I have to call microsoft everytime I re-install Xp pro?

[Ahill]

Its seems that windows XP has a limit to how many times you can install it. Recently after reformatting my hard drive I tried to punch in the number that came with my CD and it said " sorry you have exceeded your number of blah blah blah" I have a registered copy and everything. So the xp installation gives you a phone number to call and it makes you punch in the code on your screen. The computer voice on the phone tells you the exact same thing and forwards you to a CS guy in India. This person asks you a bunch of questions and gives you a valid number to use.

So my questions is. What the Hell is going on? thanks

btw this is a totaly legit copy, I have never loaned it to anyone or anything else shady.

 

[MrChad]

It's called activation. It's a measure to prevent casual piracy.

How many times are you re-installing XP? I haven't reinstalled in over a year, and that was only because of a hard drive failure.

 

[dsd17]

If you reformat often you could ghost your hard drive after the initial install. this way the code will already be in place and you won't have to fool with it any longer.

 

[wheels]

Originally posted by: dsd17
If you reformat often you could ghost your hard drive after the initial install. this way the code will already be in place and you won't have to fool with it any longer.

how do you do that?

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: wheels

Originally posted by: dsd17
If you reformat often you could ghost your hard drive after the initial install. this way the code will already be in place and you won't have to fool with it any longer.

how do you do that?

Third party software such as Norton Ghost or Powerquest Drive Image.

Just make sure its been activated before you make an image.

 

[Nothinman]

Stop reinstalling your OS, there's no reason to do it more than once or twice.

 

[imported_cuddles]

You guys are crackheads. I format and re-install every month or so. Why are you bashing him for re-installing often? Get a life.

As Canterwood said, use one of those programs to make an image of your drive. This will make installing XP much easier if you do it a lot, like I do.

 

[Nothinman]

You're reinstalling everything every 4 weeks and we're the crackheads? I could understand doing it back when people were using Win95, but now it's just a waste of time.

 

[n0cmonkey]

You guys are crackheads. I only format when I get a new harddrive or a new machine. Why are you bashing people for taking care of their systems? Get a life, and you won't have time for administration masturbation.

 

[stash]

Reinstall every month? Good god, man that's insanity. What the heck do you guys do to your installs?

 

[funboy6942]

My installs get fubbed up out of nowhere at times and have to redo. I dont know how to check my files and reinstall this or that and it usually explorer that gets messed up or I catch soem dort of bug. Like now my computer will not restart or shut down. It gets to the shut down screen and hangs there and will stay liek that over night till I hit the reset or hold the power button in. They only way I know how to correct my problems is jsut to redo it. I have everything on disk, back up is a snap, and only takes maybe 2 hours to put it all back to where I had it.

 

[sat]

there are people who wash their hands every hour; flush the toilet every 30 minutes, etc. so I guess reformating and reinstalling the OS every 4 weeks is "normal".

 

[stash]

That''s called obsessive compulsive behavior.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: cuddles
You guys are crackheads. I format and re-install every month or so. Why are you bashing him for re-installing often? Get a life.

As Canterwood said, use one of those programs to make an image of your drive. This will make installing XP much easier if you do it a lot, like I do.

This of course begs the question, why would anyone reinstall their system every month?

 

[mastertech01]

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: cuddles
You guys are crackheads. I format and re-install every month or so. Why are you bashing him for re-installing often? Get a life.

As Canterwood said, use one of those programs to make an image of your drive. This will make installing XP much easier if you do it a lot, like I do.

This of course begs the question, why would anyone reinstall their system every month?

1. Dont have a legit Key, therefore have to reinstall every 30 days
2. Swap hardware like underwear and have to activate often so they get aggrevated.
3. Visit too many P0rn sites and get viris and all kinds of unwanted crapola on thier system.
4. Have demo software that expires and they cant afford to buy it, so they reinstall the OS so the demo doesnt see its been there before.
5. Screw up the registry so bad they cant recover.
6. Screw up and turn off way too many services and cant figure out how to use Recovery Console.
7. Dont believe in system restore or forget to set a restore point.
8. Overclocked the system extremely and corrupt the whole thing.
9. Have too many illegally obtained downloads.
10 Install drivers for wrong chipset or platform and cant recover.
11 Use dialup and no firewall and use great IPs like MSN and have Messenger installed to suck in all the hacker traffic.
12 Power failure and hard drive gets corrupted or other hardware failure and they just wont believe they have bad devices so they reinstall OS.
13. Corruption caused by overclocking Video card or system and they reinstall hoping they will cure the hardware problem with a fresh install.


