what should i do?????

[Guest]

i bought used pc two months ago. os is xp home. also, office 2000 is loaded.

the pc works fine.

i validated os on ms site. the prompt i recieved was "...product key
appears to be valid" (or something close to that). it has a windows xp
sticker/tag on the case but the number and most of the text is not readable.

i have no reason to think it's not valid/legal os, as i'm getting windows
updates and the validation process didn't find a problem.

my problem: i want to replace the hard drive (only 1 hard drive in the pc).

if i install the new drive, when i boot from the new drive will i be
prompted to reactivate the os and ms office. i have the product keys for
both, but i don't have the ms disks for either.

if the disk install goes smooth i may need to reinstall the os and office,
but i'm thinking that i may be prompted to reactivate the os or ms office or
both. if i'm prompted to reactivate the os and office will i be able to
(will microsoft allow me to)???

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

You will need the CDs if you change the drive.
Contact the previous owner or the laptop manufacturer.

You may need to buy them if the previous owner can not or is unwilling to
help.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

How did you plan on moving the existing OS and programs over? Imaging or
copying with the drive manufacturers utility? These should both preserve the
installation as is without reactivating, but even if you do have to it
should go through without issue.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org