[Samm]

Hmm, thats strange. You should be allowed to reinstall XP as many times as you like, provided that it's reinstalled on the same machine. I can't see that a new hard drive would count as a new machine though.

Maybe you need to speak to someone at Microsoft & see if they can advise you. BTW, if you used the method I suggested (i.e not installing 98 first) then I guess this could be the problem but I don't see how. The only thing I can think of, is that the fact you still have it installed on the 10GB drive counts as 'another machine' & so requires you to uninstall it first. Don't do this yet though, I'm only guessing!

I will speak to Keith (OS Moderator) for you & see what he says.

Re. Vista. This is a beta release which normally means that it will have a time limit on it before it too requires activation. As I suspect the initial price will be a lot of money, I would stay clear of it for now if I were you.

RE. hard drives
You can restore a drive back to factory state at any time. i.e remove all data & partitions. There are several ways of doing this but if you need to do it soon for any reason, I would boot from the 10GB drive with the 80GB attached as a slave drive. Then use XP's disk management to remove the partitions from the 80GB drive. Remember you must boot from a different drive (hard disk or CD etc) in order to remove all partitions.

I'll let you know what Keith says.

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I have run across the 5 times install with microsoft. When i built my Athlon 2600 puter i could not get it to install from the CD. So i went with the 6 floppy diskd and got it installed. I upgraded the puter twice, and the third upgrade caused a reregistration(1) of the OS( you can only change 3 pieces of hardware in the puter). I then got a virus that i could not fix so i wiped the drive and reinstalled and reregistered(2 again. I had nortons AV on the puter and installed system works also. System works was not very good so i tried uninstalling. I did'nt like what was happening so i wiped the drive again and reinstalled again along with a reregister(3). Now i added a second HD and changed the soundcard again and i had to reregister(4) once again. I complained to the microsoft people about only 2 pieces of hardware was installed but they did'nt listen. Again i caught some trojan spyware on the puter and when i decided to do a wipe and reload microsoft informed me i would have to buy XP again. They refused to let me register anymore.

A second time i was reinstalling XP on a customer computer and microsoft would not let me register it. It seems that the people just reloaded the puter everytime they had problems. So they ended up buying another XP cd and installing. I think they were hoping i could get it registered when they could'nt.

Now i have found norton Ghost. I use it to make iso's of each of my puters so i can reinstall as many times as i want. It does not let me upgrade the computer past the 3 pieces without reregistering but now i build myself a new puter every six months so i don't worry about that.

SRX660

[SRX660]

I have run across the 5 times install with microsoft. When i built my Athlon 2600 puter i could not get it to install from the CD. So i went with the 6 floppy diskd and got it installed. I upgraded the puter twice, and the third upgrade caused a reregistration(1) of the OS( you can only change 3 pieces of hardware in the puter). I then got a virus that i could not fix so i wiped the drive and reinstalled and reregistered(2 again. I had nortons AV on the puter and installed system works also. System works was not very good so i tried uninstalling. I did'nt like what was happening so i wiped the drive again and reinstalled again along with a reregister(3). Now i added a second HD and changed the soundcard again and i had to reregister(4) once again. I complained to the microsoft people about only 2 pieces of hardware was installed but they did'nt listen. Again i caught some trojan spyware on the puter and when i decided to do a wipe and reload microsoft informed me i would have to buy XP again. They refused to let me register anymore.

A second time i was reinstalling XP on a customer computer and microsoft would not let me register it. It seems that the people just reloaded the puter everytime they had problems. So they ended up buying another XP cd and installing. I think they were hoping i could get it registered when they could'nt.

Now i have found norton Ghost. I use it to make iso's of each of my puters so i can reinstall as many times as i want. It does not let me upgrade the computer past the 3 pieces without reregistering but now i build myself a new puter every six months so i don't worry about that.

SRX660

[superstar]

Sorry SRX600 & SAMM,

I did end up having to call them during buisness hours. They asked me why I was re-activating it, and if I had it on any other computer. I told them that I put the pc in a new case, I guess they were alright with that because they gave me the activation number.

Sorry I did'nt post to let you guys know, but I have been updating windows and did not want to go on the internet until all of my updates were done. So I'm good to go, everything is running fine. I do have a question about the hardware addition SRX600 was talking about:

I was planning on buying a cd-rw, some new ram (two 256MB pieces), a video card, and adding my old 10GB hard drive to this machine. Do you think I will have to re-activate my o/s when I add all this hardware? Because if so than I'm screwed if they decline to let me use the o/s when I add the new hardware.