Just a few reasons why people can screw themselves into having to reinstall regularly. And some just do it because they are bored, or think it works more smoothly or they hate SP2 and want to go back to SP1, or lots of others reasons.

 

[conehead433]

Corporate key code.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: cuddles
I'm a crackhead. I format and re-install every month or so. Why are you bashing him for re-installing often? I have no life.

Fixed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You're reinstalling everything every 4 weeks and we're the crackheads? I could understand doing it back when people were using Win95, but now it's just a waste of time.

But.. people do those things... just because they've been trained to do those things.. with a belief that such "voodoo incantations" are required to ward off the "evil MS-Windows spirits" and keep their computer running properly. Watch, if someone advises that there is no need to do that, immediately, that user will have computer problems, and blame it on the lack of proper "faith" and incantations done at the right times. Thus "proving" their beliefs.

(Heck, I do re-install my NT-based OSes more often than my Win9x-based ones, but that's still only about every two years or so.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: sat
there are people who wash their hands every hour; flush the toilet every 30 minutes, etc. so I guess reformating and reinstalling the OS every 4 weeks is "normal".

Or post to the technical forums on AT every hour... I mean... oops.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: mastertech01

Originally posted by: Sunner
This of course begs the question, why would anyone reinstall their system every month?

13. ...
Just a few reasons why people can screw themselves into having to reinstall regularly. And some just do it because they are bored, or think it works more smoothly or they hate SP2 and want to go back to SP1, or lots of others reasons.

You forgot:
14. Filesystem corruption due to using the Hibernate feature as a "faster" mode of shutdown, to swap hardware, etc., because MS never gave users a big fat warning that doing that is a bad idea.
15. Filesystem/registry corruption due to cache-flush issues with XP and modern faster hardware. (aka "\WINNT\SYSTEM32\system.ced is corrupt or missing")
16. Filesystem corruption/dataloss due to bugs in XP and SP1 when using HDs that require 48-bit LBA support and using the default MS IDE drivers.
17. Infections/worms/malware on the system, due to bugs in MS's inbuilt firewall, for users on dialup or ISDN, who wrongly believed that their systems were protected from network intrusion via the internet, due to a design bug in the MS firewall. (Dialup connections network scope was considered to be a "trusted" local LAN networking scope - except that the whole internet was in that scope...)
18. System is rendered unbootable due to horrific corner-cases in NTFS that can render a system unbootable if it ever becomes too highly fragmented. (May or may not happen with XP. MS claims not anymore, although it used to be a problem, Executive Software claims yes.)

Not all of the problems that someone could encounter, are entirely due to "user error".

 

[ScaredAndAfraid]

And most of all, some people like to do it. I don't re-install every month but I do about every 4 months or so. Most of the time this is due to installing various programs that I tried out and then decided I didn't want. I still have no faith in uninstalling programs as many times they forget some of their junk when they leave so after awhile I clean the whole thing out, install my necessary programs (e.g. office, winamp, banshee screamer, sequioaview, nero) and then wait till I need a certain program before I install it again. This cuts way down on clutter on my computer but as always, these types of things are more personal preference than anything else.

 

[LilHen]

Originally posted by: mastertech01
3. Visit too many P0rn sites and get viris and all kinds of unwanted crapola on thier system.

I don't know WTH you're talking about. Just as in real life, people should surf with protection.


On a more serious note, I've found that Windows uses more resources when you apply patch upon patch as opposed to having a slipstreamed install. I usually create a new install CD after every major Service Pack release and start from scratch.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: LilHen
I usually create a new install CD after every major Service Pack release and start from scratch.

Very good plan, that's what I do too.

 

[Nothinman]

've found that Windows uses more resources when you apply patch upon patch as opposed to having a slipstreamed install.

The only extra resources used are those of disk space for the uninstall files, applying a patch on top of an already running system is 99% exactly the same as installing with the patch slipstreamed to the CD.

 

[EmperorRob]

You could just as easily make up an 18 point list of reasons to wash all your clothes every day as re-install windows every month. I just find it too horribly inefficient.

For the record I've only installed my win2k and Debian partitions twice over the past 3 years b/c of HDD changes.