Is there any issue with using Norton Ghost to image Windows XP to a new hard drive? Do you have to reactivate Windows XP?

I use ghost clone on 2 machines and 5 different HD's and no problems. I don't know about the reactivation as I have a volume license.

I use Drive Image. Does the same job as Ghost. I have never had a problem with activation. I don't know why you would have a problem as both programs do a byte for byte copy of the hard drive. All of your avtivation info would have been copied and restored accordingly.

Yes there is an issue on a single license. Your cloned new hard drive will hang at the Win XP logon Welcome screen with no way to continue. If you disable the graphic logon before cloning (control panel>user accounts), you will see that it was masking an error message that says: "A problem is preventing windows from accurately checking the license for this computer. ERROR 0x80090006" Microsoft support describes the cause as: "This issue may occur if you replace a hard disk, and then restore Windows XP to the new hard disk from a backup. When you restore Windows XP to a new hard disk, the hardware ID for the restored Windows XP computer changes. The new hardware ID prevents the computer from verifying the license correctly because the hardware hash no longer matches the hardware hash that was used for the original product activation." And the resolution as: "To resolve this issue, after you restore the computer from a backup, perform an in-place upgrade of Windows XP, and then reactivate the Windows XP license."

I ran into the same problem using ghost. I have a computer with tons of programs and tons of user settings and I did not want to have to load them to the 50 computers that I had going at the time. I received the message "A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer" and was very upset by it. I mean what the heck is that?! Well the solution for me was this: 1-Make sure you have two hard disks or a folder on the local disk that will hold enough space for an image. 2-Go to Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup 3-Create a backup image using this Microsoft backup program and choose the third option of backing up everything. Save to the 2nd hard disk or folder you've created. Burn the image to cd or zip it to make it fit. I have a dvd burner so I can hold a larger image file. 4-On another computer boot up to Windows Desktop and put in your cd. Go to the backup tool in sytem tools and this time choose restore from backup. Tell the program where to lookfor the image file and restore EVERYTHING, not just part of the image file. You'll see what I mean. After completion of the restoration you will be prompted to restart...do that and you will not get the annoying error code of 0x80090006 anymore and everything works great.