Windows XP backup.

[mohit]

I am planning to buy licensed Windows XP home edition , I want to know if i can make a backup of the original cd just for backup purposes and to be used only on the machine on which I will be activating it.

Also suppose i upgrade my hardware in the future , then how will the original windows work for me (as it verifies the hardware config. also) ? will i have to buy Windows XP again ?

And one more q , will a software like Alcohol 120% be able to create a backup for me of my original XP cd ? And what copy protection technique do the XP cd's use ?

[ferrarif50]

There are no copy protection put in Windows XP CDs. You can right away make a copy ( also bootable ) and keep it as a backup.

Reactivating Windows XP after upgrading your hardware depends on what you really upgrade. If it is a major overhaul, then Windows automatically recognizes the change and acts appropriately. If it is a simple upgrade like only the RAM etc, then no activation required.

You can get a complete and detailed information on whats Windows Product Activation, how it works and how to go about it here

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...,554871,00.asp

Hope this helps you!

[rajas]

Chk this link too for WPA FAQ's. It gives you the way Activation works and also the tolerance worked out in WPA. Hope it would help you too.


http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx

[navjotjsingh]

When Windows XP was released everybody was complaining about the activation... As time went on people began to realize that they could backup their activation file. I get enough people asking about this that I thought I'd just put the information here. All you have to backup is two little files!

Go to your _:\WINDOWS\System32\ and find a file called "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" back those files up to a floppy, CD or whatever you want to put it on.

When you want to restore these files go into safe mode and put them into your windows\system32 directory. When you reboot you should be activated without actually going through MS.

[mohit]

@navjotsingh hey dude does this mean that suppose i buy genuine windows and activate it and then i save the 2 files that u specified on a cd. now if i give my frnd a copy of my windows and the cd with these 2 files and if he just pastes them in the folder u specified , will his windows also work fine and will he not require any activation ??

[aadipa]

Originally Posted by mohit

@navjotsingh hey dude does this mean that suppose i buy genuine windows and activate it and then i save the 2 files that u specified on a cd. now if i give my frnd a copy of my windows and the cd with these 2 files and if he just pastes them in the folder u specified , will his windows also work fine and will he not require any activation ??

no way.........

activation id depending on 10 different components in your system. and even few of them change, u need to reactivate.

Even if u and ur friend have same specification systems, the serial no of processors, HDD and various other controlers change. so u cannt use the same activation file.

in fact u cann't use the same file if u change some parts of ur system (like upgradation).

[khattam_]

Originally Posted by aadipa

no way.........

activation id depending on 10 different components in your system. and even few of them change, u need to reactivate.

Even if u and ur friend have same specification systems, the serial no of processors, HDD and various other controlers change. so u cannt use the same activation file.

in fact u cann't use the same file if u change some parts of ur system (like upgradation).

Yeah................

If you change your own processor, restoring the Wpa.dbl after reinstallation is not gonna help..............

[sureshkumar]

this is good idea if your windows has got problem and u r reinstalling it without chnaging hardware, then you need not to activate again with ms