Hi was wondering if someone could explain something for me.


when i use my win xp home recovery disks in the past all ive had to do at the end is enter my key at the end to activate it.

I Used my disks yesterday to recover my system and when it came to the activation part it wouldnt accept my key so i phoned up and put all the 6 figure numbers in and it came up that it still couldnt activate and put me through to an advisor who gave me some other numbers to put in to do it.

Why did this happen and will i have to do this from now on if i do a system recovery.

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I don't know why it happened but I personally think recovery disks are useless.
Back in the good ol days you'd get a full Windows disk with a new PC.
Now its just a recovery disk.

Product Keys aren't tied to individual disks so I would advise to get a copy of a Windows disk
when doing reinstallations and using your own product key.

Totaly agree about the recovery disk the only advantage to them i can see is you dont have to mess around finding drivers it puts them on for you. I Have a copy of win xp home as back up as my wife had problems with her pc would i still have the hassle of phoning microsoft though to activate it??

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Please feel free to boost my mad skillz

Anytime I've had to do a reinstall I'm always able to activate online.
Never had any problems.

I see what you mean about the drivers but it is possible to create your own copy of Windows and put drivers onto it.
This is what I've done and I've also used a CDRW so more can be added if necessary.
No more recovery CDs to worry about!!

hey..

i found out a new way of activating windows without the registration key.. i read this somewhere over the net.. im not sure if im allowed to post it here..

If this "new" way is not a Microsoft certified recovery method, or is designed to evade Microsoft activation/registration rules/restrictions, then please don't post it. If you're not sure, PM the info to an Admin/Mod and they can most likely tell you.

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Can I eat your brain? - http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?4W4K3<br /><br />PII 400MHz Deschutes<br />Intel i440BX/ZX<br />384MB SDRAM 100MHz<br />MGA-G100 B4 4MB 230MHz AGP<br />Quantum Fireball 6GH HDD<br /><br />Back to the basics...

hi ppl, when u need to fix ur comp, don't bother doing a new setup, do the repair instalation, this just replaces windows files and you are not required to re-register ur copy of windows

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Most Of Your Computer Problems Can Be Solved With A Sledge Hammer

The success of Windows repair is a mixed bag. I've already voiced my ideas on this matter here

If you're dead set on a Windows repair, follow these steps prior to performing it:

• Uninstall all Drivers that appear in Add/Remove Programs. Avoid rebooting between.
• From the command prompt (Start, Run, type cmd), run chkdsk c: /f. It will ask if you want to schedule one for the next reboot; hit Y.
• Reboot
• The system will reboot, perform a scan and reboot again. Once complete, reboot into Safe Mode (By choosing Safe Mode from the boot menu, accessible by hitting F8 just prior to the Windows logo appearing during boot)
• Once in Windows, choose Yes when asked if you want to use Windows in Safe Mode (as opposed to using System Restore).
• Open the Device Manager (Start, Run, type devmgmt.msc), expand the System Devices group and find the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System, right click on it and choose Uninstall. This can take several minutes, as it involves uninstalling the entire device tree. When prompted to restart, do not.
• Reboot with the Windows XP disc in the drive, and begin the repair. Do not allow the system to boot straight back into Windows, or you will have to sit through a lengthy driver reinstallation procedure and repeat the removal step again.
• After repairing Windows, perform another chkdsk then reinstall Chipset and Graphics drivers followed by the latest service pack.

I originally developed this procedure to allow the extremely risqué business of replacing a motherboard - even with a different chipset - without reinstalling Windows, in situations where customers really didn't want a reinstall. It will avoid many of the serious performance and stability issues that can occasionally happen as a result of a repair on a 'well used' Windows installation, and is almost fool proof.

It's still not as desirable as a fresh 'clean slate' reinstallation.

hi there, @ syphus, u seem to be good at proving points, and i must admit u are right

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Most Of Your Computer Problems Can Be Solved With A Sledge Hammer

Incidentally, the answer to this post is:

Microsoft allow about 4 reinstallations of Windows on an OEM license by automatic internet activation. Furthermore, if the machine checksum changes significantly, due to core hardware changes, automatic activation will fail.

This is to prevent a product key from being used on multiple machines.

A typical way to circumnavigate this is to use telephone activation and simply write down the authentication code. This works as long as the machine checksum doesn't change. Another method is to use telephone activation and simply hang up before confirming the last digits of the authentication code; this apparently does not count toward the total activation count. I never actually confirmed this....it may be erroneous.