Reactivation Windows XP

[Guest]

I fried my hard drive. It was replaced and I used the “Recovery Disks†that came with my Sony to reinstall. It’s a legal install as I have the key. I am not receiving the normal reminders to “Activate Windows†on boot.
The message was received only once for a brief time and never again. Is there a way to find the activation wizard on my system? Or must I wait out the 30 days and hope it appears.

 

[bud]

Go to start, programs, accessories, system tools and activate windows. Click
activate windows and it should tell you if it already is activated. Normally
OEM installs are tied to the bios and don't need activated. You say you used
recovery disks so it is probably set up that way.

I fried my hard drive. It was replaced and I used the "Recovery Disks"

that came with my Sony to reinstall. It's a legal install as I have the key.
I am not receiving the normal reminders to "Activate Windows" on boot.

The message was received only once for a brief time and never again. Is

there a way to find the activation wizard on my system? Or must I wait out
the 30 days and hope it appears.

 

[Guest]

If you did a repair install its activated

Activation pops up when you do a clean install or make major hardware change (mobo).

 

[Don MI]

I fried my hard drive. It was replaced and I used the "Recovery Disks"

that came with my Sony to reinstall. It's a legal install as I have the key.
I am not receiving the normal reminders to "Activate Windows" on boot.

The message was received only once for a brief time and never again. Is

there a way to find the activation wizard on my system? Or must I wait out
the 30 days and hope it appears.
Bud is correct.
Windows on the System Restore CDs shipped with a Sony Vaio is already
activated. The message you see when you use the System Restore CDs is a
registration message {not the same as Activation}. Registration is optional
and you likely did so when you first used your Sony. No need to repeat.

Don