XP Pro Activation - Two Drives, One PC

[Nigel7]

I'm building a system that will use removable hard drive racks to run two
separate instances of Windows XP Pro (one on each hard drive). Will I have
to buy two retail copies of XP Pro to activate them? I called Microsoft's
licensing department and the person didn't even know. Thanks

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Q. "Will I have to buy two retail copies of XP Pro to activate them?"

A. Yes.

Please read your Windows XP End User License Agreement.
Go to Start > Run and type: WINVER , and hit enter.

Direct quote from the EULA:

1. GRANT OF LICENSE.
Microsoft grants you the following rights provided that
you comply with all terms and conditions of this EULA:

1.1 Installation and use. You may install, use, access,
display and run one copy of the Software on a single
computer.....

A second installation of Windows XP, installed on the same
computer, requires the purchase of a second Windows XP
license. Otherwise, you'll violate the terms and conditions
of the EULA you agreed to and Product Activation will fail.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

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:

| I'm building a system that will use removable hard drive racks to run two
| separate instances of Windows XP Pro (one on each hard drive). Will I have
| to buy two retail copies of XP Pro to activate them? I called Microsoft's
| licensing department and the person didn't even know. Thanks

 

[Nigel7]

A second installation of Windows XP, installed on the same
computer, requires the purchase of a second Windows XP
license. Otherwise, you'll violate the terms and conditions
of the EULA you agreed to and Product Activation will fail.

Many thanks. I wonder why the MS rep didn't know that.

Two other questions ...

1) To expedite setup, can I clone the installation of the first drive to the
second drive? I would do this before I activated the first instance, then I
would use the respective product keys from each retail copy. Would this
work?

2) I live in the US. If, after activating, I give the PC to someone living
in another part of the country (who uses a different ISP) would this cause
any activation issues? I plan to set up XP using that person's name anyway.

Thanks

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

It would be better to run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard on the
first drive (old computer) and then run it again after you have installed XP
on the second drive (new computer) if you set up preferences on the first
installation and want the second to look exactly the same. Otherwise, I
would just install the second copy normally. Remember, the two copies of XP
will have different Product Keys and each will need to be activated.

You can sysprep the first drive and then Ghost the image to the second
drive, but the time involved is the same as an installation. Other cloning
procedures, such as the one on the cd that ships with retail drives won't
work out because of activation. I would keep it simple and just run the
installation for each of the two copies of XP.

Activation is based on the computer's hardware profile (owner and location
make no difference, nor does an ISP have anything to do with activation at
all). Activation ties the copy of the OS to the hardware, not the owner.
You may be confusing Activation and Registration, which are not related.
You register yourself as an XP user so Microsoft can have you in their
database. You do not need to register for every copy of XP you own. You
activate each instance of XP but no information about you is relevant.
Activation asks for your country for reasons other than ownership.

 

[Bill]

A second installation of Windows XP, installed on the same
computer, requires the purchase of a second Windows XP
license. Otherwise, you'll violate the terms and conditions
of the EULA you agreed to and Product Activation will fail.

Complete bullshit. It may be a violation of the EULA but using a second
drive, with an instance of the same copy of XP Pro, sure as hell won't fail
product activation. Once the system is activated a hard drive change, in an
of itself, isn't enough to require re-activation. And you call yourself an
MVP?! Of what exactly, MS scare tactics?

 

[Bill]

I beg to differ my friend. A hard drive change alone DOES require
re-activation of Windows, but this will not be refused within the
limits of the number of key changes allowed. I should know, I found
myself in this exact scenario last year,
though I wasn't running two copies on the same machine. Mine was simply
a failing boot disk which required replacement and re-activation once XP
had been installed on it.

You needed to reactivate XP because the files generated by your previous
activation were wiped out with the old drive ("wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak").
Once you installed XP on the new drive it looked like you never activated
(since it obviously wouldn't find those two files). OTOH, when you
alternate drives, each with an instance of XP installed (even if they're
from the same retail copy), those files *will* be found and the only change
detected will be the different hard drive. This by itself should not set
the re-activation flag.

I have a question though, - suppose you reformat your drive regularly, no
hardware changes. Each reformat/reinstall will require reactivation, but
does MS set a limit for that as well?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I believe that enough activations, even without hardware changes, will cause
internet activation to fail and send the customer to the phone system.

 

[Lee Moeller]

I believe that enough activations, even without hardware changes, will cause
internet activation to fail and send the customer to the phone system.

It can and it has, to me. The two drive issue raises a question for me.
Colin, you answered a question for me last evening concerning re
installation of Win XP Home. I have RAID capability on my motherboard
and will be replacing my dead drive with two drives set up to mirror to
prevent yesterdays disaster from occurring again. Will having these
drives in tandem create any activation problems? Lee

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

No. Remember that the primary drive (and I supposed mirrored drives are one
drive for purposes of the hash) is one field in the hardwarehash (it is a
record with fixed length fields and each of the ten items has a fixed
position in the record). Only the primary drive counts. It does not matter
how often you change out drives other than the primary drive. I don't see
how it would matter if it is mirrored or some other configuration. If you
need to activate again the fact that you are using raid won't be the
determining factor. The fact that you have a new primary drive might, but
that's all.