Learned a hard lesson a few days ago
 

Just built a new PC:
p43.2EGhz
p4c800-E Deluxe
1GB DDR 400 ram
Enermax 430watt PSU
FDD
Sony DVD-RW
etc...

I built it and everything went fairly well. In my old PC I had a Western
Digital 80GB HDD w/8MB cache as the master and a WD160GB HDD as slave/data
storage.

I built the new PC, added the old master drive, reformatted, installed
Windows XP Pro OS, and all the software. Then, after I was all done, I
decided to put my 160GB storage drive in. I had updated XP Pro to SP1, so
it supported it, as it did on the old PC.

When I put it in the new PC I also did a reformat from the WD boot disk and
continued to boot up the os. Windows XP recognized the drive and assigned a
letter, BUT it could not open the drive. SMART diagnostics from within
Windows said there was a failure. Ok, not the first HDD I've had fail. So
I removed it and rebooted. On the new boot I get an error message saying
Windows can not authenticate this version. This message appears at the
login screen. I click ok (that's the only option). NOTHING HAPPENS....

ok...so I try to rebooot in safe mode and see what's the problem, and if
necessary do a system restore. In safe mode I get the same message. I
can't get into Windows at all.

Call Microsoft...after about two hours on the phone the guy finally tells me
it can't be fixed. I told him I HAD to have the data on the good master
drive. So he tells me how to copy some files from the XP CD into my
c:\windows\system32 drive from the DOS prompt on the XP CD. Then I'm
finally able to get Windows to boot. He gives me a new activation code
since it recognizes this as a new install. Then I can get to my data to
transfer it to another drive, but all my programs are zapped, and I didn't
have a registry backup.

So I transfer the data to another old HDD and then have to reinstall
everything.

The problem was that since the new drive I was installing failed, Windows
hardware manager did not get a chance to recognize it, and thought basically
that the HDD had been moved to a new PC.

Long story short....Windows activation system sucks. Keep this in mind if
you think you'll try to install ANY hardware that MIGHT be bad. Windows
monitors hardware through its activation system to prevent a licensed copy
from being run on multiple PC's. If your hardware fails and you try to
install it, Windows may very well fail as well.

"and I didn't have a registry backup."

Forgive a newby's probably stupid question, but how do you backup the
registry?
I'm migrating from a p3v4x to p4c800 deluxe and this might, well will, come
in handy.


--
Nic.F

Call me philosopher, poet and bard if you like, or if you don't, then who
cares?

run
regedit
click on my computer (IN REGEDIT program) - hiughlight it
file/export
name it something...backup.reg....and save it somewhere

I've nevver had the opportunity to restore from this file, but I'm pretty
sure it works.

Someone speak up if there is a beter way...


"Nic.F" wrote in message
...
"and I didn't have a registry backup."

Forgive a newby's probably stupid question, but how do you backup the
registry?
I'm migrating from a p3v4x to p4c800 deluxe and this might, well will,
come
in handy.


--
Nic.F

Call me philosopher, poet and bard if you like, or if you don't, then who
cares?

Fred Smith wrote:

I built the new PC, added the old master drive, reformatted, installed
Windows XP Pro OS, and all the software.


and:

Windows
monitors hardware through its activation system to prevent a licensed copy
from being run on multiple PC's.

Correct me if I am wrong, and I could be since I was told this by a
flunkie at MicroCenter, but if you have the full version of XP you
should be allowed to install it on two different PCs. I was told that
the full version allows two installs. I was asking because I am going to
be building a new PC soon and I also have been wanting to upgrade my
existing PC to XP Pro. I was concerned that I would have to buy two
copies of XP which would be ridiculously expensive. I asked the
salesperson if you could buy one copy and then get two site licenses.
That's when they told me that you could install the full version on two
different PCs but no more. So is this true or not?

Bubba Sort

Don't know. But you can install any version on more than 1 pc provided you
wait 120 days.

