non ACTIVATED XP C:\ partition and functionality

I let my C:\ XP partition pass 30 days ( and it thus locks me out and it will not boot unless and when I decide to activate it ) to see what effects it has on my other partitions and surprisingly it allows for the other visible partitions to boot up normally.

In addition the Recovery Console (which is on this partition) still shows up in the windows boot-loader and is functional as well!

Windows Explorer works as usual which means that any data on the C partition can be taken off of it ( I copied data to CD with no problems, and as well, have moved data from it to other partitions also).

This is useful to know when one gets locked out by registry problems (the activation snafu shut down which has been reported on completely legitimate XP's) or when changing motherboards ( the original factory restore hard disk did this on my machine) and one needs to get data off : add a new XP partition and it will be automatically added to the boot.ini file and will boot up fine ( hopefully on other machines as well).

It also allows images from TI10 to be restored and they boot up. If it is an image that is restored to a different partition it can be added thru the recovery console.

This unactivated partition also does not interfere with my two hidden XP DD10 OS's (both separate C:\ partitions), allowing hiding, unhiding, "make active" ect. as usual. This has been working well for two weeks now so I think it is stable in this condition.

Now I can activate it ( as it has many utilities and other software on it).

 

Don't know why but this attachment did not work on prior post. EVE is XP home as is C:\.

All XP's are full installs partitioned by DD10 but formatted by XP (except EVE, which is an image restored to a different partition).

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Has anyone have the same outcome with vista? This is the kind of data needed to choose vista or not. Linux may still be the better option.