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WinXP Activation "votes"

  • Thread starter Percival P. Cassidy
  • Start date
P

Percival P. Cassidy

Flightless Bird
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
 
P

paul_36

Flightless Bird
On 2010-03-01, Percival P. Cassidy <Nobody@NotMyISP.net> 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.
 
T

Terry R.

Flightless Bird
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.
 
B

Bernd

Flightless Bird
-------- 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
 
P

Percival P. Cassidy

Flightless Bird
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
 
P

Paul

Flightless Bird
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
 
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