Laptop Blues - Reformat and Windows Activation

Channel Hopper

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
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Not too serious as all the data was backed up.

But one new hard drive later, blagging an XP disk and putting in the 25 character details on the MS certificate brings me to a Windows activation page on screen, which I cannot connect to as the modem software hasn't been installed (and I have no router).

From memory there used to be a 30 day grace before activation was needed, do I need to make a phone call or is there a way of installing the modem software and activate online ?
 
IIRC there is a free phone number 08000 (Yes, three zeros) but I can't bring the rest of it to mind right now.


Will go trawling.


Edit: The Activation Wizard will provide the number


See also _http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890
 
The easiest way is to download the drivers on another computer, put them on a USB stick, install them, and activate (though why it must be by the modem, I don't know, just get the Wireless or Ethernet drivers on and connect that way, it's faster and doesn't ramp up the phone bill on an 0845/0844 number)... :)

No need to phone... :)
 
It's a TOLL FREE number 08000 .............. (The remainder depends upon location)
 
Or not....

I did phone, but since there's no ID generated, the Microsoft activation lot really don't want to know.

So will try the hotfix given,

_http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?FamilyID=d4cab5bc-abdb-4c7a-b3ee-2e37e1f93a3b&displaylang=en

But how does one transfer an application from another PC onto a PC that doesn't accept any external sources until 'activated' ?
 
That's what I thought, (from previous), but with this one, activation request is instant and requires a live connection to the internet that I can't get without the modem connection.

Btw the hotfix went in on the USB stick (I think) but still no ID number.

I may have to build up a router system with those funny yellow/blue cables. More time wasted.
 
2cvbloke said:
I don't know, just get the Wireless or Ethernet drivers on and connect that way,
Click to expand...

Nothing doing, activation means that, if the machine isn't activated, no outside world except by direct connection to MS, and I don't have that.
 
Can you not just click "Activate later"? Seems very weird it demanding you activate before you can install drivers, very unusual.... :confused:

What version did you install? Was it an OEM or Retail version?
 
It's the same as the original (I think), XP Media Centre Edition 2005,

(and the machne has an official COA hologram sticker).

The hotfix above is my main clue that something is missing from the original release that screws up the activation time/process.
 
It sounds like the article here might be what you are after.

_http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295

Its quite a lengthy process, but it seems to have cured the problem for someone who described a problem similar to what you have.
 
CH

sent you a PM.
 
Thanks

After the hotfix, and shutting down for the night, the laprop has now accepted the 30 day period, and moreso the activation has gone through after installing the modem software (registered at the same time).

Still some niggles though with updating to SP2 and beyond, but I should have these ironed out soon

Thanks all.
 
Glad you've got it sorted, CH.

What a palaver, eh?
 
What is annoying is that recovery partitions are offered on hard drives over a separate recovery disk, but they don't help at all when the drive dies.

Are there any laptops with dual drive capability ?
 
Channel Hopper said:
Are there any laptops with dual drive capability ?
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, there are... :)

It's usually the ones with removable drives, the ones I know of were mainly Compaq, Toshiba and Dell, I don't know if they have any in their current lines of laptops, but I know that there are some laptops where you can hot-swap the DVD drive with a hard drive or battery. It's usually the small multi-purpose portables, with Toshiba that's usually the Portege & Tecra range, not sure about the other brands though... :)

But that said, it's easier just to get an external HDD and clone the main HDD onto that and then you have a backup to clone from, or you can backup partitions or entire drives to DVD-Rs when you first get them or do a fresh installation, used to do that when I was working at the local computer shop in Nelson, it's how they had their system images stored for the ones we built and put into stock... :)

And speaking of hidden partitions, I had a right palaver with the mother's Samsung NC10 Netbook recently, the HDD decided it was going to fail (turned out it was just being a PITA, so I have that in my desktop now), and trying to clone the drive's hidden backup partition was so annoying, most of the programs I tried refused to back up the hidden partition, and had to use Norton Ghost 2003 via Floppy disk (funny how the old ways work perfectly today, but don't use it with Vista or Windows7, it WILL screw up your installation), which had to be set to ignore errors, and within half an hour, it was done, netbook was working, complete with it's original partitions and the hidden backup partition... :)
 
Thanks for the answer, though it would have helped if I hadn't dropped the new drive last night. Turnng the unit upside down and out she came onto the wooden floor.

I will have a go at running her up again tonight after a couple of confidence boosting shots of chianti.

What a plonker.
 
Yeah, hard drives and hard floors aren't generally compatible with each other, if it still works then you're pretty lucky, but proof is in the testing... :confused:
 
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