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Thread ID: 101445 2009-07-15 10:31:00 Ethical OS question RusEvo (3572) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
791881 2009-07-15 21:12:00 Thats actually a hard question to answer - maybe this will kind of explain.

The product key when installed looks at codes in the hardware and will then marry up to that hardware. So if you changed a Hard Drive it will have a different code, change the Motherboard, CPU etc the same applies.

Now heres the tricky part - sometimes you can change a Hard drive, and that triggers a hardware change, needs activating etc, other times you can change just about every component and it wont trigger the change.

Heres an example: Last week I cloned a persons drive to save their data before wiping the original drive, when I plugged in the cloned copy to make sure it had copied correctly the PC when starting, said there had been a hardware change since first activated and I had 3 days to activate it.

The original Drive was a Maxtor 80GB - the copy was on a Seagate 80GB.
wainuitech (129)
791882 2009-07-15 21:49:00 Now I assume that the rule is that this copy of XP must only be used on this computer, and not loaded onto any other machine.

This brings me to the question of whether I am allowed to use XP now that it is a new computer


Yes.

According to Microsoft - no. You are supposed to throw it out with your original PC.

However that's MS greed. No other reason you can't use it again. It works.
It might fuss when you activate it but then you are put through to an actual human who asks if it is on one PC or more and why you are reactivating it. You say you are reinstalling and its all happy.
pctek (84)
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