Activation of XP for Dual Boot

Hi,

I hope someone can help clear my mind over this issue.
I've been running a PC with XP Pro for the last six years, until the motherboard packed up about a month ago. The replacement PC has the 64 bit version of 7 Pro installed, which is fine but will not allow some useful programs and hardware to run properly.
Using Paragon's Hard Disk Manager 2011 I've created the Dual boot senario up to the point where XP needs activation. Because XP was OEM with the old machine I am told by Microsoft's Auto-activation system that the copy is not legal and by telephone that the OEM license does not permit the use my XP program on anything other that the original computer on which it was installed.

Confusion comes when reluctantly accepting this I looked on e-bay to see a whole range of OEM discs being offered "unused with a piece of original hardware" and catagorically stating that under European laws these are legitimate.

So my question - does anyone know if this is so? and if that is the case what is the difference between these disks offered for sale and the OEM recovery product I hold that came with the original machine?

Guidance would be appreciated, as I really do not want to buy something that takes me no further forward than I am now, and resent feathering the Ms coffers by paying for a full version of something I have legitimately worked with for the past 6 years!

The XP on your computer- these are called OEM (specifically royalty OEM) versions. Such a copy is legally tied to the original mobo and cannot be transferred to a new machine. Such copies activate offline as long as they are on the same mobo.

The ebay OEM disks would be System builder OEM copies- these are similar to retail copies but cannot be legally moved from the first computer they are installed on. They are cheap because MS support is not bundled with them. "Unused with a piece of original hardware" might mean that the copy has never been activated before, the original hardware part is probably there because this version was only to be sold installed on a whitebox. This became a farce later on because mice/keyboards and similar insignificant hardware started being bundled to satisfy the EULA. Anyways thats a different story.

But my sincere advice- stay away from ebay. You have no means of verifying whether its an unused copy and ebay is infamous for this. we've had umpteen cases of people being duped.

Bill2 said:

The XP on your computer- these are called OEM (specifically royalty OEM) versions. Such a copy is legally tied to the original mobo and cannot be transferred to a new machine. Such copies activate offline as long as they are on the same mobo.

The ebay OEM disks would be System builder OEM copies- these are similar to retail copies but cannot be legally moved from the first computer they are installed on. They are cheap because MS support is not bundled with them. "Unused with a piece of original hardware" might mean that the copy has never been activated before, the original hardware part is probably there because this version was only to be sold installed on a whitebox. This became a farce later on because mice/keyboards and similar insignificant hardware started being bundled to satisfy the EULA. Anyways thats a different story.

But my sincere advice- stay away from ebay. You have no means of verifying whether its an unused copy and ebay is infamous for this. we've had umpteen cases of people being duped.

Hi there

Ebay or better known as "Scambay" can provide -- if you are VERY CAREFUL - some bargains but "Used Software" is definitely a category to stay away from.

The only time this type of purchase could possibly work is if you buy a full retail copy of the OS and even then you will have to activate by phone saying you've got a NEW computer --and it's a mute point whether MS would activate the OS or not.

If it's not the original DVD but a "Copy" chances are that this has already been activated too many times and will be blacklisted by MS.

For Software as far as EBAY is concerned --STAY WELL AWAY.

Cheers
jimbo

Thank you all for your responses.

The annoyance at having to "apparently" pay twice for the same thing is starting to subside, - a little, and the caution regarding used software is noted well enough.

CyberZeus mentioned XP mode in 7 and I confess to having tried with that (still loaded and occasionally used) but in general it did not seem to help with my specific issues.
Perhaps there is more to it than I have realised, and I shall return to that area and explore some more!

Thanks again.

You can still reactivate your OEM installation on a replacement motherboard in the old machine. For instance, if your XP machine had only been 6 months old, and the motherboard failed, you could have replaced the motherboard with a similar model, but six years on, the availability of boards and processors has changed. There is no time limitation on the license.

It does not mean that you have to throw away your old XP - you may need to reinstall XP to accommodate the new hardware, but you are within your rights to do so. Whether your OEM left you with the means to reinstall - disks, or a recovery partition is a different matter.

However, a dual boot is probably not going to be legitimate.

What the Microsoft Windows Activation Technology and Microsoft Genuine Advantage programs are designed to prevent is not people continuing to use their old operating systems (even though they have ceased to be profitable to MS), but to stop people distributing a single copy of the OS on several different machines, either for distribution or within a home or business environment. People with one wooden leg, eye patches and parrots on their shoulders, for instance.

If you do reinstate your old hard disk on a new motherboard etc, a live telephone reactivation will be required, and your reactivation details will be recorded by the Microsoft operative.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...2-909118622476

It would be a breach of the EULA to use the OEM license on another machine, the license dies with the motherboard. When one installs windows, one accepts the EULA, remember?

Practically speaking, replacing the oem mobo with a non-oem one would render the restore cd/partition (if such things exist) useless, otherwise the OP would need to get hold of a regular XP iso of the exact species that came preinstalled (since XP does not have generic disks and can be very finicky about service packs) which is no easy matter now.

Most people dont need MS to monitor them, going by the OP's posts I think he'll stick to the ethics even if there were no WGA or parrots.

Thanks again for the interest and input.

Afraid that Compatability Mode has not helped with my issues either.

Essentially the problems are with software which is associated with / supporting items of hardware where the product manufacturers have decided not to update their support for particular products.

Thus annoyingly where one buys equipment good enough to survive a decent period of time the manufacturers ensure its obsolescence by non-support for a new operating system.

I shall now take a while to ponder the competing merits of splashing out on a legitimate copy of XP or scrapping a perfectly good printer and scanner and buying new. The latter option I confess I have been reluctant to follow as to buy today's equivalents would cost a lot more than the o/s, though what life is actually left in my present kit represents the other element of the quandry .