Hi folks, I have two computers from work that we were provided, and I have been using the first machine as my primary computer. Recently the need has arisen to set up the other computer as well. These computers look fairly identical. They have the same components, the same speed, the same amount of RAM, the same brand of hard-drives, etc. Both are dells and both were ordered at the same time. The modifications they have had include having the hard-drives replaced, and I also took the RAM out of the second computer to put into the original since I wasn't using it at the time. I really need to get this second computer set up quickly, and i'm wondering about the possibility of using some sort of harddrive cloning program to duplicate the contents of the original computer's hard-drive onto the second. This should work, the only issue being the WinXP activation. I only have the product key for the first machine, as the second one was not provided to us at the time. I'm not sure if it is a volume license or a regular license. If it is a regular license, do you think doing a drive clone of the original machine for use in the second will cause any trouble with the activation, or should it see the computers as roughly one in the same considering the modifications that have been done?

Although I'm only guessing, even though the two machines may appear to be identical [from a hardware etc viewpoint] your harddrives etc may have individual serial/volume numbers that the Activation may look for and if you use one machines' product key on another machine you may nullify both machines from being activated, possably for good. This means that your product key will no longer be accepted and you will have to get a new one [or two] Cloning one to another, I suspect, will cause changes to the WPA file and the registry and then the dreaded Activation nonsense. Basically, it's a risky business to try even though it sounds like a good idea but not worth the hassle in the end.

The MAC address of network cards is a unique ID for each computer. Compaq Presario SR1720NX Desktop Computer AT&T SBC Yahoo DSL Home Linksys Router/2 computers

So does the motherboard processor, hard drive, among other internal hardware. XP WPA use each hardware hash value to build a 50-digit number as your unique installation ID. i_Xp/VistaUser

I'm not sure if it is a volume license or a regular license To determine which is what, take a look at what the machine System Properties - General tab shows (hit ÿ+Pause/Break keys together). i_Xp/VistaUser

http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php