microsoft xp validation & hard drive problem

lainey_stardust

right, this is my problem.....my pc has a 40gb hard drive and XP pro service pack 3 , all updates ok etc. We decided to put in a bigger hard drive and ran the installation disc again on a formatted hard drive. When we put the COA numbers in to validate the copy it would not validate it. We tried the phone number that accompanies the disc to generate a new set of numbers but were told that we had to contact whoever sold us the pc, who aren't there anymore.
Does anyone know how to get past this problem without paying an arm & a leg to speak to Microsoft??

hotkee

Run out of license - its a new copy you need - ebay for cheaper options.

Browntoa

or try cloning the old drive over to the new drive

http://selfimage.excelcia.org/

Can create an image of an entire hard disk, including the master boot record, partition table, and all partitions (Windows 2000/XP)

Marty_J

If it won't activate, you need to speak to Microsoft. You should have the option of calling them during the activation procedure.

lainey_stardust

hi folks, thanks for taking the time to reply.
We have cloned the disk already , thats when the problem started. We used a programme called Casper , which does the same as the Selfimage prog seems to do, and cloned the 40gb onto the 250gb harddrive. (we've done this before with other pc's though not using the same installation disc and COA key, and it has always worked fine.)The XP was already validated on the 40gb and was running fine but after the cloning we were directed to Microsoft to validate the XP and thats when it told us it wasn't a valid copy. Surely if we had made an exact clone of an already validated copy it wouldn't ask us to validate again?
We did ring the number given on the Microsoft Validation site but all we got was an automated voice asking us to enter a code generated by the validation program. we entered the code and were then told to contact the seller of the pc,which we can't do.

Marty_J

You might find someone who can advise you better here:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/genuinewindowsxp/threads