re installing windows

[Guest]

I was wondering if anyone can help me....recently I purchased a copy of xp
pro from a computer store...Someone told me that I will only be able to
install this once, that I will not be able to wipe my hard drive and
reinstall it on the same computer, because of the activation issue. Is this
true....just in case I wanted to re format it would be good to know. (
viruses and such )

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I was wondering if anyone can help me....recently I purchased a copy of xp
pro from a computer store...Someone told me that I will only be able to
install this once, that I will not be able to wipe my hard drive and
reinstall it on the same computer, because of the activation issue. Is
this
true....

No, that's not remotely close to true.

just in case I wanted to re format it would be good to know. (
viruses and such )

Activation of legal copies of XP is easy. Normally, you can do it online
in seconds. At the worst, I've had to make a quick, free phone call to a
number the activation wizard provided.

Microsoft is aware that once in a while, people feel the need to re-install
operating systems.

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

you have the called OEM copy with a key to unlock the operating system, this
kind of soft can be installed only once; but in some cases twice or more
until MS find out what are you been doing, and you lost your operating system.
You can format your hard drive; but you need to do a clean install...here is
the article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

look for "Perform a clean install of windows Xp"

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I was wondering if anyone can help me....recently I purchased a copy
of xp pro from a computer store...Someone told me that I will only be
able to install this once, that I will not be able to wipe my hard
drive and reinstall it on the same computer, because of the
activation issue. Is this true....just in case I wanted to re format
it would be good to know. ( viruses and such )

It is completely fasle. You can install it on the same computer as often as
you need or want to.

If yours is retail copy, not an OEM one, you can even take it off the
original computer and move it to another computer as often as you want to.