WinXP Activation "votes"

[Percival P. Cassidy]

I see that among the items that WPA checks are both "Volume Serial

Number" and "hard drive device." I know what the former is -- a number

that is generated when the drive is formatted and that presumably would

be saved and restored by a program such as True Image.



But what is "hard drive device"? The serial no. of the drive (set by the

manufacturer)? The size of the drive? The size of the partition? The

starting and ending cylinder numbers of the partition?



IOW, if I used Partition Magic or a similar program, would resizing or

moving the installation partition result in the loss of that "vote"?

What about cloning to a new drive of the same size and by the same

manufacturer?



Perce

 

[paul_36]

On 2010-03-01, Percival P. Cassidy wrote:

> I see that among the items that WPA checks are both "Volume Serial

> Number" and "hard drive device." I know what the former is -- a number

> that is generated when the drive is formatted and that presumably would

> be saved and restored by a program such as True Image.

>

> But what is "hard drive device"? The serial no. of the drive (set by the

> manufacturer)? The size of the drive? The size of the partition? The

> starting and ending cylinder numbers of the partition?

>

> IOW, if I used Partition Magic or a similar program, would resizing or

> moving the installation partition result in the loss of that "vote"?

> What about cloning to a new drive of the same size and by the same

> manufacturer?

>

> Perce



The whole process was "documented" on this newsgroup several years ago.

The biggest vote getter was the network card & there were comments that

one can "bypass" any re-activation by using up a slot & bypass the

activation by leaving the "original xp install" nic intack.



My experience was that just moving the nic to another slot & not doing

anything else would trigger the activation. My current mb has a

built-in nic which I've "deactivated" when I had messed-up the contacts

when moving the router elsewhere (too short a cable); added a new

nic & no deactivation.



I've changed graphics cards, harddrives, add a 2nd harddrive &

resized partitions with no reactivation needed. However, things may

have changed if you did any winxp updates since sp3 as microsoft

wants control of your machine, just like apple.

 

[Terry R.]

On 3/1/2010 1:05 PM On a whim, Percival P. Cassidy pounded out on the

keyboard



> I see that among the items that WPA checks are both "Volume Serial

> Number" and "hard drive device." I know what the former is -- a number

> that is generated when the drive is formatted and that presumably would

> be saved and restored by a program such as True Image.

>

> But what is "hard drive device"? The serial no. of the drive (set by the

> manufacturer)? The size of the drive? The size of the partition? The

> starting and ending cylinder numbers of the partition?

>

> IOW, if I used Partition Magic or a similar program, would resizing or

> moving the installation partition result in the loss of that "vote"?

> What about cloning to a new drive of the same size and by the same

> manufacturer?

>

> Perce



Hi Perce,



I have copied OS partition backups from one drive to another and never

had any issues. I have also resized them.





Terry R.

--

Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.

Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[Bernd]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------



> I see that among the items that WPA checks are both "Volume Serial

> Number" and "hard drive device." I know what the former is -- a number

> that is generated when the drive is formatted and that presumably would

> be saved and restored by a program such as True Image.

>

> But what is "hard drive device"? The serial no. of the drive (set by the

> manufacturer)? The size of the drive? The size of the partition? The

> starting and ending cylinder numbers of the partition?

>

> IOW, if I used Partition Magic or a similar program, would resizing or

> moving the installation partition result in the loss of that "vote"?

> What about cloning to a new drive of the same size and by the same

> manufacturer?

>

> Perce



Maybe this is of help ?



http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php



Bernd

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

On 03/01/10 05:52 pm, Bernd wrote:



>> I see that among the items that WPA checks are both "Volume Serial

>> Number" and "hard drive device." I know what the former is -- a number

>> that is generated when the drive is formatted and that presumably

>> would be saved and restored by a program such as True Image.

>>

>> But what is "hard drive device"? The serial no. of the drive (set by

>> the manufacturer)? The size of the drive? The size of the partition?

>> The starting and ending cylinder numbers of the partition?

>>

>> IOW, if I used Partition Magic or a similar program, would resizing or

>> moving the installation partition result in the loss of that "vote"?

>> What about cloning to a new drive of the same size and by the same

>> manufacturer?



> Maybe this is of help ?

>

> http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php



That's where I got my list -- but I am looking for an explanation of the

term "hard drive device."



I realize that losing that one "vote" would not require reactivation of

Windows -- but what specific "hard drive device" change would reduce the

number of votes?



Perce

 

[Paul]

Percival P. Cassidy wrote:

> On 03/01/10 05:52 pm, Bernd wrote:

>

>>> I see that among the items that WPA checks are both "Volume Serial

>>> Number" and "hard drive device." I know what the former is -- a number

>>> that is generated when the drive is formatted and that presumably

>>> would be saved and restored by a program such as True Image.

>>>

>>> But what is "hard drive device"? The serial no. of the drive (set by

>>> the manufacturer)? The size of the drive? The size of the partition?

>>> The starting and ending cylinder numbers of the partition?

>>>

>>> IOW, if I used Partition Magic or a similar program, would resizing or

>>> moving the installation partition result in the loss of that "vote"?

>>> What about cloning to a new drive of the same size and by the same

>>> manufacturer?

>

>> Maybe this is of help ?

>>

>> http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

>

> That's where I got my list -- but I am looking for an explanation of the

> term "hard drive device."

>

> I realize that losing that one "vote" would not require reactivation of

> Windows -- but what specific "hard drive device" change would reduce the

> number of votes?

>

> Perce



It makes sense, that "hard drive device" equals model_number and serial_number

of the hard drive itself. Fudging the VolumeID, using the VolumeID program

from Sysinternals, solves half the problem, but you can't get around the

model_number and serial_number. If you use a different hard drive for C:,

that will count as a vote.



http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb897436.aspx



When you boot a cloned C: drive for the very first time, don't forget

to disconnect the original disk while doing so. After the first boot

of the cloned C: drive is complete, you can reconnect the original

disk.



I changed motherboards about two weeks ago, and had to reactivate. But

fortunately, didn't have to phone anyone. The online reactivation worked.

I've done changes up to this point, without having tripped the

activation thing. So it hasn't been a dis-incentive to making changes

to my system. I expected trouble when changing motherboards, so

having to reactivate was not a surprise.



Paul