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Installed new HDD on eMachine and installed new XP Home Edition but key on system still shows OEM Product Key RRS feed

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    A year or so ago I made the mistake of buying an eMachine T6412 and had problems with it right from the start.  After dealing with eMachines support over a period of two weeks I got fed up with them getting me deeper into problems.

     

    I bought a full version of XP Home Edition and tried to install it but couldn't.  Apparently eMachines did something to the drive/system that prevented it so I ripped the drive out and replaced it with a new one and then had no problems installing my XP Home Edition.  The machine has been running great ever since.

     

    Now I'm looking to build a new machine (new motherboard and cpu) and put the hard drive from the eMachine with my installed full version of XP Home Edition into the new PC.  I've been reading about the activitation key issue associated with doing this so I checked my existing system to make sure I had the right XP Home Edition CD & key for this system (I have a couple of machines with full licensed versions of XP Home Edition installed) and discovered, to my horror, that the product key is still that of the OEM XP install from eMachines and not the key of the full XP Home Edition that I installed on the new drive.

     

    Does this have something to do with the existing eMachine motherboard being registered with the original OEM XP install?  How do I fix this so that it's registered with my full XP Home Edition and not the OEM XP so that I won't run into problems putting my existing hard drive into a new system with new motherboard and CPU (I understand there are activation issues with doing this if you have an OEM XP installed).

     

    Any advice would be appreciated.

    Saturday, October 27, 2007 1:23 AM

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    Good Morning El_Tornado,

     

    You are very welcome :-).  Let me see if I may answer your questions.

     

    1. Moving the hard drive and using it as a secondary drive should not pose to many problems. Still I must say and agree with you it is always best to reformat any hard drive after it has been used especially when building a new system. Should you decide to venture down this route please make sure you delete the Windows Directory. Prior deleting the Windows directory please ensure all your bookmarks, and data files are removed from the Documents and Settings Folder (where all users profiles are stored) and move them temporarily to a folder in the C:/ drive. Next remove the windows directory and now you may move the files from your C:/ drive to a filing system on the secondary drive. 

     

    2.  You should be able to capture most of your information which I previously mentioned. All your information is automatically stored under My Documents under your profile which is maintained under the C:/Documents and Settings folder unless you changed the default Windows settings. I would recommend for you to create one folder with various subfolders. This way you may decide where to place the data and will make it easier when you need to reformat and back up data on a regular basis. 

     

     

    Hope this provided you with information. Should you have other Windows questions please visit the Windows XP Discussions in General forum located here:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsxp.general&lang=en&cr=US 

     

     

     

    Take care,

     

    Stephen Holm, MS

    Tuesday, October 30, 2007 5:02 PM

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    Hello El Tornado,

     

    If you purchased a Retail Full Version of Windows then you would be permitted to install the operating system on a new machine (as long as you are not running the Operating System on multiple machines). If you perchased an OEM version then the licensing is tied to that motherboard of the machine which in this case would be the eMachine. What version of Windows did you purchase when you started to have the problems with the eMachine? 

     

     

    Stephen Holm, MS

     

    Monday, October 29, 2007 10:09 PM
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    Stephen,

     

    I appreciate you taking the time to respond.  Since posting I've done a few things including trying to locate the full license XP CD for the machine I want to upgrade.  Despite a weekend of turning the house upside down I wasn't able to locate it and after running some utilities to retrieve the full key code and checking against the OEM key code sticker on eMachine case I've come to the conclusion that my recollection of the events must be skewed (I'm embarassed to say).  I could have sworn that I had two full versions of XP but could only locate one CD and its key code matches the one on my other machine.  I don't recall doing it but, I must have rebuilt the eMachine with new hard drive using the eMachine XP install disk.

     

    Since my post I've done a lot of research, reading and weighing pros and cons and I've decided that rather than upgrade to Vista I'm going to stay with XP for the time being.  I may go to Vista somewhere down the road or I may just wait for the next OS (Windows 7?).  I'll be building the new machine and purchasing a new full version of XP to install on it (a fresh install).  I'd really like to have been able to just move the hard drive from the old machine into the new but I think a fresh install is probably the better way to go .... more work to reload programs etcetera but probably a better choice in the long run.

     

    I do have a few questions about this though.

    1. If I move the hard drive with the OEM XP install into the new machine as a secondary drive am I I likely to run into any problems if I don't reformat it first?

    2. If I don't reformat the old boot drive how much of the settings, account info etcetera can I copy from the old XP setup to the new?  Adviseable?  I'm just being lazy, of course, and looking to minimize the effort Smile

     

    Thanks again.

     

    Regards .... el_T

    Monday, October 29, 2007 11:11 PM
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    Good Morning El_Tornado,

     

    You are very welcome :-).  Let me see if I may answer your questions.

     

    1. Moving the hard drive and using it as a secondary drive should not pose to many problems. Still I must say and agree with you it is always best to reformat any hard drive after it has been used especially when building a new system. Should you decide to venture down this route please make sure you delete the Windows Directory. Prior deleting the Windows directory please ensure all your bookmarks, and data files are removed from the Documents and Settings Folder (where all users profiles are stored) and move them temporarily to a folder in the C:/ drive. Next remove the windows directory and now you may move the files from your C:/ drive to a filing system on the secondary drive. 

     

    2.  You should be able to capture most of your information which I previously mentioned. All your information is automatically stored under My Documents under your profile which is maintained under the C:/Documents and Settings folder unless you changed the default Windows settings. I would recommend for you to create one folder with various subfolders. This way you may decide where to place the data and will make it easier when you need to reformat and back up data on a regular basis. 

     

     

    Hope this provided you with information. Should you have other Windows questions please visit the Windows XP Discussions in General forum located here:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsxp.general&lang=en&cr=US 

     

     

     

    Take care,

     

    Stephen Holm, MS

    Tuesday, October 30, 2007 5:02 PM