Activating Win XP question...

[trancejeremy]

A couple months ago I finally upgraded to Win XP, mostly because Win 98 no longer supported various bits of computer hardware (most notably a hard drive and my new video card).

My computer has 2 hard drives.

Is it okay for me to install Win XP on both hard drives? I wasn't sure, so while I installed Win XP on my second hard drive, I never got around to activating it on my 2nd hard drive. (I also hadn't installed modem drivers).

But now I had an emergency of sorts, and had to boot to my 2nd hard drive. However, since I hadn't activated Windows, I can't do anything. And I can't activate it via internet presumably because I have no internet connection hooked up for it yet.

Is there any way to activate windows on that hard drive, other than calling them? Like maybe finding the activation number for my computer's main hard drive (which presumably has the same hardware key since it's the same computer) and entering it manually?


I am somewhat hard of hearing and have trouble understanding people unless I can read their lips, which is tricky to do over a phone. While that's an option, it's an unpleasant experience because it involves me asking the other person to repeat themselves quite a few times.

Or get like a 10 minute reprieve to setup an internet connection? Can I just install Win XP again?

 

[ssampier]

If XP is installed in the same computer, presumably that should be "okay", but I fail to see why you'd want to do that. If it's a different computer, you need to purchase a second license; a $90 Windows XP Home disc will work.

As for activation, you should be able to format the second hard drive, install Windows Xp Home from scratch, get your drivers installed, and activate it.

Now, depending on circumstances, you may be able to call from a TDD phone; I'm sure a large company like Microsoft has the proper equipment. If not, you can always use those deaf/hard-of-hearing relay services.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I'd like to do it because my computer is acting screwy. I figure if I can boot to WinXP on my second hard drive and see if it's my hardware that is screwy, or my Win XP on my main hard drive that is screwed up. (And also, down the road, I would like to do it because certain games seem to like different versions of video drivers better than others, and it would be much easier to boot to a different hard drive than change drivers all the time)

Since my 2nd hard drive is full of stuff, I don't want to format it. I would just like to be able to boot to it.

I am not deaf, I just get ear infections and when I have them (like right now) I can't hear very well, especially on a phone. Usually it's no problem since I don't use a phone much. But in this case, it's annoying as hell.

 

[Thanee]

Not sure if you are allowed to do that legally, I think you can only install one copy on one machine, but technically you can have as many working OS installed on your system as you like. You just need one primary partition for each of them (can even be on the same hard drive, don't even need a second one). And you should be aware, that those partitions are not accessible from the other installations, which basically means, that all software you installed there needs to be installed again on the other installation. Of course, you can install them to another partition, which is accessible to all primaries, but you would still need to install the software once with every OS installation then to have the registry updated properly and this might also lead to some screwy results, if any working data is stored in the registry.

If you want to add another OS to your second hard drive, you can simply use a program to alter partitions (i.e. Partition Magic, maybe XP even has something to do that included). Then you can select some free space on the hard drive and designate it as a primary partition. Once you have a primary partition, you should be able to install the OS there and boot from it. That would be your C: drive then.

What I'm not entirely sure of is, whether you can boot from a slave drive, which your second one most likely is. Might be, that the hard drive needs to be the master drive.

Bye
Thanee

 

[JamesL85]

You can try to repair your Win XP install. Boot to the Win XP CD, when it comes up, press Enter, F8, and R. That "should" fix MOST problems with XP.....If not.....

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.....

James