Let me preface this in saying I have already cut my losses and have started the HP Restore process with the included media, but for future reference I want to find a workaround/loophole.

Scenario

Computer A - 9 year old Dell POS with approx. 6GB data, many scattered word, excel, access, etc documents.

Computer B - 2 year old HP no mission critical data, ex-employee's machine.

User A decides they want to upgrade and obviously retain all of their data. Being that they are an extreme creature of habit, I decide not to waste my time finding every single critical document and trying to retain their file locations, configuration and what not and I image the drive and proceed to use an OEM disc to repair the installation. I left without the Dell's CoA and the HP has a Vista CoA (XP Downgrade). I used Magical Jellybean's keyfinder to pull both keys from the /WINDOWS hive. Obviously, it didn't click that these OEM keys will install fine but rarely activate, due to the proprietary image and generated installation IDs.

I tried the activation hotline, but after failing the automated system I could never get a live rep on the phone. Tech support validated the HP key on their end but wouldn't provide any further assistance without charging me 60 bones. Though, they did refer me to geek squad, which was very nice of them (I would definitely rather pay someone face to face 300.00 to fix my issue anyway).

/words

Summary:
Explain to me the OEM image product key generation process. I'm always looking for ways to streamline tedious processes such as swapping systems with a painless settings/customization migration and I guess I'll use this as a segway in to an issue I almost posted in the Win7 thread. What happened to Apptimum's AlohaBob PC Relocator? Microsoft purchased this and pretty much let the idea die. I heard they were supposed to integrate it into Vista, but I could never find anything more than dead beta talk.

5/21/2009 11:37:44 AM

oem key installs fine...automatic verification always fails, it always works with the live rep. i don't know how many [valid] OEM keys i've installed and the process is always the same. in fact sometimes i just skip the automated think by hitting # three times to skip to the live rep. hell i've hever had a problem getting a live rep...never had a wait or anything.

file+settings transfer wizard is perfect for migrating data and settings. but i always do a raw file backup too to be safe before formatting drive. i suppose an image would be fine too as long as you can verify that you can actually get into the image after creating it

5/21/2009 12:06:43 PM

bollocks, I tried mashing 0 and asking for a rep, but didn't know of a ### trick.

5/21/2009 12:12:43 PM

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457078.aspx

This may fix your problem. If it doesn't, I can almost guarantee that something in sysprep will

5/21/2009 1:59:49 PM

segue*

5/22/2009 9:10:40 AM

^^
Having been through this pain about three years back, I can confirm there is a setting in sysprep that will do this. Had an ultra-locked down sysprep / ghost image which needed to be updated per machine. Didn't have a good distribution method due to the low number of machines that were imaged. Can't remember WTF happened, but needed to call the activation line on a couple of lines due to the ghost image being outdated. Did something in my next update to the ghost image in sysprep which fixed this. Damned if I can remember the exact setting. Might be in that link you posted.

In any case, circumvention / loophole is going to be more complicated than calling the crappy 1800 number for 10-15 min every once in awhile to manually activate. If you do this on a large scale (say 100+ machines) might be a worthwhile investment to seek alternatives.

Also, IIRC, if going from same OEM to same OEM, (i.e. old Dell to new Dell), shouldn't present itself as an issue. If the HAL hasn't changed, might also be able to avoid doing a repair or reinstall, but, in most cases, hardware is so new the repair or reinstall is required.

[Edited on May 23, 2009 at 12:08 AM. Reason : .]

5/23/2009 12:07:25 AM

^,^^,^^^ thanks

I was originally going to mess around with sysprep to create a ghost image I could use, but never got around to it. I guess I need to check it out.

5/23/2009 12:34:15 AM