XP activation

Niall · May 12, 2010, 22:32:30

My sisters other half has a new motherboard, ram, cpu (nice 6 core AMD job

)

Having been impatient for his XP-Win7 upgrade disk to arrive he decided to play about with it and install with the same hard drive installed. Due to the hardware change, windows needs reactivating. Trouble is, it's locked him out of the system before he can install the motherboard drivers so it has no network card, due to the motherboard only having one IDE connector so his DVD drive wont work (I thought it was sata so didn't mention it - oops).

He was going to transfer the files from the disk on his netbook, to a flash drive and put them on the PC but now it won't allow him to activate windows unless he calls them or connects to the net (which he cant do).

Exactly how are you supposed to activate it if it wont let you boot the PC. Incidentally, for some reason safe mode option isn't appearing so he can't try the registry work around suggested by several google searches.

I'm stumped. I know it's a simple case of format, register, install Win7 upgrade but he really wants to play and the O/S isn't arriving until Friday

Steve · May 12, 2010, 22:50:01

"He was going to transfer the files from the disk on his netbook, to a flash drive and put them on the PC but now it won't allow him to activate windows unless he calls them or connects to the net (which he cant do)."

Normally you just call them and speak to some person in prison in India and relate the number displayed on screen,answer a few more questions and then they give you the activation code.

Niall · May 12, 2010, 22:53:04

Yeah, he would do but it's late and he wanted to get a fix as soon as possible. He can't find the disk at the moment (which is my VERY OLD XP disk that I bought a loooong time ago), which helped his stress levels lots

Out of curiosity if you're formatting and reinstalling XP, do you need to patch up fully before using the Windows 7 upgrade disk, or does the disk itself contain the files needed? The XP disk is so old it's pre service pack, you see

Steve · May 12, 2010, 23:14:28

The Windows 7 upgrade disk can be installed and activated on a blank HDD without a copy of XP being installed or CD present

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

Method 2 has worked several times for me.

Niall · May 13, 2010, 17:58:27

That's weird. How's it an upgrade if it doesn't need the original to be installed? I suppose it asks for the previous serial key on install.

I shall check that link, as I imagine the answer is in there

P.S. I have man flu and may die.

Steve · May 13, 2010, 18:00:21

It will not ask for any previous serial key except for the one supplied with the upgrade dvd. Method 3 the double install is supported by MS

Lance · May 13, 2010, 20:47:03

Quote from: Niall on May 13, 2010, 17:58:27
How's it an upgrade if it doesn't need the original to be installed?

Its an upgrade as you have the license for a previous version of Windows, regardless of whether it is installed.

Niall · May 13, 2010, 21:47:42

I meant how does it know you've even got the previous versions?

I'm thinking about switching to Windows 7 as I'm running Vista, it should, in theory provide performance increases. That being said I'm still curious about the reported network problems with Windows 7 and Netgear routers.

Also I noticed that the home premium upgrade is £67 and the full version is £76. If you don't even need to have an operating system installed and it doesn't ask for your previous key, then how exactly are they selling any copies of the full versions?

£110 for the pro version too, so that's already dropped by about £50 since I last looked a few months ago!

Lance · May 14, 2010, 08:30:47

Quote from: Niall on May 13, 2010, 21:47:42
I meant how does it know you've even got the previous versions?

Why does it need to?

Quote
If you don't even need to have an operating system installed and it doesn't ask for your previous key, then how exactly are they selling any copies of the full versions?

Selling them to people who don't have a previous version they can legitimately upgrade from?

Niall · May 15, 2010, 11:28:44

Okay, somehow you don't seem to be getting what I'm saying.

If you have no previous version of an operating system, and are buying the upgrade, exactly what are you upgrading from? If it's not upgrading you from something then how can it be an upgrade? This is why I was asking how does it know you have a previous version. From the replies people are posting it would seem that buying a full version isn't needed as you can upgrade from nothing

Steve · May 15, 2010, 13:18:49

You can upgrade from nothing so to speak