MS Vista activation

[joshmroest]

Okay...here it is...

In the beginning of this year, I built a HTPC. I bought Windows Vista Home Premium edition for it. It has been running fine. I had 2 hard drives in it (SATA 250 and SATA 500). I decided to just use the 500 and take out the 250. The thing is that the 250 was my boot drive. I managed to clear the 500 off and ghosted the 250 to the 500. I then booted it from the 500 and it gave me an error. It said to run a repair with the Vista install disk. I did and about 5 minutes later, it worked again. That was last weekend. My wife rebooted it this morning (I'm at work) and now it wants to activate again. My wife then put the serial key in again and it said that it was in use. I am going to call Microsoft when I can but has anyone else seen this issue?

Any input would help.

 

[nerp]

Yeah, I had to activate my copy of Vista Business a second time after I installed some updated drivers for my SATA controller a few weeks to a month after my initial install/activation. I have a retail copy and online activation failed -- I just called and told them I did some updating and I did the whole manual activation thing over the phone. I just gave myself 20 minutes of time to do it so it wasn't a big deal. Fortunatley you're not locked out the instant it starts telling you you need to reactivate.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

I think everyone is in an agreement that this is a feature and not a bug.

 

[bsobel]

Um, what I dont get is the 'she put the key in again part' The activation wizard should have just activated online, never prompting for a key (confused)....

But yeah, since you changed your boot drive it's not unexpected. It should have been just a couple of mouse clicks however...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just changing the boot drive triggers a re-activation in Vista? Whatever happened to the voting system used in XP. It doesn't seem like a single drive should have that much of a vote.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Just changing the boot drive triggers a re-activation in Vista? Whatever happened to the voting system used in XP. It doesn't seem like a single drive should have that much of a vote.

The boot drive is one of the more important items to check. Its much more common for memory to be added/deleted or a video card changed than the boot drive. If its been a few months the system will just re-activate online. The OP wound up doing it a bit close to after the first install, hence the need to call in...

 

[RebateMonger]

MS has already stated that they've "eased up" on XP's point system, and there's supposed to be FEWER "false Activation alarms" with Vista. However, from what I read, it seems that Vista is complaining MORE often than XP did.

Since Microsoft hasn't released any details on their point system so far, it's hard to know why this is happening.

One nice Vista "feature" is that, so far, Vista can be updated without Activating it. XP with WGA often didn't allow manual updates unless you Activated first. At this time, with Vista, it appears you can wait months before first Activating, using the well-known Microsoft tools for delaying Activation.