Re: computer repair, obtain customer windows XP key questions

On Thu, 7 Sep 2006 12:43:01 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
nobodyimportant wrote:

I am interested in staring my own computer repair company to help pay
for college. Nothing big but I know I will only be dealing with
Windows XP. In some cases, I will have to backup the data on the
system and do a reinstall. When this happens, I will need the XP key
from the system.

Question 2: is it possible to obtain a XP key on a hard drive that has
failed to boot. In other word, I have a bad hard drive ( customer).
It wont let me boot to it. I then attach it as a slave to my work
computer and remove the files that need to be saved. I then need to
re install the OS. How do I get access to the customers XP key?

I wouldn't do it that way, because there are risks to both host and
guest HD when an at-risk or risky HD is dropped into the host.

Instead, I'd use a Bart PE CD with Nirsoft's Produkey utility plugged
into it. Google( Bart PE ) refers.

In fact, I would very seldom "have to" reinstall Windows - and would
do so with great reluctance, as a sign of failed elegance in
troubleshooting - as there are always side-effects to this.

See http://cquirke.mvps.org/reinst.htm

Question 3: I have a personal XP install with sp2. Can I use it but
instead of using my personal key, I use the customers? Will all keys
work on my XP CD?

No. Keys have to match the CDs with respect to Professional vs. Home, Retail
vs. OEM, and Full vs. Upgrade.

Also, you don't want the wrong key in the wrong installation - though
what you can do is fix that later:
- cause activation check to fail
- when asked to activate, go "manual" (i.e. not Internet)
- click to change the product key
- enter the new product key when prompted

If you have to use a different "tribe" of XP so that the right key
won't take (e.g. you use your own MSDN CD to do a repair install
because the brain-deal big-brand OEM CD lacks that ability) then what
you can do is do a repair install using the correct type of XP.

Don't try back-versioning (e.g. SP1 over SP2) or changing the product
SKU (especially Home over Pro), and expect this to not be possible
with those big-brand OEM "recovery" CDs.



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