universal restore & wga

I have TI9 which I use for backups. It works well and I'm happy with it. I have received a tempting offer from Acronis to buy the workstation version, with universal reinstall, for $50. I have an Acer laptop, a Dell PC and a home built PC, all with XP. My question is this - if the Dell or Acer "die", will I be able to reinstall the image to another PC, because the OEM XP installed on them came with the PC's and is I believe "tied" to the BIOS. I have in the past tried to upgrade an OEM license to a full version, but was told by Microsoft that it could only be done by buying a full license and carrying out a full reinstall - Is there any point in buying universal reinstall in this case?

Many thanks.

 

Hi,

after the universal restore process you haven't lost your programs and all your settings, you may have to reactivate your windows installation, but don't need to reinstall. This will technically work (maybe by phone-activating). The license situation is quite another point. You need another Windows XP license for your second system, your DELL or ACER license is tied to your system...

Volker

 

The problem is not the cost of buying another license - it is that according to the information I have been given by microsoft, even after buying a new license for the new machine, I would still have to do a full reinstall to get a licensed copy onto the new machine - it is not possible to convert an OEM Dell or Acer version to a full BIOS independent version without reinstalling. Phone activating etc does not work with OEM versions - they are tied to the motherboard BIOS, and check it to determine whether they should run or not. - a Dell OEM XP setup will only run on a Dell motherboard. I don't know if they are tied to particular models or whether it would be possible to move from one dell to another without problems.
(Though I should point out that the cost is significant - Microsoft don't allow any reduction in cost when buying an upgrade from OEM to full version. They sell you a new full version which you have to reinstall over the old version, trashing it in the process)
So, even if I did a perfect reinstallation, with all the drivers, settings etc intact, the new PC would recognise that it wasn't the right BIOS and assume it was a pirated copy (and i presume stop working). To overcome this would mean a reinstall of XP, so why bother with copying the image in the first place?

 

It is a long time ago but I seem to remember that one could install an upgrade version of XP by showing it a Windows 98 or ME disk at the start of the installation process. This could save a bit of cash but does not help with the other technical problems or maybe.........

 

I believe you are right - I think it is possible to upgrade at a reduced price from ME/98 to XP, but not according to Microsoft, from OEM XP to Full XP. I should perhaps reiterate that my problwem is not with Acronis - I like the idea of what they are trying to do. My beef is that Microsofts attitude to upgrades etc make Acronis's efforts useless in some cases. Microsoft should make it possible to go from OEM to full or OEM Dell to OEM Acer, and with a reduced cost. Bad enough having to pay Microsoft once for a bit of software!

 

I have not tried this but maybe someone else has and can confirm if it does work.
Format the drive to remove the OEM installation. Start an upgrade install and insert your Win98 disk when asked for upgrade proof. You could check this out with a borrowed XP upgrade disk to make sure that it will work. Just make sure to quit before the validation stage and Format again. Now go buy an XP upgrade disk and start over.

 

Hi,

I can only report from german versions of Windows XP in Dell versions. The bios check takes place during the setup of windows with the dell recovery CDs. Once the system is running, you can transfer it to a new system AND during the reactivation process you have the possibility to change the key.

So you don't need to reinstall the complete system AND have the correct key.

Volker

 

Hi,

Many thanks for the information - that makes reinstalling to another machine feasible.

Thanks.