New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

This is a question I have regarding adding two hard drives to a new motherboard. I am posting this to the windows xp board instead of the hardware board because it is more software OS related.

These hard drives are currently in a HP Pavilion 762n.

--The master drive is a Maxtor 80GB 7200rpm and it has Windows XP Home Preinstalled.

--The slave drive is a Hitachi 160GB 7200rpm 8mb buffer ATA internal drive.(won't be a problem installing after master is in place)

I am wondering if I can add the current master hard drive, which has Windows XP Home preinstalled, on a new ASUS P4P800 SE motherboard.
I have heard that Windows XP recognizes major hardware changes and required re-activation. I have also heard that microsoft considers a motherboard change a "new system," which would require me to purchase XP.

Has anyone ran into this problem or have any info? I am hoping that I don't need to buy XP, due to this mobo upgrade.
Thanks in advance!

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

The worst thing that will happen is you'll be prompted for an activation key, in which case you have to contact M$ and explain what you've done and they *should* give you another activation code - you shouldn't have to purchase another copy of XP because you swapped a hard drive into another system. Well, at least I've never had to yet, and I do this for a living...

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

Thanks TheOgre, hope it works.

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

just say the mobo broke, and your replacing it, make sure you install sp1 on the master first so you can support drives over 150gb

if you stick the mater onto a new type of mobo windows will either not boot (keep restarting in which case you neeed to reinstall)(run the windows repair ;)) or it will be feked for life as drivers will be wrong etc.. so a clean install really is the best option.

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

I have replaced motherboards a few times and have not had problem with Microsoft, a clean install was the way I went.

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

Yes, a clean install sounds like the right way to go, but I can't imagine buying Windows XP when I already have it installed.

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

suRoot, is it possible to run windows repair with a preinstalled version of Windows XP?

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

A friend of mine just took his Hard drive from one system and put it in another and it won't boot to windows XP. BIOS shows that it recogonizes the drive but he gets an error message saying "Hardware change detected" and if he selects "ignore" or "continue" the computer will just reboot. Windows was preinstalled on his hard drive so he doesn't have a disc. How did you get around this problem? Thanks.

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

When you buy a machine like a Dell or HP and it has XP installed you get a version of XP that is machine specific. They are not selling you an over the counter version where you can install it on a new machine once your hardware is obsolete... Even their recovery discs check the BIOS of the system and will not work on another machine...

So when the OS detected a change in hardware your copy of XP is no longer going to work...

Just another way M$ makes money...

Even the over the counter version of XP will force a call to MS or Re-activation if you change out the motherboard...

Just another reason to learn Linux...
You would be amazed how far that OS has come...

Re: New Motherboard & Pre-installed Windows XP
 

No, you don't. You get customized driver CDs and utility CDs, but BY LAW you have to receive a FULL VERSION of the operating system. Sometimes instead you get a restore CD that's actually an IMAGE of your drive, but that's not to be confused with an alterated copy of an operating system. (I've been a reseller for Dell for the past few years, and that's how I found all this out.)

I use the XP Home CD I received with my Dell laptop on other systems (to reinstall XP Home) and change the product code to whatever their product code is on the sisde of their system, and haven't once had any problems doing that.

As far as XP detecting changes in hardware and forcing you to call Microsoft for another key, it's only a few devices (now) that trigger that - CPUs and NICs being on the list (it used to be almost ANY change in hardware, but they've since mellowed out.)

And yes, all the more reason to learn ANY operating system other than Micro$oft :)