As for the new 80GB hard drive you guys just helped me install. It seems to be working fine. My webpages seem to open faster too. I'm still on dial up using a 56k modem - lol - Though my internet is 7 times the speed of a 56k modem using a netscape accelerator. Only my downloads are limited to 56k modem speeds. My webpages open really fast, and now with the new hard drive there even faster. When I made the partition for the o/s I chose 20000MB on the hard drive. Now that my o/s is installed I can see a total size of 19.5GB for the "C" drive by checking in "My Computer". XP took up like 1.5Gb when I installed it on my new hard drive. I'm surprised at how much less space xp takes up on the hard drive without installing win98se first. Okay so here are my next questions:

1. How can I use the rest of my 80GB hard drive for my data as you guys recommended?
(Can you please explain how to do it)

2. What are the benefits of using my 80GB hard drive with the two partitions you guys have recommended me to make (one for o/s, one for data)? Does this make my pc faster? Or is it just so I can wipe out/repair xp without deleting my data partition?

3. After explaining all of this to me, and keeping in mind what SRX600 had said about adding new hardware and o/s re-activation threats. Can you please tell me how I can go about adding my old 10GB hard drive (by the way my o/s is still on it)?


Well once again I sincerely appreciate your help SRX600, and SAMM. I'm just steps closer at finishing this pc upgrading process. & hey SRX600 you see how you mentioned the threats of o/s re-activation when you add new hardware? I am assuming (you know more than me), that when I buy the two sticks of 256MB ram and switch them with the old two sticks currently in my system. That that would'nt really count as added hardware for a o/s reactivation threat would it? I'm just guessing. I'm assuming new hardware means new agp cards, pci, cd-rom's, etc. But swicthing something with the same hardware already in the system does'nt seem to qualify for an o/s re-activation threat, at least in my head. I'm just making an educated guess. You tell me... It's worth thinking about.

Hey we got this far! This old Vectra is spitting sand in the faces of old pcs. It has a new life now. Let's see how much further we can get!

Thanx SAMM, and SRX600

Genuis', once again... Need I say more???

Edited by superstar, 29 March 2006 - 03:37 AM.

[SRX660]

Here's Alex Nichol MS-MVP take on windows product activation.

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

I would leave off the 10 gig drive because you now have changed 4 hardware's if you do what you want to do. You might get by with it but do you want to take the chance.

On the cd-rw drive i am thinking it would be better to get a dvd-rw drive instead. This way you can burn both cd's and dvd's. I have been using the NEC 3550A drives with no problems at all. A cd-rw usually costs $30 and the dvd-rw costs $40 so the slightly higher price is justified. The good thing about dvd-rw's is you can backup about 4.36 gigs to a single disk. You can only backup 700 MB to a cd.

On the rest of your drive. Have you gone into computer management and formatted it yet?

Go to this website and scroll down to read how to partition the rest of your drive.

http://www.ramelectr...l/nst-350u2.htm

I would partition all of your partitions as NTFS. Once you have partitioned you can go thru explorer and make folders to put your data in. i have 7 main folders on my "D" drive(second partition) named Documents, Downloads, Images, Music, Pictures, Video, and Misc. In these folders i make more sub-folders named so i can keep track of whats there. Once you start putting data in these folders windows will go there first to add more data.The main reason for partitioning like this is that if XP crashes so badly it won't start you do not lose any of your dats if you wipe the drive and reinstall XP again. It also helps speed it up somewhat because the computer does not have to look all over the drive for data. I defrag my computers weekly to help keep the speed up also.

One way around the product activation after you install the new cd drive, ram, and video card is a external USB hard drive. Windows does not see this as part of the computer in the activation scheme. The problem with your computer is it is USB 1.1 and NOT USB 2.0. The data transfers of large files will be somewhat slow. The only way around this is a usb 2.0 add-in card like this one.

http://www.pcworld.c...id,82005,00.asp

SRX660

[superstar]

On the rest of your drive. Have you gone into computer management and formatted it yet?

What do you mean by that? I have to format something before I make a partition to use the rest of my hard drive?

