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Licensing: One recovery disk, multiple computers. RRS feed

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    Hi There,

    I just bought 2 HP Vista Business machines from ebay for a business client of mine last week. The machines are installed OK and are activated and receiving updates. The problem is that the product key stickers have been almost entirely worn away and the product keys are not readable. The machines do not have restore partitions so I cannot restore them from scratch myself and I do not have a recovery CD. I was using Nirsoft's Produkey to retrieve the product keys so I could at least make a note of them when I noticed they are identical on both machines.

    At this point I started to worry the seller might have used a VLK to reinstall Vista Business (which wouldn't be kosher - although it doesn't say it's the Enterprise Edition either) so I wrote to him. He responded explaining that he had used the same set of recovery disks to reinstall both systems and that's why they have the same product code.

    I have 3 questions...

    1) Is that a plausible explanation for the product codes being the same

    2) What is the status of my licenses for these machines i.e. are they kosher, can I sell these machines on legally?

    3) If I ever need to reinstall these machines will I need a HP specific recovery disk or can I use any other Vista Business install disk

    Thanks,

    Roger Heathcote

    Saturday, August 6, 2011 4:03 PM

Answers

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    All machines buit by by large OEM's (such as HP) with Windows Preinstalled use OEM_SLP Keys - which rely on Certificates in the OS, and the BIOS SLIC table to be able to self-activate (they do not require telephone or internet activation unlike other license types).

    All machines of a particular model will have identical product Keys and Product ID's - assuming that they have the same OS installed.

    If you run the MGADiag tool, you will see hether the Channel type is quoted at OEM_SLP or not - if the tool declares it as OEM_SLP and genuine then the installation is OK. If it declares it as being either COA_SLP or OEM_NSLP (OEM System Builder) then either or both machines are installled with a counterfeit.

    <boilerplate>

    To properly analyse and solve problems with Activation and Validation, we need to see a full copy of the report produced by the MGADiag tool (download and save to desktop - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012 )
    Once saved, run the tool.
    Click on the Continue button, which will produce the report.
    To copy the report to your response, click on the Copy button in the tool (ignore any error messages at this point), and then paste (using either r-click/Paste, or Ctrl+V ) into your response.
     - IN YOUR OWN THREAD, please

    </boilerplate>

    If you cannot reinstall these machine using the HP recovery disks, you will need to purchase Full Retail license packages.

    You should be able to get the Recovery disks from HP for a reasonable price - or try restoredisks.com

     

    Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth
    • Edited by Noel D PatonModerator Saturday, August 6, 2011 4:27 PM sundry typos
    • Marked as answer by r0g Saturday, August 6, 2011 6:27 PM
    Saturday, August 6, 2011 4:25 PM
    Moderator

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  • Question
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    All machines buit by by large OEM's (such as HP) with Windows Preinstalled use OEM_SLP Keys - which rely on Certificates in the OS, and the BIOS SLIC table to be able to self-activate (they do not require telephone or internet activation unlike other license types).

    All machines of a particular model will have identical product Keys and Product ID's - assuming that they have the same OS installed.

    If you run the MGADiag tool, you will see hether the Channel type is quoted at OEM_SLP or not - if the tool declares it as OEM_SLP and genuine then the installation is OK. If it declares it as being either COA_SLP or OEM_NSLP (OEM System Builder) then either or both machines are installled with a counterfeit.

    <boilerplate>

    To properly analyse and solve problems with Activation and Validation, we need to see a full copy of the report produced by the MGADiag tool (download and save to desktop - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012 )
    Once saved, run the tool.
    Click on the Continue button, which will produce the report.
    To copy the report to your response, click on the Copy button in the tool (ignore any error messages at this point), and then paste (using either r-click/Paste, or Ctrl+V ) into your response.
     - IN YOUR OWN THREAD, please

    </boilerplate>

    If you cannot reinstall these machine using the HP recovery disks, you will need to purchase Full Retail license packages.

    You should be able to get the Recovery disks from HP for a reasonable price - or try restoredisks.com

     

    Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth
    • Edited by Noel D PatonModerator Saturday, August 6, 2011 4:27 PM sundry typos
    • Marked as answer by r0g Saturday, August 6, 2011 6:27 PM
    Saturday, August 6, 2011 4:25 PM
    Moderator
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    That's extremely helpful to know Noel, I shall make a note of that info - thank you very much.
    Saturday, August 6, 2011 6:27 PM
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    You're welcome - if you have any problems, just post back with an MGADiag report, and I'll take a look.
    Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth
    Saturday, August 6, 2011 8:09 PM
    Moderator