Guest Ian Coolidge Posted August 19, 2008 Posted August 19, 2008 I made the fatal flaw of building a system with a PATA hard drive instead of a SATA hard drive. After living with it for 6 months I decided enough was enough and I went out and bought 2 SATA hard drives for a RAID0 configuration. I don't wanna spend another 100+ dollars on a new CD key nor do I want to wait for my Student MSDN liscense to renew in October to get another (basically free) copy of Windows. Is there a way I can reinstall windows using the same CD key I used before? I hear if I activate over the phone it is easier to do since I talk to an actual person. Can anyone give me some guidance in this? Is it possible to do? Thanks, -Ian
Guest Gary S. Terhune Posted August 19, 2008 Posted August 19, 2008 Re: Reinstalling Windows on another HDD w/ same CD key That's exactly what you do. If it doesn't Activate automatically, then the phone route is the way to go, for sure. You should have no problem. Just explain the hardware change and you reasons reinstalled and that should be it. -- Gary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User http://grystmill.com "Ian Coolidge" <Ian Coolidge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:EA49A2B0-306D-4DE6-A11B-D67C16E599DD@microsoft.com... >I made the fatal flaw of building a system with a PATA hard drive instead >of > a SATA hard drive. After living with it for 6 months I decided enough was > enough and I went out and bought 2 SATA hard drives for a RAID0 > configuration. > > I don't wanna spend another 100+ dollars on a new CD key nor do I want to > wait for my Student MSDN liscense to renew in October to get another > (basically free) copy of Windows. Is there a way I can reinstall windows > using the same CD key I used before? I hear if I activate over the phone > it > is easier to do since I talk to an actual person. Can anyone give me some > guidance in this? Is it possible to do? > > Thanks, > -Ian
Guest Ken Blake Posted August 20, 2008 Posted August 20, 2008 Re: Reinstalling Windows on another HDD w/ same CD key "Ian Coolidge" <Ian Coolidge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:EA49A2B0-306D-4DE6-A11B-D67C16E599DD@microsoft.com... > I made the fatal flaw of building a system with a PATA hard drive instead > of > a SATA hard drive. I wouldn't call that "fatal" at all. Yes, SATA will be somewhat faster, but if you expect a dramatic improvement, you'll probably be disappointed. > After living with it for 6 months I decided enough was > enough and I went out and bought 2 SATA hard drives for a RAID0 > configuration. SATA is fine, but I recommend against using RAID0. In my experience, any speed increase it provides is so small as to be unnoticeable. But the extra risk to your data is severe. It's a bad bargain. > I don't wanna spend another 100+ dollars on a new CD key nor do I want to > wait for my Student MSDN liscense to renew in October to get another > (basically free) copy of Windows. Is there a way I can reinstall windows > using the same CD key I used before? Certainly. Despite what some people think, there is no limit to the number of times you can reinstall Windows and reactivate it, as long as it's only on a single computer at a time. If your copy of Windows is OEM, the license ties it the first computer it's installed on, but if it'soretail, you can even move it another computer, again as often as you want tp. > I hear if I activate over the phone it > is easier to do since I talk to an actual person. Can anyone give me some > guidance in this? Is it possible to do? Just activate it normally. Since it's been six months, it should activate over the internet just as it did before, but worst case, if you need to do it by phone, it will prompt you to do so--it's quick and easy.
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