Windows Licensing

richieboy · 29 Mar 2006 at 09:16

Quick question:

One machine, with a hard disk caddy and 4 hard drives all with Windows 2000 installed. I would be using one hard disk in the machine at one time, and swapping to a different hard disk for different uses.

How does licensing work for this situation? Do i need one licence as it is one machine, or 4 licenses as i have 4 copies of Windows 2000 on 4 hdds?

Thanks

nightwish · 29 Mar 2006 at 10:28

Just the one I imagine as you can't run more than one at a time. Tho I could be wrong!

Matt Van Dam · 29 Mar 2006 at 10:30

The license is per workstation (per PC) not each HD.

dirtydog · 29 Mar 2006 at 10:32

It's an interesting question actually, I've always wondered this myself.

So if I wanted to create more than one installation of XP on my machine, on different partitions, it would be okay to use a single OEM license to do that?

Sp00n · 29 Mar 2006 at 10:42

I would have thought so as you can only run one instance at a time, same with anything else.

dirtydog · 29 Mar 2006 at 11:39

Sp00n said:
I would have thought so as you can only run one instance at a time, same with anything else.

If they are all in the same machine though, it would only be one at a time of course.

FrankJH · 29 Mar 2006 at 13:22

I just hope one or more of your disks doesnt reequire a re-installation as while its strictly true one licence should be required - I would guess MS could be a little tetchy on re-activation

MrWhippy · 29 Mar 2006 at 13:39

isn't it one per physical cpu, therefore dual core's still only require one licence but multiple physical cores require more?

wonder what'll happen when Intel/AMD role out their Vanderpool/Pacifica technology allowing more than one instance of an OS to run simultaneously on a single cpu...

FrankJH · 29 Mar 2006 at 19:17

MrWhippy said:
isn't it one per physical cpu, therefore dual core's still only require one licence but multiple physical cores require more?

wonder what'll happen when Intel/AMD role out their Vanderpool/Pacifica technology allowing more than one instance of an OS to run simultaneously on a single cpu...

I think you might be getting mixed up with the difference between XP Home, Pro and Server

I think Home can only run on a single socket mobo and upto dual core
Pro can be installed on upto dual core / dual socket ( technically upto four cores)

Anything above this you have to use some variety of Server OS

Ms have changed it recently but I believe swomething like the above to be the case