I asked a question a few days ago about limits on reinstalling XP Pro.. I advised that I DO have a valid CD as I bought it directly from Microsoft. But yet the Genuine advantage told me it was not valid. And I am guessing that due to me reinstalling every 6 months .. I reached some sort of limit. I was advised to try and reinstall WITHOUT the activation process using the copy and paste method of the wpa.dbl files??.. am I the only one who cannot get that to work?/ that actually is what I tired on my last reinstall on the SAME PC.. Before I reinstalled XP Pro. I copied the wpa files from the system 32 folder .. and saved it. then I reinstalled XP Pro and upon reinstalling I adv NO do not activate now. I went into safe mode. Copied the previously saved wpa file over back into the system 32 folder and then rebooted and yet when I went back into XP in normal mode. It still asked me to reactivate. It doesn’t sound too difficult. So what is it I am doing wrong here?? Please help. I AM reinstalling this on the same Machine without any changes begin done and I copy the wpa file just before reinstallation as I have heard that after a period of time it resets.. so what gives??

I'm guessing you forgot many steps before re-installing xp pro "After you have reinstalled Windows XP on your reformatted hard drive, click "No" when asked if you want to go ahead and go through the activation process Reboot your computer into SafeMode (you can either press F8 as Windows is booting up to see the Windows Advanced Options menu and select SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal Double-click My Computer Double-click on the "C" drive Go to the C:\Windows\System32 folder (you may have to click on the link that says "Show The contents of this folder") Find the file "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" (if it exists) and rename them to "wpadbl.new" and "wpabak.new" Copy your original "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files from your floppy disk, CD or DVD into the C:\Windows\System32 folder Restart your system (if you followed the directions in Starting Windows XP in SafeMode you may need to go back into MSCONFIG to turn off booting into SafeMode)" OVERRIDE

Contact Microsoft. If you have a legal copy of the CD, they will help you. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

just to answer the ???.. my last reinstall i had to contact MS and do activation over the phone and that DID work. but agian. per yor instructions in the 1st response. i belvie that is what i was saying that i did. i DID say no to activation on first install. and then i reoobted into safe mose and yes i do know what safe mode is. i know how to get in there. .. and it was fine. i went into the system 32 folder right where you mentioned. and copied the file back. but yet it didnt work. i guess i MUST be the only one this does not work for. again yes i CAN contact MS when i reinstall this again. but it is annoying. if that is what i have to do then so be it. but the previous statements abotu NOt having to reactivate i was simply wanting to know if anyone else had troubles. i have had this CD for a year and a half and have done about 3 installs .. and no problems. but i DO believe there is some sort of limit in reinstalls.

If you are re-installing that often, I would advise you get hold of an imaging program (Drive Image, Norton Ghost, Acronis TrueImage or similar) and create a backup image of your activated re-install. This way, whenever you wish to do a re-install, all you have to do is to restore your backup image to your drive and you are back to a fresh re-install without the hastle of re-activating. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

dj3642, Here is an easy way for next time, if you are going to format and reinstall that often. When you activate, just do it by phone and write down all the numbers it gives you to input to the machine. If you add or remove no hardware the same numbers should work ever time.