Reinitiating XP license

[AARussel]

Had a hard drive crash and had to reload XP. Same system
with no change in hardware/software, how do I get
XP "reinitiated"?

 

[Chris Lanier]

"Reactivate" If Windows needs to be "reactivated" it will tell you. For a
hard drive it should not. But if so just follow the onscreen dialogs.

 

[Bill Crocker]

You may have to call Microsoft's 800 number, and re-activate. Takes about
five minutes.

Bill Crocker

 

[Jake]

-----Original Message-----
Had a hard drive crash and had to reload XP. Same system
with no change in hardware/software, how do I get
XP "reinitiated"?
.

How To Determine If XP was Activated?
You installed XP and then can't remember if you activated
it. Go to Start->Run and enter the following
oobe/msoobe /a

and press Enter.

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
Had a hard drive crash and had to reload XP. Same system
with no change in hardware/software, how do I get
XP "reinitiated"?
.

 

[The Unknown]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=re-activate+XP

Reactivate XP After Install
[XP] Unlike other Window versions, XP is a pain to perform a "Clean format
and install" process on. You have to re-register your version with
Microsoft, even though you haven't changed any of the hardware on your
system.

You can try this method instead. It goes without saying that you must have
already activated your version of Windows XP before performing this tip.

1.. Locate and copy to a floppy disk the file wpa.dbl. It is commonly
located in C:\Windows\system32 folder.
2.. Label your disk "Windows Activation File" and store it in a safe
place.
3.. The next time you format your hard drive and re-install Windows XP,
copy the file from the floppy disk back into the 'system32' folder.
4.. Reboot your computer.
Please note that although this works flawlessly with my personal copy of
Windows XP Home Edition, I've experienced problems with my version of
Windows XP Pro Edition when attempting to apply the SP1 upgrade patch.

Having communicated with fellow hackers, it seems this problem is not
universal and only occurs on versions of XP Pro that are connected to a
network. Isolating my XP Pro PC from the network until after applying the
SP1 patch seems to solve the glitch.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Had a hard drive crash and had to reload XP. Same system
with no change in hardware/software, how do I get
XP "reinitiated"?

When you format and do a new setup, that is a new instance of the
system, which you activate in exactly the same way as the first time -
within 30 days, get on the net and run
Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Activate Windows
to activate over the internet.

As it is almost exactly the same hardware it will go through as before
in seconds and certainly will if it is more than 120 days since last
time.

Only time there would be trouble is if you had already made as many
hardware changes as is accepted as 'substantially the same' and the
change in volume serial resulting from the reformat pushed it over the
edge. If that happened you would have to phone in to the toll free
number given

See www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

 

[Alex Nichol]

Reactivate XP After Install
[XP] Unlike other Window versions, XP is a pain to perform a "Clean format
and install" process on. You have to re-register your version with
Microsoft, even though you haven't changed any of the hardware on your
system.

You can try this method instead. It goes without saying that you must have
already activated your version of Windows XP before performing this tip.

1.. Locate and copy to a floppy disk the file wpa.dbl. It is commonly
located in C:\Windows\system32 folder.
2.. Label your disk "Windows Activation File" and store it in a safe
place.
3.. The next time you format your hard drive and re-install Windows XP,
copy the file from the floppy disk back into the 'system32' folder.

That method works after a repair reinstall, or after removing hardware
upgrades that pushed WPA over the edge and restoring to the previous
state; but it does NOT work with a reformat and new setup on systems
that are not BIOS locked (and those do not need reactivation anyway).

A new format generates a new instance of the system and those files do
not match. But after a reformat you have 30 days to do a new
activation, which will go through on the net in seconds provided
hardware is within tolerance (or in any case if 120 days have past since
last time). Which is less time than would be taken in restoring those
files and rebooting.

ANd it is only activation that matters - there is no need whatever to
register. At all, at any time