Littlemen said:
I am upgrading to XP Pro and at the same time ghosting C to a new
hard drive. 1-which operation should I do first? so as not to
confuse the activation (new hard drive and new system)
2-what happens to the activation for my XP Home upgrade disk? I
would
like to use this to upgrade a friend's computer, and after all I
bought it, I should be able to use it.
This whole activation thing gets confusing when you make changes.
1) Ideally, your disk image used in the Ghosting operation should be
installed to a machine which is used for copying many copies of the image to
many machines. It would be installed FIRST, then copied to the new drive.
If you plan to leave the original installation on the old hard drive, then
use it to upgrade your friend's computer, and at the same time put the new
hard drive with the ghosted image in a new or different computer, you will
be in violation of the License Agreement, since the License Agreement tells
you that you can only have one working copy of your OS on one machine at a
time. You may, however, make an archival copy of the installation disk, and
put it in a safe place, in case the original media ever gets messed up or
becomes useless.
2) The XP Home Upgrade disk is tied to the OS kit it is used to upgrade.
You may transfer the license of the XP Home Upgrade CD if you also transfer
the license of the OS kit it is used to upgrade. Again, as in every other
iteration of Windows since version 1, you may only have one working copy of
the OS on one machine at a time. This means that you may not copy the
system partition, then put a copy of that copy on another machine. This is
all clearly outlined in your XP Home EULA (End User License Agreement),
which may be accessed from the Desktop by clicking on the Start button, then
clicking on "Run", with the command "winver" in the command line. When you
"purchased XP Home", you did not purchase the product,which remains the
property of Microsoft; you purchased a LICENSE to USE the product, according
to the terms outlined in the Microsoft Windows End User License Agreement.
When it is put on the other person's computer, the Activation Wizard will
start, telling him he has to activate the product. He may get an error such
as "Installed too many times". This does not mean it can no longer be
activated. It simply tells you to activate via a phone number which will be
provided during the activation procedure. Your friend will just have to
tell the Activation technician the circumstances under which he received the
XP Home Retail Upgrade (that is, tell the Activation technician that you
transferred the license to your friend, or have him tell him.)
By XP Pro (Full) did you mean "Full Retail" (Did it come in a large blue
box)? Or did you mean "Full OEM"?
IF you meant "Full retail", You can use it on any ONE computer you so
desire, as long as it is only installed on one computer at a time.
If you meant "Full OEM", on the other hand, you can put it on any ONE
computer you so desire, as long as it has NEVER been on another computer.
If it has ever been on another computer, you cannot transfer the license to
a different computer.
Now, this is all very theoretical, and legal. What you SHOULD do, and what
you CAN do are a matter for your conscience.
*** NOTE *** None of the above is to be considered "legal advice", since I
am not a lawyer, and am not licensed or qualified to give legal advice.
