I recently replaced my C drive with a larger one doing this prompted me to reactivate windows. I am running Vista ultimate with all updates. Reactivated OK but I have not had this happen before when I have replaced a hard drive on this or on XP machines. Curious to know whether others have had similar experiences after replacing a relatively minor piece of hardware?
I cloned by HDD last week 250GB -> 1TB (Vista Ultimate). Only problem I had was Vista going skitz when two identical installs are present ( even though my boot priority was set in the BIOS) and needing a bcd repair. Vista Ultimate didn't need reactivating.
Typically, (at least this is my experience with various XP installs) how close you are to needing reactivation builds up over time of replacing little bits of hardware. Say, you replace a CD drive, that adds a little bit, replace a graphics card, getting close to needing reactivation, add a hard drive and it pushes it over the 'limit', prompting you to reactivate. It's nothing to worry about.
had it reactivate once when I flashed the bios to a newer version.. one time I got the automated voice on the phone and the rest were indian guys on tech support.. funniest call think I did was at this managers apartment complex- I needed to call up dsl tech support and it was an indian guy that answered.. the manager was just supposed to confirm and hand the phone off to me.. anyways the manager starts yelling I don't understand a damn word he's saying rofl hands the phone to me I had no problems understanding the guy XD he was actually very helpful.. I can see them getting a headache taking calls though =]
Vista records something like six pieces of key hardware, and if these are all changed it classes it as a new computer, or something like that.
