Does a reinstall from a Recovery CD activate windows?

Southy · 02-06-2007, 06:45 PM

Hi everyone,

I have a laptop and I got a recovery cd with it. I was just wondering, when you
use it, the cd completely reimages your hard drive back to the default settings
that my computer came with when xp was first installed and it was brand new.

I was just wondering, does using this CD and doing the recovery back to default
actually activate windows each and every time that its done?

**dragon2309** · 02-06-2007, 07:05 PM

It depends on what the vendor set it to, some do some don't, ive experience both. If its all legit then there's not a problem to either scenario, only if you activate a few too many times and MS gets suspicious.

Who is the manufacturer? Might be worth a phone call just to check...

dragon

Southy · 02-07-2007, 05:56 PM

Thanks for your reply. It's for a Toshiba Satellite and I've already used the disk once and including the original install from factory could mean it was activated 2 times now. I would like to use it again to do a reformat but I'm hesitant if it will reactivate it again for the 3rd time. I heard you only get 3 activations and then what happens?

heyman421 · 02-07-2007, 06:08 PM

i've recovered my hp probably 20-30 times, and it doesn't require activation

i can even get windows updates, and validate my copy with no problems

i think that the oem motherboard has a sort of hardware 'dongle' that allows the install to work without registration

02-06-2007, 06:45 PM	#1 (permalink)
Southy Silver Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 233	Does a reinstall from a Recovery CD activate windows? Hi everyone, I have a laptop and I got a recovery cd with it. I was just wondering, when you use it, the cd completely reimages your hard drive back to the default settings that my computer came with when xp was first installed and it was brand new. I was just wondering, does using this CD and doing the recovery back to default actually activate windows each and every time that its done? __________________ http://www.noplacelikethis.com/

02-06-2007, 07:05 PM	#2 (permalink)
dragon2309 P.I Dragon Join Date: May 2005 Location: KENT, UK Age: 20 Posts: 8,419	It depends on what the vendor set it to, some do some don't, ive experience both. If its all legit then there's not a problem to either scenario, only if you activate a few too many times and MS gets suspicious. Who is the manufacturer? Might be worth a phone call just to check... dragon __________________ Intel Core2Duo E6600 @ 3.1Ghz - (__CPU__) eVGA 680i SLi - (__MOB__) 4Gb Corsair Dominator DDR2-800 (4x1024Mb) - (__RAM__) 250Gb Western Digital SATAII 7200rpm - (__HDD__) nVidia BFG 8800GTS OC 320Mb - (__GFX__) LG DVD+/-RW 18x DVD-RAM - (__OPT__) Triple Boot - [XP Pro] + [Vista Ultimate] + [Ubuntu 7.10] - (__OS__) [3DMARK'03 :: 25,587] --- [3DMARK'05 :: 13,989] --- [3DMARK'06 :: 8791] - (__BENCHMARKS__) dragon2309.co.uk - a little slice of geek

02-07-2007, 05:56 PM	#3 (permalink)
Southy Silver Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 233	Thanks for your reply. It's for a Toshiba Satellite and I've already used the disk once and including the original install from factory could mean it was activated 2 times now. I would like to use it again to do a reformat but I'm hesitant if it will reactivate it again for the 3rd time. I heard you only get 3 activations and then what happens? __________________ http://www.noplacelikethis.com/

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02-07-2007, 06:08 PM	#4 (permalink)
heyman421 banned Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 2,349	i've recovered my hp probably 20-30 times, and it doesn't require activation i can even get windows updates, and validate my copy with no problems i think that the oem motherboard has a sort of hardware 'dongle' that allows the install to work without registration