Win 7 Pro x64 on OCUK - How many licences?

YiuKorochko · 7 May 2012 at 15:09

Hey all, I'm performing a hardware and software upgrade for an architectural company in Glasgow and they're looking for Win 7 Pro and Win Server 2008.

They have 4 main PCs currently running Windows XP Pro x86, and there is a central server which they save all their data to. I looked up Win 7 Pro on OCUK but it doesn't mention how many copies can be installed. The last time I bought Windows was XP Pro and that came with 3 licences.

One of their PCs is an old Intel Pentium 4 HT @ 1.86GHz so that system could be left out if only 3 licences are provided with the copy from OCUK.

Thanks in advance, I'll have to get some pics and specs up when I get to working!

TL;DR: How many licences of Win 7 Pro do you get with one disc?

JW1993 · 7 May 2012 at 15:18

Just one license

YiuKorochko · 7 May 2012 at 15:30

footyfan93 said:
Just one license

Curse this economy.
Alright, can anyone tell me if I take the hard drives out of the server and put them into a new build will the OS have any issues? I recall swapping an XP HDD from one PC to another and XP on boot said something along the lines of "The hardware in this PC has significantly changed, so Windows has been deactivated.".
1) Will I have this issue with Win Server 2003?

I would ideally be installing Win Server 2008 R2 but it's fairly expensive and they only need one copy.
2) Anyone know which version should be sufficient for a central server which is used mostly for data storage?

Thanks in advance!

nightmare99 · 7 May 2012 at 16:37

The last time I bought Windows was XP Pro and that came with 3 licences

I do not ever remember a 3 licence version of XP Pro.

Alright, can anyone tell me if I take the hard drives out of the server and put them into a new build will the OS have any issues?

It is very likley that it will not work, normally it will not boot at all. You really do not want to be using 2003 unless you really have to, will 2008 R2 foundation not give them what they need?

Destination · 7 May 2012 at 16:42

Don't recall three licence versions either.

Azuse05 · 7 May 2012 at 16:46

3 license windows 7 versions were family packs. Iirc they were also upgrades.

Stick ubuntu on a live usb and see how it runs on that old machine if price is a problem.

nightmare99 · 7 May 2012 at 16:52

3 license windows 7 versions were family packs. Iirc they were also upgrades.

Sure I know about those, the OP was refering to XP Pro.

Scryus · 7 May 2012 at 17:11

It's just the one. As stated, check if Ubuntu will do you for servers.

YiuKorochko · 7 May 2012 at 17:28

I'll look more into foundation, as I recall the individual PCs were logged on locally so it's more of a data server which does nightly backups to external hard drives every night. Ubuntu may work, but they'd like to stick with Windows so they can use the server without having to learn much aside from an updated UI. They've been quite busy lately so they just need the upgrade to get work done faster.

Now that I think about it, couldn't I just install another Win 7 Pro on the server and map/share the local drives with the network?

EDIT: A lot of my work and research is based on local system configurations, so I don't have much experience in networking, even with "local-only" networks.

ubersonic · 7 May 2012 at 19:06

nightmare99 said:
You really do not want to be using 2003 unless you really have to, will 2008 R2 foundation not give them what they need?

Dude seriously? Windows 2000 server is over specified for what he needs, hell he could do it with an XP Pro machine >.>

YiuKorochko said:
Now that I think about it, couldn't I just install another Win 7 Pro on the server and map/share the local drives with the network?

Yes. However IMO touching the server is a complete waste of money as from the sound of it its already much better than it needs to be, unless their running out of space or something and the hardware has to be upgraded just leave it.

YiuKorochko · 7 May 2012 at 20:23

ubersonic said:
However IMO touching the server is a complete waste of money as from the sound of it its already much better than it needs to be, unless their running out of space or something and the hardware has to be upgraded just leave it.

Nah it needs done up, it's an ancient Dell with a Xeon 3040 (2 core) @ 1.86GHz and it's really dying down. I'm building a system with a Xeon E3-1225 (4 core) @ 3.1GHz (Socket 1155) relatively cheap. Upgrading from a tight 1GB RAM to 4GB.
There are faster 3070 for the system they have, but a new set of parts will keep them going for a good while, as the system really looks like it's life is over. The internal hard drives are the only new parts that've gone into it in the last decade or so, and with a 24/7 run time it may not be burnt out but it's definitely worn down.

Many legal documents and contracts are stored on there as well as the external hard drives, and although they do back up each weekday, if the machine is refreshed on a weekend it could spare them time in the future if it were to go down during the week.

If I can do it with just Pro, I'll advise them to just get Pro instead and help them set up the secondary drives with the network.

nightmare99 · 7 May 2012 at 20:28

Dude seriously? Windows 2000 server is over specified for what he needs, hell he could do it with an XP Pro machine >.>

Really? It sounds like it is for a proper business so I would imagine they would want a current OS on the server & the clients.

ubersonic · 7 May 2012 at 21:00

nightmare99 said:
Really? It sounds like it is for a proper business so I would imagine they would want a current OS on the server & the clients.

The clients usually but most businesses don't care about the behind the scenes stuff as long as it works and does its job 100% their fine, in this case all the server is doing is acting as a glorified NAS for 4 PC's.

YiuKorochko said:
If I can do it with just Pro, I'll advise them to just get Pro instead and help them set up the secondary drives with the network.

From what you have said it sounds like your server is doing nothing (no DNS/DHCP no domain controller/etc) but supplying the clients with some shared folders and backing the data up to external drives at night. So basically you need Windows 95 or higher

I understand that your more worried about the old hardware dying than you are about performance but I seriously doubt that the CPU or ram in the current server is getting maxed out by just sitting there with some shared folders. A 4 core Xeon sounds a bit of a waste of £ for something a current model Celeron would laugh at.

YiuKorochko · 8 May 2012 at 01:14

ubersonic said:
I understand that your more worried about the old hardware dying than you are about performance but I seriously doubt that the CPU or ram in the current server is getting maxed out by just sitting there with some shared folders. A 4 core Xeon sounds a bit of a waste of £ for something a current model Celeron would laugh at.

Their business used to be much bigger, having many more users. This just leaves headroom for that. It also keeps the system future-proof for new Windows editions for another 10 years or so. There aren't many cheaper Xeons than that model for socket 1155 (or pretty much any other socket that matches the same performance), and it's extremely hard to find new Xeon 775s, which the current system runs on. Xeons are a lot more reliable than Celerons, and with their business, it's better to stay on the safe side. The whole new build is only coming to £440:

Intel Xeon E3-1225 (4 core @ 3.1GHz)
Intel S1200BTL S1155
Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB [Higher than standard grade RAM]
Cooler Master Sileo 500 [old case too dirty+funky Dell shape inside]
OCZ CoreXtreme 500W [future proof for more power to HDDs/RAID]

After building that, I'm just transferring the hard disks and disk drive. This Xeon has Intel HD 3000 Graphics so no GPU is needed, though I'm sure they have spare Radeon 2600XTs if it's not as snappy as they want it.

They all have pretty decent systems but strangely they have some rather slow HDDs, in perfect health. Upgrading them to that Win 7 Pro on Intel 520 Series 60GB SSDs. They only use around 20GB including XP, so throw on another 15GB or so for Windows 7 and they've still got plenty of working space. I'll convert their current HDDs into secondary data drives.