Activation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Barry S
  • Start date Start date
B

Barry S

Ihave had to format my hard drive and reinstall windows
xp pro. It now requests me to actvate again in the next
30 days. Is there any danger in doing this again having
previousely activated before the format?
 
Hi

No, you should be able to activate the same as you did before - over the Internet. Try it and see what happens. Any problems, please post back.

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User


| Ihave had to format my hard drive and reinstall windows
| xp pro. It now requests me to actvate again in the next
| 30 days. Is there any danger in doing this again having
| previousely activated before the format?
 
There is no problem to reactivating your copy of XP. You can do this as many times as you like on the same machine. There is a way of not having to either phone or go on line that will allow you to activate the reinstall yourself. Once you have installed an XP OS and have activated it either over the phone or through the internet a file called wpa.dbl is place in your windows\system32 folder. You may need to go into your control panel\folder options and then the view tab to set XP so that you can see hidden operating and system files like the windows\system32. This is a heavily encrypted file so don't bother trying to read it. It contains your activation and system configuration information. Copy the wpa.dbl to a floppy disk and label it for future reinstalls. Then once you have reinstalled XP and are asked if you want to activate you can choose not to and once on the desktop you can then copy the wpa.dbl back to the windows\system32 folder and you have activated your copy of XP. This will only work on the original machine with the original hardware that XP was activated on. Welcome to the eXPeriance. {:~)
 
The Unknown P said:
Copy the wpa.dbl to a floppy disk and label it for future reinstalls. Then once you have reinstalled XP and are asked if you want to activate you can choose not to and once on the desktop you can then copy the wpa.dbl back to the windows\system32 folder and you have activated your copy of XP. This will only work on the original machine with the original hardware that XP was activated on. Welcome to the eXPeriance. {:~)
Click to expand...

This is false, if you completely reinstall XP fresh, one has to avtivate the OS again, and simply copying the the WPA.DBL and WPA.BAK (you forgot this one too) files does not apply, since these files are time/date stamped (along with other conditions). Regardless if one does not make hardware changes, the activation time will have changed. there are cases where copying those files back will work, such as after a repair install, or file system conversion (FAT to NTFS), or if the files get damaged/corrupted in some way..
 
The said:
There is no problem to reactivating your copy of XP. You can do this
as many times as you like on the same machine. There is a way of not
having to either phone or go on line that will allow you to activate
the reinstall yourself. Once you have installed an XP OS and have
activated it either over the phone or through the internet a file
called wpa.dbl is place in your windows\system32 folder. You may need
to go into your control panel\folder options and then the view tab to
set XP so that you can see hidden operating and system files like the
windows\system32. This is a heavily encrypted file so don't bother
trying to read it. It contains your activation and system
configuration information. Copy the wpa.dbl to a floppy disk and
label it for future reinstalls. Then once you have reinstalled XP and
are asked if you want to activate you can choose not to and once on
the desktop you can then copy the wpa.dbl back to the
windows\system32 folder and you have activated your copy of XP. This
will only work on the original machine with the original hardware
that XP was activated on. Welcome to the eXPeriance. {:~)
Click to expand...

Do you *EVER* do any research before posting?! This is the biggest load of
garbage out - doing what you described will *NOT* reactivate XP after a
clean installation.

Either do some research or don't bother posting!
 
Original post reformatted for clarity. 8-)

The Unknown P wrote:

There is no problem to reactivating your copy of XP. You can do this
as many times as you like on the same machine.

There is a way of not having to either phone or go on line that will allow
you to activate the reinstall yourself. Once you have installed an XP OS
and have activated it either over the phone or through the internet a file
called wpa.dbl is place in your windows\system32 folder. You may need
to go into your control panel\folder options and then the view tab to
set XP so that you can see hidden operating and system files like the
windows\system32. This is a heavily encrypted file so don't bother trying
to read it. It contains your activation and system configuration
information.

Copy the wpa.dbl to a floppy disk and label it for future reinstalls. Then
once you have reinstalled XP and are asked if you want to activate you can
choose not to and once on the desktop you can then copy the wpa.dbl back
to the windows\system32 folder and you have activated your copy of XP.

This will only work on the original machine with the original hardware
that XP was activated on.

Welcome to the eXPeriance. {:~)

Michael Stevens replies to the oblivious Unknown P

Once again you give incorrect information in a format that is incredibly
difficult to read plus you seem to have never heard of paragraphs.
On a clean install, the backup of the wpa.dbl file is of no use whatsoever.
You say you know how to use the CDO ["web format" in case you don't know
what "CDO" is] format, but you seem to miss critical replies that have
repeatedly pointed out this error to you.

Once again, the backup of the wpa.dbl file is only useful if you do a
inplace [i.e. repair install ] upgrade and nothing has changed with the
hardware since the file was backed up or if the activation information was
corrupted. There is no other use for the wpa.dbl and it's backup.

to quote Alex Nichols web page on activation and the usability of the
wpa.dbl file, see below.
HINT No. 3: It is valuable to back up the two files WPA.DBL and WPA.BAK from
the Windows\System32 folder.Then, should they get damaged, or should you do
a 'Repair' reinstallation of Win XP, these files can be copied back to
restore the prior activation status. However, this only works in those
limited circumstances. The contents of these two files is matched to the
specific Windows setup; therefore, contrary to what many journalists and
members of the user community have written in recent months, restoring these
files will not restore your activation status following a reformat and clean
install.


--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
 
Michael said:
Once again you give incorrect information in a format that is
incredibly difficult to read plus you seem to have never heard of
paragraphs.
Click to expand...

What do you think the 'P' stand for Mike? ;o) <eg>
 
Back
Top