Go to this website and scroll down to read how to partition the rest of your drive.

You gave me various url links, none of which says how to partition the rest of my drive. I think you put the wrong ones.


SAMM IF YOU READ THIS WHOLE 4TH PAGE OF MY POSTS LET ME KNOW WHAT TO DO TO BE ABLE TO USE THE REST OF MY 80GB HARD DRIVE IN CASE YOU READ THIS BEFORE SRX600.


Oh SRX600 I read this on that url you gave me about re-activation:

Microsoft recognises that machines do get upgraded. If, following the activation after setup, you do not need to contact the activation center for 120 days (any changes you make during this time being seen as acceptable when the system boots), then the sheet is swept clean and you can start again using the current hardware as the new baseline to make more changes.

Does that mean that if I don't make any changes to my system and do not contact them for 120 days. That after 120 days of having the same hardware installed I can do anything I want (ie: add new hardware, take out old hardware, etc.)? & not have to re-activate?

Edited by superstar, 29 March 2006 - 05:29 AM.

[Samm]

Glad you've sorted the activation problem for now!

Partitioning the remaining space on the drive :

1. Go the Run command on your Start menu & type in diskmgmt.msc

2. When Disk management has opened, you should see a graphical representation (like a bar chart) of your 80GB drive. It should indicate that there is a 20GB partition (C drive) & 60GB (approx) of unallocated space.

3. Right click on the unallocated space, & select create partition from the drop down menu.

4. When the wizard starts, select 'Extended partition', make sure you tell it to use all the available space & follow the instructions.

5. When completed, you will see your 20GB partition with the new extended partition next to it. Right click on the extended partition & select create partition again.

6. This time you will create a logical partiton. Make sure you use all the available space, assign a drive letter to it & tell it to format the partition using NTFS.

7. When the wizard closes, wait while the partition is formatted. This may take a little while & you will see a counter marking the progress. When this reaches 100%, you can close disk management & the partition is ready to use


NB THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE BASED ON WIN2000 VERSION. XP WILL BE THE SAME BUT IF IT DOESN'T GIVE YOU THE OPTION TO CREATE AN EXTENDED PARTITION (STEP 4) THEN JUST JUMP TO STEP 6.


Re. the memory upgrade :
Before you buy any more memory, go to www.crucial.com & use their memory advisor. Select your computer from the list & it will tell you exactly which ram is compatible with your system.

Re. your activation & new hardware question :
This is a quote from Microsoft that should answer that for you :

"How does product activation determine tolerance? In other words, how many components of the PC must change before I am required to reactivate?

Common changes to hardware such as upgrading a video card, adding a second hard disk drive, adding RAM or upgrading a CD-ROM device will not require the system to be reactivated.

Specifically, product activation determines tolerance through a voting mechanism. There are 10 hardware characteristics used in creating the hardware hash. Each characteristic is worth one vote, except the network card which is worth three votes. When thinking of tolerance, it's easiest to think about what has not changed instead of what has changed. When the current hardware hash is compared to the original hardware hash, there must be 7 or more matching points for the two hardware hashes to be considered in tolerance. If the network card is the same, then only 4 additional characteristics must match (because the network card is worth 3, for a total of 7). If the network card is not the same, then a total of 7 characteristics other than the network card must be the same. If the device is a laptop (specifically a dockable device), additional tolerance is allotted and there need be only 4 or more matching points. Therefore, if the device is dockable and the network card is the same, only one other characteristic must be the same for a total vote of 4. If the device is dockable and the network card is not the same, then a total of 4 characteristics other than the network card must be the same.
Are the changes cumulative? In other words, if I change one component today and one tomorrow, is that two component changes?

The changes are cumulative; however, if a user is asked to reactivate, the hardware profile is reset to that new configuration.
What are the 10 hardware characteristics used to determine the hardware hash?

The 10 hardware characteristics used to determine the hardware hash are: Display Adapter, SCSI Adapter, IDE Adapter, Network Adapter MAC Address, RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc), Processor Type, Processor Serial Number, Hard Drive Device, Hard Drive Volume Serial Number, CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM. "

[superstar]

Yes!

The partition worked!

As of now it shows that I have a total of 19.5GB on my "C" drive.
& a total of 54.9GB on my new "E" drive.

