How does Windows XP tie itself to hardware?

[Tesla]

Hi all,

A friend asked me if it was possible for him to build himself a second PC, idential to his main rig and clone his primary hard disk and it all work?

Would XP need reactivating with the second build machine?

My mate is an electrician with lots of specialist software for certification etc and after his PSU recently failed he had some system downtime so got him thinking of ways to avoid this. A second PC he can use instead of his main PC would be ideal but he cannot justify purchasing additional licences for his specialist (expensive!) software. His main rig is well spec'd but scouring the Members Market building a second rig wouldn't cost too much as he doesn't have a recent GPU.

TIA.

 

[bledd]

Pretty sure the answer is Yes it will. XP has been known to throw up activation windows from even a BIOS setting change.

Should be a case of enter a new CD key.

This won't affect the licence of his other software. -Typically his licence for that software will be only one licence in use at a time. Unless it has some kind of dial-home thing built into it

 

[Sin_Chase]

Yes it will work.

As bledd. says, XP might throw a hissy. Just re-activate, if needed use the telephone option and state the old PC died and it's a new install and the only one in use.