I Swear This Makes Me Want To Switch To Linux...

I am doing some service work for a customer that fouled up their hard drive. They installed a lot of garbage and downloaded who knows what. Win XP was creeping along. I just decided to reformat and go from jump street. I have a CF-28, 800Mhz with 768MB of RAM and a 100GB, 7200rpm hard drive. I load Win XP Pro and everything goes just like the other 598 times I've loaded XP. EXCEPT.... I get this message at startup... It starts to log on but then the Admin user name comes up. (Something I've never seen on a fresh install.) Then I get a message....

"This copy of windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on"
If you click it and activate it... It just gets stuck in a loop of wanting to be activated. I have seen this crap on bootleg copies of Windows but this is a legit version! It wasn't the original COA... I installed a brand new copy that I got from Newegg!

Has anyone run into this before? Normally I just image the drive with a master drive that I have. Then I go into the SysPrep folder and put in the correct COA and boot up it up.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

 

Install Ubuntu and he'll never know the difference.

PS: Awesome Ben Stein reference.

 

That usually happens when you do a repair install, or when the hardware has changed significantly (such as a different motherboard) and more than three days has passed. You will have to call the toll free number it gives you and activate through the automated system (it's not so bad, I do about one a day, it's pretty painless). The reason it's looping is the ethernet and wireless drivers won't be installed so it can't connect to the activation servers.

Alternatively, just do another install, this time delete all partitions (like you should when reformatting anyway) and format NTFS (quick). Then install and you can activate in Windows after you install the network drivers.

 

Yeah... It cycled me around to the "Call in to get the new COA" thing... I did that. It still gets stuck in the cyclic crap of "Activate it!"... Now it then goes to "This product has already been activated."

I think I'll just use Acronis tomorrow and put on my regular image...

 

I swear, if it wasn't for modified copies of XP, I don't think anyone (other than corporate IT droids) would be using M$ anymore.

 

Really? I use XP Professional totally unmodified on my laptop.

 

Well, it's more activation. There's many kinds of licenses, volume, retail, OEM, MSDN to name the more popular ones.

In order for Windows to activate "automatically" without Internet or phone, you need to have the appropriate OEM volume license key and the right OEMBIOS files that matches the key and the BIOS information on your computer. That's how you can use your HP/Toshiba/Panasonic recovery disc in a same-brand computer without ever going through Windows Activation.

There used to be hacks to trick Windows into thinking you had a particular BIOS to match the OEMBIOS file, but they've since closed that loophole.

 

If you read the new MS license closely it says that ANY major change to the hardware requires a new license - forget about moving the OS from machine to machine. They are a profit-making corporation that cares little about quality or customer service & who routinely engage in Linux-bashing and other anti-competitive practices. Google is reportedly following in their footsteps.

If not for the children's learning CD's which are too much hassle to try to run under WINE I would have removed MS entirely - I never use anything MS except for their PC ... MS-free on 3 of 4 PCs. We use Clusty and not Google.

I am in the process of building a collection of Linux-friendly children's learning programs so I may rid our home of the MS-scourge.

There are excellent alternatives to MS - no one HAS to use MS any more.

 

I have done this hundreds of times though... This was a brand new copy of XP. The first time it was ever used was when I activated it when I sold it. Now it's back and needs to be reformatted because the guy messed it up. There was no change in hardware... Nothing! Just a plain reformat! The only time I have ever seen the warning come up like this was with a fake copy of XP where someone had tried to get around the activation... 30 days went by and the activation code came up like it is with this one. Again... This is a legit copy and it look like it sees it as a fake... Something doesn't make sense!

 

Just "The Man" trying to keep a ______ down, Toughbook. You've got the disk, I'm sure you've got others. Use the tools you have and ____ "The Man". Before he ______ you. 'no what I'm sayin'?


No disrespect intended, Just sayin'.

Who's to say that the fellow that owns your creation isn't already there?
Who's to say he's not?

Do what you have to do and move along.

 

I had this happen once or twice... try re-installing XP with the network cable UNPLUGGED... if XP Has the drivers built in for the networking (and I think on the CF-28's they do) then it will try to activate windoze... when it can't activate because of an error then sometimes this loop can occur.

Good luck!

 

I'm going to reimage the drive with SysPrep and then insert the key... That is the way that I usually do it. I just wanted to install it the regular way this time... I guess I won't do THAT anymore!