External HD and activation? Pete <Pete[ at ]nospam.com> 7/10/2007 7:19:39 PM I have an external HD that I do not always turn on. I basically use it for backup purposes. How will "activation" handle this?? Should I turn it on or off during activation? H*ll, I don't want to reactivate every time I turn it on or off! -Pete

Re: External HD and activation? "Dave B." <mail[ at ]nomail.net> 7/10/2007 7:58:46 PM Having the same piece of hardware present and not present at various times should not have any effect on activation. -- ---- Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375 How to Post http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Pete" <Pete[ at ]nospam.com> wrote in message news:eZQki.7841$bz7.4382[ at ]newssvr22.news.prodigy.net... [Quoted Text] >I have an external HD that I do not always turn on. I basically use it for >backup purposes. How will "activation" handle this?? Should I turn it on or >off during activation? H*ll, I don't want to reactivate every time I turn >it on or off! > -Pete

Re: External HD and activation? Pete <Pete[ at ]nospam.com> 7/10/2007 8:30:41 PM Dave B. wrote: [Quoted Text] > Having the same piece of hardware present and not present at various times > should not have any effect on activation. > I am not so sure of that. This is a hard disk, and changes in hard disk configuration can impact the activation "formula." God I hate M$.

Re: External HD and activation? Peter in New Zealand <peterbalplug[ at ]xtra.co.nz> 7/10/2007 8:53:29 PM Pete wrote: [Quoted Text] > > > Dave B. wrote: >> Having the same piece of hardware present and not present at various >> times should not have any effect on activation. >> > > I am not so sure of that. This is a hard disk, and changes in hard disk > configuration can impact the activation "formula." God I hate M$. Hi Pete. You should be just fine. I have a second internal HDD that was physically disconnected when I installed Vista as the system was determined to install onto it instead of the main HDD. After activation and setting things up the way I wanted I then reconnected the second HDD for backup purposes, and Vista never complained. So I would imagine you will have no trouble at all. Hope this helps. -- Peter in New Zealand. (Pull the plug out to reply.) Collector of old cameras, tropical fish fancier, good coffee nutter, and compulsive computer fiddler.

Re: External HD and activation? "R. C. White" <rc[ at ]grandecom.net> 7/10/2007 8:57:00 PM Hi, Pete. I've swapped hard drives in and out many times. The only time I've had to reactivate was when I had to actually reinstall Vista (or WinXP) for some reason, such as for a new motherboard or creating a new System Partition on a different HD. I'm talking about internal hard drives. You should have no problem with external drives that are not used to boot the system. RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX rc[ at ]grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64) "Pete" <Pete[ at ]nospam.com> wrote in message news:Q%Rki.1736$m%.259[ at ]newssvr17.news.prodigy.net... [Quoted Text] > > > Dave B. wrote: >> Having the same piece of hardware present and not present at various >> times should not have any effect on activation. >> > > I am not so sure of that. This is a hard disk, and changes in hard disk > configuration can impact the activation "formula." God I hate M$.

Re: External HD and activation? Pete <Pete[ at ]nospam.com> 7/10/2007 10:12:42 PM R. C. White wrote: [Quoted Text] > Hi, Pete. > > I've swapped hard drives in and out many times. The only time I've had > to reactivate was when I had to actually reinstall Vista (or WinXP) for > some reason, such as for a new motherboard or creating a new System > Partition on a different HD. > > I'm talking about internal hard drives. You should have no problem with > external drives that are not used to boot the system. > > RC Thanks everyone. I suppose I'll turn it off during the installation, and on afterward?

Re: External HD and activation? Herman Klump <hklumpe[ at ]hotmail.com> 7/11/2007 12:47:53 PM On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:19:39 -0400, Pete <Pete[ at ]nospam.com> wrote: [Quoted Text] >I have an external HD that I do not always turn on. I basically use it >for backup purposes. How will "activation" handle this?? Should I turn >it on or off during activation? H*ll, I don't want to reactivate every >time I turn it on or off! >-Pete I have many customers who use external USB hard drives to back up Vista without a problem. However, I also have three or four other customers who were forced to reactivate after removing their externals and plugging them into different USB ports - at least that's the only thing I could think of that could cause the reactivation request...... Or maybe it was just Billy Gates lookin' for his two dollars? I hate M$ too. Vista is the worst computer virus ever to infect our machines. Good Luck, HLK