive configuration and an added
wireless card, would I have a problem with re-activation? If the wireless
card is the major hurdle, would activation be still possible with just the
hard drive re-configuration? Do you think re-activation for Office 2003 Pro
will also be a problem? Your opinion is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Kerry Brown]

My question is about Windows XP product re-activation that involves
the addition of new hardware and hardware re-configuration to the
existing ones.

Background:
My system crashes often that I have to re-install Window XP Pro OEM
at least seven times in less than two years, three times in the last
six months. I have decided to buy a new system, but yet I do not
wish to let go this old because it is a high end system even by today
standard. In addition I have some OEM software, including MS Office
Pro 2003, that I have to give up if I were to junk the system.

Objectives:
I suspect the problem associated with the system crashes is either
the RAID0 hard drives or the motherboard controller. I'm hoping that
it is the controller. What I like to do is to re-configure the RAID0
drives into two separate drives. Instead of a RAID0 C it will be
simply drives C and D. Secondly, I already have a NIC connected to a
LAN and wish to add a wireless card. I want to move the system to a
different part of the house. Unfortunately I cannot bring over a
CAT-5 cable to the new location. Knowingly that replacing a NIC card
with a wireless one can create a 3-points deficit; I decided to
simply add a wireless one to the existing one.

Issue:
If I re-install Windows XP with a new hard drive configuration and an
added wireless card, would I have a problem with re-activation? If
the wireless card is the major hurdle, would activation be still
possible with just the hard drive re-configuration? Do you think
re-activation for Office 2003 Pro will also be a problem? Your
opinion is appreciated. Thanks!

You can upgrade the computer as many times as you want and stay within the
terms of the EULA. You will most likely have to go through the activation
process. You may have to phone for activation. This usually only takes
around ten minutes at most and is toll free.

The bigger question is why is your system crashing so often? RAID 0 is not
recommended because it doubles your chances of losing data but shouldn't
cause crashes. I suspect there is an underlying problem with your hardware.
Without knowing the symptoms of your crashes it is impossible to guess what
it might be.

 

[DL]

If you simply blow away the raid and use the two drives seperately it
should'nt impact on reactivation issues, if it does its only phone
activation involved. You can allways add the card later.
If you suspect a controller problem the disks will still be connected via
the controller, whether raid or not, and depending on the controller you may
still have to install raid drivers.

 

[Alias]

You can upgrade the computer as many times as you want and stay within the
terms of the EULA. You will most likely have to go through the activation
process. You may have to phone for activation. This usually only takes
around ten minutes at most and is toll free.

It's not toll free in many countries. You do know that this is an
international newsgroup, don't you?

Alias

 

[Kerry Brown]

The OP is in the US.

 

[Alias]

The OP is in the US. <<

But the readership isn't all in the US. You are not in a private chat
with the OP.

Alias

 

[Guest]

Thank you, DL and Kelly for your responses.

It is because I read some many complaints about Microsoft product activation
staff being rude to the phone callers that I wish to avoid them, if possible.
Thus, I solicited the opinions of this newsgroup. It seems like I have to
make that phone call.

I agree with you about hardware failure and that it has to be looked into.
Repair can be costly (parts and labor) which is why I elected to buy a new
system instead. But yet I can't seem to let go of the old one. I am hoping
that the SATA RAID ports are bad or intermittently bad, and that the regular
SATA ports are OK; and thus move the drives over to the new ports and operate
them as single drives. This way the activation staff will know that, at the
very least, they are the same hard drives although they are in a different
configuration.

Again, thank you for your inputs.

Andrew

 

[Kerry Brown]

When you have to activate the person on the other end has no idea what you
changed. As I said before I have never had a problem with phoning for
activation and have done it many times. They will usually ask you if this
copy of Windows is installed on morte than one computer. That is usually the
extent of their questions. Very occasionally they will ask for more details.
Technically you do not have to give them more details but as you have done
nothing outside the EULA it will make things easier if you just explain what
you have done.

