winchendon Posted November 23, 2008 Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 What I want to do is wipe my hard drive clean and start over with a fresh reinstall of xp pro. What im not sure of is what/or any of the registry I need to back up. Say for instance I do not back up anything, I simply save just my documents on an external drive, then wipe my computer. Then i boot it with the xp cd and install. Will my same serial number work that im using now?thanks alot in advance-ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2khardtop Posted November 23, 2008 Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 you don't need to back up any registry information, or activation information. As long as you have a valid Product Key (usually a sticker on your computer, or the Windows box), you simply reinstall and supply the key when asked. Once up and running, it will go online and validate the key, or worse case, you'll make a 10minute phone call to activate.There are ways to back up your activation keys, but I've found them to be more time consuming than a regular activation, and the only reason I see attempting to do that is if you are trying to use a Bootleg copy of Windows.Anyway, back up all of your data (I just copy the entire My Documents folder (XP) or the User folder (vista) from the C drive). Then reinstall all of your programs, and throw your data back where it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis 2012 Posted November 23, 2008 Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 well some programs store some of the information on the registry but its usually not a big deal so just backing up your files and reinstalling should work fine. no need to back up the registry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winchendon Posted November 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 ok great. Even though I do not cancel my activation, after i reinstall microsoft will not think my copy of windows is a double? It seems it would or else you could make many copies of your windows disk and install it numerous times on numerous computers. no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis 2012 Posted November 23, 2008 Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 well here's a link to how the windows XP activation works http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2.nsf/lo...A256B0900220C5F.It seems that as long as you are reinstalling to the same PC you won't have any problems, and any way you can always call microsoft and explain to then of you do, so then they'll give u a new key. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winchendon Posted November 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 Ya that's kind of what i figured the activation was for. I wonder why more people don't do this more often. It just seems that dealing with some really complex problems could be solved more easily by just starting from a clean slate. and thanks again for your'e help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted November 24, 2008 Report Share Posted November 24, 2008 Ya that's kind of what i figured the activation was for. I wonder why more people don't do this more often. It just seems that dealing with some really complex problems could be solved more easily by just starting from a clean slate. and thanks again for your'e help.Very true, this is why I would NEVER consider buying a brand name computer when an installation CD is not supplied. Having got everything up and running, a USB plug in hard drive and Acronis software does not break the bank, and you can save a mirror image of the installation for the future. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted November 24, 2008 Report Share Posted November 24, 2008 I've just had a mother-board burnt out by a tiny short-circuit so had to have a new one fitted. I decided to re-install XP from scratch rather than from the Acronis back up as I figured a new installation should also sort out some other minor glitches I'd been having.At first I couldn't activate XP because of the new mother-board, chipset, etc, but after a short phone call to the MS office here in Sri Lanka it was all sorted out in 5 minutes. They have certain procedures to check the software is genuine and were very helpful.Now having got all the XP updates everything's running faster & smoother and the machine boots in about half the time it took before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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