Re-imaging a System Without Reactivating Win XP

[Spawn]

Have you ever wanted to reformat the hard disk and reinstall Windows XP on a system, but you didn't want to mess around with Microsoft's Product Activation after the reinstall?

As long as you aren't making any hardware alterations, you can back up the activation status files before you reformat the hard drive and then restore them after you reinstall the operating system.

To perform the backup, follow these steps:

1. Use Windows Explorer to open the C:\Windows\System32 folder.
2. Copy the Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak files to a floppy disk or CD.

To perform the restore, follow these steps:

1. Decline the activation request at the end of the installation procedure, and restart Windows XP.
2. During boot up, press [F8] to access the Windows Advanced Options menu.
3. Choose the Safe Mode (SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal) option.
4. Use Windows Explorer to open the C:\Windows\System32 folder.
5. If they exist, rename the new Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak files to Wpadbl.new and Wpabak.new.
6. Copy the original Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak files from the floppy disk or CD to the C:\Windows\System32 folder.
7. Restart the system.

Hope It Helps!!! :cool:

[Tortanick]

1) great work spawn!

2) wrong forum, this belongs in tips and tricks.

[mylanta]

1) great work spawn!

2) wrong forum, this belongs in tips and tricks.


Well that is one of those great possibleproblems with so many forums....I think more people will see it here and it certainly is relevant to XP also....

[Tortanick]

I was under the impression the XP forum was based around asking for help.

[Spawn]

Mirror, I don't use Ghost on this machine, and those files are present. This system has a normal XP Pro setup on it. :)

[Terry Hanushek]

Tortanick

I was under the impression the XP forum was based around asking for help.
This thread on reinstalling WinXP without reactivating seems to fit either here or the Tweaks, Tips and Hacks forum. Its a close call and could go either way. We are not going to be that rigid and exacting as long as posters exercise reasonability.

One thing that has impressed me so far is that many of our posters are as concerned about the BBS protocol as we are.

Thanks for your help :clap2:

:ranger:

Terry

[Tortanick]

BBS? that bullitin board system right?

[kelly]

yup: BBS = Bulletin Board Service

-td

[kern]

this type of situation was discussed in the "Mark a post of interest" thread. might it be a good idea to move Spawns' original post to the "Tips" forum as a "closed topic", and place a link here in XP forum for further discussion/questions, etc?