I'll copy this around a few places, but hopefully it will save people
some time. It's just cost me the best part of two days!

Windows XP license strings are linked to the original disk, and in the
early days you could not even install when using a newer disk with an
old code. I've got a few sites now where the machines are getting a bit
tired and at the end of last week one went tits up, so time for a new
box rather than simply replacing the hardware internally. Since the site
has two machines I just got a couple of new boxes together and simply
installed for the original disk set - or so I thought!

One works fine, and dumping the data from the old disk - everything is
fine and it even accesses the internet via the main machine ...
The main machine was OK until I started to run the latest updates, and
then it got into the state where it refuses to 'update' because it can't
authenticate itself ( I'm sure some people will have seen it - windows
advantage tool tells you to buy a legal copy! )

Last night I wiped the machine and started again ... but with the XPsp1
disk rater than an sp2 disk that had been put in the file obviously by
mistake. Everything ran smoothly and a surprising 4 hours later ( it
normally takes longer from sp1 ) I have a fully functional machine again!

So make sure you keep the right disk with your older windows license keys!
--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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