Activating Windows XP and then imaging/ghosting

[DPolishSensation]

Will I have to reactivate everytime I re-ghost my computer? I'm keeping all the same hardware and I was wondering that if I came across an error and had to reimage my machine, would I have to reactivate my version of Windows XP?

 

[Don66]

It should..
I've done it in the past and worked well.

 

[DPolishSensation]

It should what? I will or will not have to reactivate it everytime I ghost? Thanks!

 

[n7]

No.

You will not have to reactivate.

 

[Shagga]

No you will not have to reactivate XP providing of course you take an image of your drive once you have activated. I do this all the time.

 

[batmanuel]

I've done it before as well, and after your restore from a ghosted image you don't have to reactivate. You generally only have to reactivate with a clean install or a significant hardware upgrade.

Also keep in mind that the activation info seems to get flushed from the MS database after about six months or so, so you usually only have to call MS to get an activation code if the same copy of XP is activated more than once with a few months. After a longer period of time, the online activation typically just goes through automatically without having to call, at least in my experience.

 

[Sheriff]

Been Ghosting my RAID0 set-up with XP Pro weekly for years and all is well. No reactivation is necessary.