What motherboard do you have? I have had some similar problems with
motherboards that have two different SATA controllers on them. It can be
very confusing getting the right drivers and setting the right options in
the BIOS.

 

[kurttrail]

My question is about Windows XP product re-activation that involves
the addition of new hardware and hardware re-configuration to the
existing ones.

Background:
My system crashes often that I have to re-install Window XP Pro OEM
at least seven times in less than two years, three times in the last
six months. I have decided to buy a new system, but yet I do not
wish to let go this old because it is a high end system even by today
standard. In addition I have some OEM software, including MS Office
Pro 2003, that I have to give up if I were to junk the system.

Little known fact is that if it has been more than 120 days since you
last activated OEM Office 2003, if you install it on another computer,
then it should activate over the internet.

Objectives:
I suspect the problem associated with the system crashes is either
the RAID0 hard drives or the motherboard controller. I'm hoping that
it is the controller. What I like to do is to re-configure the RAID0
drives into two separate drives. Instead of a RAID0 C it will be
simply drives C and D.

If you are trying to do this to an old installation, you'll need disk
imaging software, some where to store that image that isn't on your RAID
drives. Then delete the RAID config, format both disks, restore your
image to the new C drive, and finally do a repair install.

And even then, you might not get a very usable install. In this kind of
situation, I'd prefer doing a clean install myself, and just backing up
my files and settings from the old install.

Secondly, I already have a NIC connected to a
LAN and wish to add a wireless card. I want to move the system to a
different part of the house. Unfortunately I cannot bring over a
CAT-5 cable to the new location. Knowingly that replacing a NIC card
with a wireless one can create a 3-points deficit; I decided to
simply add a wireless one to the existing one.

Issue:
If I re-install Windows XP with a new hard drive configuration and an
added wireless card, would I have a problem with re-activation?

More than likely you are talking about doing a phone activation.

But that really is no big deal. If ask why you are activating, simply
state you've upgraded your computer.

How to activate by phone:
http://mmpafaq.microscum.com/phonewpa.html

If
the wireless card is the major hurdle, would activation be still
possible with just the hard drive re-configuration? Do you think
re-activation for Office 2003 Pro will also be a problem? Your
opinion is appreciated. Thanks!

Activition is more FUD, than a true copy-protection system. MS and its
sychophants use FEAR UNCERTAINTY and DOUBT, to trick people into buying
more copies of software than they really need. But an educated consumer
can rise above all the FUD!

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx
http://mmpafaq.microscum.com/

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[kurttrail]

Kerry Brown wrote:


People keep referring to you as "Kelly," Kerry.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[Guest]

I'm sorry to call you "Kelly". I guess this is what happens when I try to
read to fast.

The motherboard is ASUS P4C800 Deluxe. It supports 4 EIDE drives (which I
have already filled), two RAID pairs (1 pair SATA's and 1 pair PATA's), and 2
SATA drives. Currently my RAID0 configuration is comprised of two SATA
drives.

Andrew

 

[Guest]

Hi Kurttrail,

It is interesting that you mentioned about imaging the drive. I did just
that with Symantec Ghost software. My RAID0 SATA drive is at C and the image
is kept at a PATA drive at D. When I used Symantec Recovery Disk to restore
the image, the program cannot "see" the RAID0 drive. There is no RAID0
drive. All the drive letters were remapped, but I recognize them by their
volume names and I cannot see the RAID0 drive. I addressed this problem to
Symantec and after several exchanges of email with their Technical Support,
the issue was left unresolved.

Anyway, thank you for your encouragement to overcome FUD. I'm ready to make
that call!

Andrew

 

[Kerry Brown]

I'm used to it. It happens in real life too.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I've never used that board but loooking at the specs it uses a Promise RAID
controller. The setup should be pretty straightforward. As long as you had
the latest drivers it is unlikely that the RAID setup was the cause of your
problems. Many motherboards of that age had problems with bad capacitors
which could be causing your problems. Here's a link that shows what to look
for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_Plague

Don't worry about calling me Kelly. It happens all the time.