I've just been handed a machine that is "making a horrible noise".

Sure enough, the hard disk is whining something terrible and is not long for this world, in my opinion.

The problem is, the drive holds the XP recovery patition.

Now, does an OEM windows install apply to the PC in it's original format, and does replacing the boot drive invalidate the licence?

If not, I'm looking for a decent (preferably free) partitioning suite that supports full disk copy, rather than individual partitions.

Any ideas peeps?

Thanks

Hard disk drive is very rarely a problem, it's things like motherboards that cause issues. I know I've reinstalled XP OEM on a new HDD without issue before.

Thanks Jon, I didn't think a hard drive would be an issue, but the recovery partition made me stop and think.

I might cough up for Acronis Migrate Easy, a lot of the free kit has the drive copy option greyed out. There are other free migration tools out there but I've never heard of most of them.

There are a lot of options on the Hirens boot disk. I normally stick to Ghost, which was on an old version but has now been removed - for copyright reasons I'd imagine.

There's usually a free version of something suitable on the PCpro cover disk if you can find a copy somewhere. Doesn't have to be a recent one.

Very True. I've been avoiding unpacking the boxes that contain my old PCPro DVDs, simply because theres all kinds of junk in them. I shall have a look this evening.

Another thing, after stripping out all the components and hoovering out the half inch layer of dust, as I was refitting the motherboard I noticed a patch of discolouration on the underside of the board near the CPU socket. It looks like it's been cooked. I have a spare board so she won't go without, but...

If I do have to change the motherboard, that will more than likely trigger the oem activation. Is there no quarter given? - will they just say nope you need to cough up for a new OS? I don't want to do her a favour, and end up costing her £90 (or whatever) for a new licence.

I don't know anyone who's had any problem with Microsoft saying no, even when technically by the letter of the EULA they could have.

It's more likely to be a problem if the licence has been re-registered several times. If this is the first time anything has been swapped out, it'll probably register on-line with no hassle. If you just do the HDD, I doubt it will even trigger.

Hiren's boot disk or clonezilla will copy a disk fine

I've pulled the disk and cloned it in another PC because the system isn't stable enough to run a full disk migration.

So, I've replaced the motherboard and what do you know, it requires activation before I can even access the desktop. I haven't installed the LAN driver for the new board (I didn't get the chance) so I was left to try the automated phone system for activation.

Robot lady on the MS phone system tells me I cannot activate. Great!

Am I shafted?

Yeah, motherboard is a bit different to a new hard drive! That's the key component regarding Windows Activation if memory serves, although I'm pretty damned sure I've managed it in the past without resorting to 'jiggery-pokery'.

You can usually do what you need with a bit of imaginative clicking, even with no desktop. Can you get it to open a browser window by trying to register on-line? If so, use that to get to My Computer by going to your C drive in the address bar first. You may then be able to install the drivers and get on-line to activate that way. Probably worth a go.

I wonder if they're being stricter now that XP is end of life

Did robot lady not give you the chance to speak to a Microsoft representative? She usually does, just make sure you get someone in the UK and not the US.

No. No option at all to do anything other than attempt activation or hang up.

OK, I've ignored the recovery partition and done a repair installation with a Windows XP Home CD, using the OEM licence key that came with the PC.

It activated without any problems - downloading updates and windows geniune thingy to be sure, but things are looking up.

I have phoned them before and spoke to a useless foreign call-centre.

I couldn't understand them, and they couldn't understand me.