So together it makes 74.4GB
Which is alright but kinda sad that microsoft and hard drive companies see 1GB differently. I would've loved to have a full 80GB. But hey you win some you lose some. That 80GB would have meant a lot to me though. Every little bit helps.

Say if I ever wanted to go about wiping off my entire 80gig hard drive to be as if I just bought it (with nothing on it at all). How would I do so?

Oh and this is very important. How do I add my old 10GB hard drive now?

Thx Samm for the step by step instructions. Things are so easy to follow like that.

SRX600 thanx for all the url links you give me. I've read them all. My pc knowledge is surpassing what it used to be now.

Edited by superstar, 29 March 2006 - 11:39 PM.

[Samm]

If you ever need to wipe the 80GB drive completely & return it to its factory state (ie unpartitioned), then the best thing to do is go to Western Digitals website - support->downloads sections.
Select your drive model from the list & download Datalife guard tools for Dos/floppy.

NB you would have to run this from a bootable floppy disk (the utility will create this for you) because the 80GB is your boot drive, so you must boot from another drive (i.e floppy) in order to wipe it.


Re. the 10GB drive. First can you tell me if you have more than one internal optical drive or if you plan to install a second optical drive?

[superstar]

I currently have 1 optical dvdr drive but i plan to intall another dvd r in a few weeks....

[Samm]

In that case, you should install the 10GB drive on the primary IDE controller, along with the 80GB drive.

Change the jumper copfiguration on the rear of the 10GB drive so that it's set to Slave.
Next check the jumper configuration on the 80GB drive. The default configuration for WD drives is 'Single'. You need to change the jumper to Dual (Master).

Next, make sure the 80GB drive is connected to the end of the ribbon cable. Connect the 10GB drive to the middle connector of the cable.

Power the system on & make sure that bpth drives are correctly detected in the bios.

Let me know if you have any problems.

[superstar]

hmm how do i erase whats on my 10gb drive and make it ntfs?

is adding my 10 giger as a slave on my master 80gb gonna make my system slower?

you were telling me about putting it to the ide cable of the dvd drive. but as i said i'm going to be getting another dvd drive soon.

so will it make my system slower? i thought adding more hard drives would not be a problem. in any case I am going to set the wd 80giger hard drive to master and than the 10gb one to slave. i will not connect the ide cable on the 10giger untill you tell me how to erase whats on it and make it ntfs, so the system can read it. (winxp is still currently on the 10 giger - i need to erase that in order for my system to view it).

[Samm]

OK, firstly, you don't need to erase the contents of the 10GB drive in order for the system to read it. You can simply attach the 10GB as a slave right away, then erase the contents/format the drive afterwards.

If you follow the instructions I gave you last time, assumimg that the bios detects both drives correctly, just let the system boot into Windows as normal.

Once booted up, you can then copy across anything you wish to keep from the 10GB drive. After that, you can simply format the drive as NTFS :

To do this, run disk management again (Run command -> diskmgmt.msc)

1. You will see the graphical representation (bar chart) of the 80GB drive & the 10GB drive below it.

2. Right click on the 10GB drive & select 'delete partition' from the drop down menu.
This will erase the partition & hence the contents of the 10GB drive completely.

3. Once finished, right click on the 10GB drive again & select 'create partition' from the drop down menu.

4. Choose to create a primary partition of the maximum allowed size (approx 10GB) & format it with NTFS.

Running the 10GB drive on the same cable as the 80GB drive 'may' slow it down a little bit depending on whether the 10GB is ATA-66 or ATA100. I don't think you will really notice any significant different though to be honest.

[superstar]

Running the 10GB drive on the same cable as the 80GB drive 'may' slow it down a little bit depending on whether the 10GB is ATA-66 or ATA100. I don't think you will really notice any significant different though to be honest.

How can I find out if my 10Gb hard drive is ATA-66 or ATA100? In order for me to know if it will slow down my new 80Gb drive. Can I use "Everest" to find that out, and if so on what option/listing from the program?

Thx for your continued support.

[SRX660]

The ATA interface started in 1996 with ATA/33, which in 1998 was upgraded to ATA/66. Two years later, in 2000, the ATA/100 was released. The date the hard drive was made is usually included on the information label on the hard drive.

SRX660

[Samm]

Or just tell us what the make & model number is (printed on label on top of drive) & I can work it out from there