Greetings,

I wanted to upgrade my home builtpc with new mb, ram, cpu. I wanted to keep
my hd install of winxp pro oem. I was very worried I would fail activation,
and hd would not migrate intact to upgraded components. Read this for info
on activation: [url]http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/basics/activation/mpafaq.asp[/url]
skip down to the question "What are the 10 hardware characteristics used to
determine the hardware hash?"

In a nutshell, I migrated the hd over without much trouble, and I did not
have to re-activate. For details, see below.


First, activation details:
I wanted to upgrade my new pc with a new motherboard (Asus A7N8X, ram
(Corsair PC3200), and cpu (Athon2600).
My pc had these elements:

Display Adapter - matrox g450 - 1pt
SCSI Adapter - n/a. - 0 pt.
IDE Adapter - (n/a, not sure what this is??) 0 pt.
Network Adapter MAC Address - NIC was onboard Slot A mb. 3pt.
RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc) - 512MB PC133 - 1pt.
Processor Type - AMD Athlon (slot A, 800mhz) 1pt.
Processor Serial Number - it was there, but did not document. 1pt.
Hard Drive Device - IBM Deskstar 1pt.
Hard Drive Volume Serial Number - there but not documented. 1pt.
CDROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM - pioneer. 1pt.

If you add those points up, you get 10; I would need 7 of these for rebuilt
pc.

On to the upgrade process!

So, I kept these elements from above in upgrade:
Display Adapter - matrox g450 - 1pt
Hard Drive Device - IBM Deskstar 1pt.
Hard Drive Volume Serial Number - there but not documented. 1pt.
CDROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM - pioneer. 1pt.

I get only 4pts from above.

I bougth new components:
Network Adapter MAC Address - NIC is onboard mb. 0pts.
RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc) - 512MB Corsair PC3200 - 1pt.
Processor Type - AMD Athlon (upgraded to Athlon2600, a7n8x mb) 1pt.
Processor Serial Number - 0pts.

So, 4pts from the old components, and 2pts from the new components equals
6pts and one shy. Oops! Hey, no reactivation. Apparently it worked!

Now, migration details:
When I rebooted upgraded pc, I got thrown into Safe mode. This just
repeatedly rebooted pc. I inserted my winxp pro eom cd, then repaired my
c:\windows install. I had to re-enter key, but no required call to MS, or
anything. 50 minutes later, I had all my old data intact. I re-applied SP1 +
security updates and all is okay.

Conclusions:
It is "fairly" easy to migrate an xp hard drive install from one motherboard
to another very different motherboard. Re-activation is apparently not
required for 6 points. (Not sure if I got points from IDE Adaptor???)

Questions:
Why did six points work? I am sure not complaining!
Would it be wise to do original install with a PCI nic card, so the same NIC
card (and 3pts) could be used in a later install? (Even though your
motherboard may have an onboard NIC?)

thanks.
steve.