Re: "Genuine -Validation " issue

Have your son-in-law's friend fix the problem.
--
~PA Bear

- Bobb - wrote:
Any pointers to details of "what gets hosed when it is disabled ? How to
recover - easily ?

Background:
I got a panic call today from family - they "updated XP " to see if maybe
that's why she had IPOD problem - and now XP reports license error - won't
boot. Once she ran updates and it prompted for 'XP License key', she
entered the Dell OEM "license key" on the box. Failed a few times with
error message to call MSFT at ' phonenumber". She spent 45 minutes with
MSFT, then an hour with Dell - they each said the other is the problem.
Since she can't logon, remote support can't connect to "help her"- she
called me. I brought another desktop PC and a spare disk drive. I thought
worst case I'd restore XP to this spare - add her disk as second - recover
her data to my drive, then wipe her original disk by reinstalling with XP
CD. BUT what I found: Disk Mgmt shows one partition on her "bad drive"- no
Dell partition ! Right-click on disk and "assign drive letter" not an
option. While troubleshooting, I installed Norton Ghost on my box to run
backup - I chose "entire drive" ( since no folders) and it shows the image
file will be 0mb. ???

Her husband came home and after interrogation he told me that he had a
problem last year and a friend helped him 'get it going'. I suspect :
his friend wiped the drive, installed XP using HIS full version. Friend
had / has registered that license on his PC already. MSFT shows - already
used - sorry. I suspect I could do full reinstall using their Dell XP CD
but will those their data - quicken, lots of business docs etc .... I told
them it'll cost $100 to buy a copy of XP and even then that still doesn't
recover their data - quickest way is to get a valid license. I put the
drive back into the original PC and it boots to login screen and in the
lower right there's a box that shows "requires validation". Click on it
and get the "go online " or call MSFT " option screen ( that's what she'd
done earlier.)

Questions now:
1. to get it going quickly, could they just call MSFT back and BUY a
license ?? ( Lots the cost of his friend "helping him" previously.) What
does an XP Home license cost - anyone know ?

2. This issue 'did something' to the original hard drive to make it
unmountable/unreadable so can't assign a drive letter to it. What
exactly does it do - to make it boot XP yet show as 0mb in size ?

3. Genuine Validation... If I then reinstall using the Dell OEM XP CD
back onto a drive in the Dell PC, does OEM XP ask for validation updates
in the future - or once OEM license is it never an issue again ?

Thanks very much

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "Genuine -Validation " issue
    ... " The friend " is going there tomorrow. ... This is the first time I'd ever seen a license issue - is this "normal" that you cannot access anything on the hard drive? ... I could see how MSFT would have the right to not allow "windows to work", but no right to prevent the entire drive from being accessed. ... then an hour with Dell - they each said the other is the problem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • "Genuine -Validation " issue
    ... I got a panic call today from family - they "updated XP " to see if maybe that's why she had IPOD problem - and now XP reports license error - won't boot. ... Once she ran updates and it prompted for 'XP License key', she entered the Dell OEM "license key" on the box. ... I thought worst case I'd restore XP to this spare - add her disk as second - recover her data to my drive, then wipe her original disk by reinstalling with XP CD. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: "Genuine -Validation " issue
    ... Once she ran updates and it prompted for 'XP License key', ... then an hour with Dell - they each said the other is the problem. ... worst case I'd restore XP to this spare - add her disk as second - recover ... his friend wiped the drive, installed XP using HIS full version. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: "Genuine -Validation " issue
    ... Once she ran updates and it prompted for 'XP License key', ... then an hour with Dell - they each said the other is the problem. ... worst case I'd restore XP to this spare - add her disk as second - recover ... his friend wiped the drive, installed XP using HIS full version. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Non Genuine but I have a Dell...
    ... Your friend didn't give you a CD with a Microsoft-branded hologram logo on it, ... The "Corporate Edition" is a pirated copy so your "friend" is distributing an illegal copy (the "corporate edition" is slicing one license out of a volume license, but volume licenses are to be used within the same organization that purchased the volume license). ... Since you say that you still have the Dell install CD, explain why you haven't yet bothered to actually use it. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)