"Bubba Sort" wrote in message
ink.net...

Fred Smith wrote:

I built the new PC, added the old master drive, reformatted, installed
Windows XP Pro OS, and all the software.


and:

Windows
monitors hardware through its activation system to prevent a licensed
copy
from being run on multiple PC's.

Correct me if I am wrong, and I could be since I was told this by a
flunkie at MicroCenter, but if you have the full version of XP you
should be allowed to install it on two different PCs. I was told that
the full version allows two installs. I was asking because I am going to
be building a new PC soon and I also have been wanting to upgrade my
existing PC to XP Pro. I was concerned that I would have to buy two
copies of XP which would be ridiculously expensive. I asked the
salesperson if you could buy one copy and then get two site licenses.
That's when they told me that you could install the full version on two
different PCs but no more. So is this true or not?

Bubba Sort

Not true - The "Flunkie" didn't know what he was talking about.


"Bubba Sort" wrote in message
ink.net...

Fred Smith wrote:

I built the new PC, added the old master drive, reformatted, installed
Windows XP Pro OS, and all the software.


and:

Windows
monitors hardware through its activation system to prevent a licensed
copy
from being run on multiple PC's.

Correct me if I am wrong, and I could be since I was told this by a
flunkie at MicroCenter, but if you have the full version of XP you
should be allowed to install it on two different PCs. I was told that
the full version allows two installs. I was asking because I am going to
be building a new PC soon and I also have been wanting to upgrade my
existing PC to XP Pro. I was concerned that I would have to buy two
copies of XP which would be ridiculously expensive. I asked the
salesperson if you could buy one copy and then get two site licenses.
That's when they told me that you could install the full version on two
different PCs but no more. So is this true or not?

Bubba Sort

Nic.F wrote:
"and I didn't have a registry backup."

Forgive a newby's probably stupid question, but how do you backup the
registry?
I'm migrating from a p3v4x to p4c800 deluxe and this might, well
will, come in handy.

I cannot see why you would benefit from a registry backup for that one. A
fresh reinstall is recommended, and activation at MS thereafter.

Thanks. I was afraid of that.

RonK wrote:
Not true - The "Flunkie" didn't know what he was talking about.


"Bubba Sort" wrote in message
ink.net...

Fred Smith wrote:


I built the new PC, added the old master drive, reformatted, installed
Windows XP Pro OS, and all the software.


and:


Windows
monitors hardware through its activation system to prevent a licensed

copy

from being run on multiple PC's.

Correct me if I am wrong, and I could be since I was told this by a
flunkie at MicroCenter, but if you have the full version of XP you
should be allowed to install it on two different PCs. I was told that
the full version allows two installs. I was asking because I am going to
be building a new PC soon and I also have been wanting to upgrade my
existing PC to XP Pro. I was concerned that I would have to buy two
copies of XP which would be ridiculously expensive. I asked the
salesperson if you could buy one copy and then get two site licenses.
That's when they told me that you could install the full version on two
different PCs but no more. So is this true or not?

Bubba Sort

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 06:20:43 GMT, "Fred Smith" wrote:

Long story short....Windows activation system sucks. Keep this in mind if
you think you'll try to install ANY hardware that MIGHT be bad. Windows
monitors hardware through its activation system to prevent a licensed copy
from being run on multiple PC's. If your hardware fails and you try to
install it, Windows may very well fail as well.

Exactly. That's the reason so many people are running pirated copies of XP with
the activation system disabled, even though they own legitimate copies.

Do I understand you correctly?

If I install XP on PC1, activate it, then wait 121 days, I can install the
same copy of XP Home on PC2 and activate it with the same number I used for
PC1? With the same activation code running on two PCs, can I still use
Windows Update to keep both installations current? And, if I wait another
121 days, I can install the same copy and use the same activation code all
over again?



"JTS" wrote in message
...
Don't know. But you can install any version on more than 1 pc provided
you
wait 120 days.