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SlackJawedYokel Donating Member (446 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-30-05 09:59 AM
Original message
Curious
a buddy of mine is setting up a second hard drive with a stripped-down copy of Windows XP Pro.
Does he need to get a new license for this?
Or will the activation process take into account that this is a dual install?

Cletus
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hobbit709 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-30-05 05:50 PM
Response to Original message
1. Why bother
with XP?
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RC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-30-05 07:35 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. What's he supposed to use instead?
Throw some light on the subject.
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Berserker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-30-05 08:05 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Oh maybe one of these
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SlackJawedYokel Donating Member (446 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-31-05 09:57 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. Because XP is what he owns.
And what the software runs on.

Cletus
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TroubleMan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-30-05 08:40 PM
Response to Original message
4. Why not just download a serial number on soulseek, xdcc, or bit torrent?

However, if he's got the type of install disk that requires activation, then a serial # won't help anyway. Then you'll have to download a corporate version that doesn't require activation.

I don't think that would be illegal or unethical....you already bought a copy of XP. You're just making a backup.
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RoyGBiv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-30-05 10:09 PM
Response to Original message
5. Clarification ...

I'm not sure I understand the question. What operating system is on the machine now?

I'm inferring he's trying to set up a dual-boot system, but if that's the case, the only reason to install XP Pro on the second drive would be if some OS other than Windoze is already running the system. If the current OS is some flavor of Windoze, then installing an OS on the second drive is pointless. The one OS runs the whole system and all its drives.

So, I'm confused. I'm assuming he already has Windoze running the system. If so, the second drive is just additional hardware, and he needs no new license. The reason you're getting the answers about adding something else other than Windoze is most likely due to a similar assumption. Most people who add a second drive and put an OS on it use something other than Windoze because they already have that.

Anyway, the basic rule of a Windoze license is that each serial number may be active on only one machine at any given time. (The fuller explanation is much more complicated, and if you have a mass-produced machine that came pre-installed with Windoze, the license may or may not be tied to that one machine.)
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SlackJawedYokel Donating Member (446 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-31-05 09:56 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. The second drive is specifically for audio recording/processing
so he's installing a stripped-down version of XP to maximize CPU cycles available to the audio software.

Anyway, the basic rule of a Windoze license is that each serial number may be active on only one machine at any given time.
Ok, that much I knew.
What I was wondering was if dual-booting counted as "only one machine" in this case.

Thanks.

Cletus
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bemildred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-31-05 10:02 AM
Response to Reply #6
8. Speculating, but I think it might be OK.
I think Micro$oft is interested in same serial on more than
one machine rather than two serials on one machine, they would
not care if you want to pay them twice for one machine.
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RoyGBiv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-31-05 08:34 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. Okay ...
I think I'm starting to get the picture now, or at least I understand the reason he'd be installing the same OS two times.

So, I'm assuming now the license he's going to be using for the second drive is the same license he used for the install of the first drive. Is that correct?

If so, then technically he doesn't need a new license. Now that I think about it, I remember that I actually had Windoze installed on two different drives in the same system at one point, and the automatic activation worked fine. In my case, I was adding a new hard drive and wanted one of its partitions to serve as the system drive because it was so much faster than the old one and, well, new. But, I didn't want to replace the configuration I knew worked until I was sure my new install worked as I wanted it to. I actually still have that drive in my system and had forgotten Windoze was there.

Anyway, depending on several factors, activating Windoze on the second drive may be a problem, or at least annoying. This is due to Windoze activation requirement. As you apparently know, it's no longer good enough to have a license key. You have to activate it too. If he owns the license key outright and it did not come from a major assembler of computers such as Dell, Gateway, etc. and if he hasn't done any other major hardware modifications and/or activated that license in the last, I think, six months, it should install just fine. If any of those elements are in play, he may have to call the Microsoft number the system gives you during activation to get a key that will work.

Now, having said that, what I would do if I were installing the OS on the same machine a second time and had to call for a manual authorization would be to tell them simply that I installed a new drive and needed to reinstall Windoze. I would never mention anything about installing it twice on the same machine because that will inspire a lengthy round of completely pointless questioning. Other than the addition of that drive, not enough hardware should have changed to dramatically alter the profile for that license (this is checked, and there's a complicated formula for it that dictates whether MS considers the installation target a new machine) so they should have no issues with this answer.

I've installed my current copy of Windoze about ten times now, all completely legally, but I had to jump through a few hoops to get it done the first few times. I finally figured out just to tell them what they want to hear and offer no information other than direct and short responses to their questions. "Why are you installing Windoze today?" (This is an idiotic question, imo, but they usually start with that.) Any answer along the lines of "new hard drive" or "new motherboard and processor," etc. seems to satisfy them.


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